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BOWERY BOYS PAGE
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Gorcey, Dell, Jordan, Punsley, Halop, Hall
After their success in the Broadway play of the same name, The Dead End Kids sprang upon an unsuspecting movie-going public in Samuel Goldwyn's 1937 film "Dead End", a crime drama featuring Humphrey Bogart. The success of this film led Warner Brothers to sign the Kids and feature them in six films which starred such screen luminaries such as Ronald Reagan, Pat O'Brien, James Cagney, Humphrey Bogart, John Garfield and Claude Raines. | The films were the typical Warner fare of serious social/crime dramas with the Kids lending some comedy relief. The quality of the films declined until Warner's threw in the towel and the Kids were reborn as the East Side Kids at the king of the poverty row studios, Monogram. Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Billy Halop and Bernard Punsley played the Kids. Despite the fact that they played the same basic roles in every picture, their characters were given different names in each of the films. Billy Halop was always the leader and featured "Kid" in these movies. | ||
| Dead End | August 27 1937 | United Artists |
| Crime School | May 28 1938 | Warner Brothers |
| Angels With Dirty Faces | November 24 1938 | Warner Brothers |
| They Made Me A Criminal | January 28 1939 | Warner Brothers |
| Hell's Kitchen | July 8 1939 | Warner Brothers |
| Angels Wash Their Faces | August 26 1939 | Warner Brothers |
| On Dress Parade | November 18 1939 | Warner Brothers |
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At the same time that Warner's was cranking out the Dead End Kids series and Monogram doing the same with the East Side Kids, Universal Studios signed four of the Kids (Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell and Bernard Punsley) and released a series of mostly bad (OK OK just plain awful!) "B" movies and three 12-part serials. Leo Gorcey's brother, David, was featured in several of these unmemorable films. 3 Stooges fans should be on the lookout for Shemp Howard in three of these ("Give Us Wings", "Hit The Road" and "Keep 'Em Slugging"). The boys mostly retained the same names throughout the series (except the serials). Billy Halop was first Johnny, then Jimmy before becoming Tommy for the duration. Huntz Hall played Pig, Bernard Punsley played Ape, Gabriel Dell played String. Not all the characters appeared in all the pictures. Dead End Kid Bobby Jordan played Rap in 2 of the films and became Tommy(!) in the last entry in the series. The first film "Little Tough Guy", bad as it may be, is the best of the lot. It's a social/crime drama in the Warner Brothers style. After this the quality of the films falls right off the chart. I can recommend this series only to die-hard fans of the Boys. |
| Little Tough Guy | July 22 1938 |
| Call A Messenger | November 3 1939 |
| You're Not So Tough | July 26 1940 |
| Junior G-Men (serial) | August 1940 |
| Give Us Wings | December 20 1940 |
| Hit The Road | June 27 1941 |
| Sea Raiders (serial) | August 1941 |
| Mob Town | October 3 1941 |
| Junior G-Men Of The Air (serial) | June 1942 |
| Tough As They Come | June 5 1942 |
| Mug Town | January 22 1943 |
| Keep 'Em Slugging | August 2 1943 |
Hall, Robert Armstrong, David & Leo Gorcey, Jordan, Stone, Morrison
This series of films by Monogram featured the boys first in crime melodramas with comedic overtones then in comedies with some serious (usually criminal) overtones.
| The plots almost always cast the Boys as lower class street urchins in conflict with the criminal element that surrounded them. Occasionally the criminal element was replaced by Nazi or Japanese third columnists. Billy Halop was gone by this time and Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan took over as leaders and featured "Kids". As the series progressed, the comedy duo of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall became the focus of the films. Bela Lugosi, his career already on the skids, appeared in two features (Spooks Run Wild & Ghosts On The Loose). Making steady appearances as East Side Kids were: | ||
| Boys Of The City - July 15 1940 | Clancy Street Boys - April 23 1943 |
| That Gang Of Mine - September 23 1940 | Ghosts On The Loose - July 30 1943 |
| Pride Of The Bowery - January 31 1941 | Mr. Muggs Steps Out - October 29 1943 |
| Flying Wild - March 10 1941 | Million Dollar Kid - February 28 1944 |
| Bowery Blitzkrieg - September 8 1941 | Follow The Leader - June 3 1944 |
| Spooks Run Wild - October 24 1941 | Block Busters - July 22 1944 |
| Mr. Wise Guy - February 20 1942 | Bowery Champs - November 25 1944 |
| Let's Get Tough - May 22 1942 | Docks Of New York - February 24 1945 |
| Smart Alecks - August 7 1942 | Mr. Muggs Rides Again - July 15 1945 |
| 'Neath Brooklyn Bridge - November 20 1942 | Come Out Fighting - September 29 1945 |
| Kid Dynamite - February 12 1943 |
Huntz Hall, Billy Benedict, Leo Gorcey, David Gorcey, Bobby Jordan
This series of comedies found the Boys in a variety of situations, always with the underrated (and critically unappreciated) comedy duo of Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall as the focus. The earlier films (1946-1950) had an overtone of gangster melodrama. The later films were pure slapstick.
| Always a drinker, Leo Gorcey began to drink heavily after the death of his father, Bernard Gorcey, in late 1955. In fact, he appears to be drunk in his final film, "Crashing Las Vegas". Jan Grippo, the producer of the series, replaced Gorcey with Stanley Clements for the last seven films. The chemistry that worked so well between Gorcey and Hall never materialized with Clements and this (along with the fact that the "Boys" were now well into their 30's) proved to be the death knell of the series.
Making steady appearences in this series were: | ||
| Live Wires - January 12 1946 | Hold That Line - March 23 1952 |
| In Fast Company - June 22 1946 | Here Comes The Marines - June 29 1952 |
| Bowery Bombshell - July 20 1946 | Feudin' Fools - September 21 1952 |
| Spook Busters - August 24 1946 | No Holds Barred - November 23 1952 |
| Mr. Hex - November 9 1946 | Jalopy - February 15 1953 |
| Hard Boiled Mahoney - April 26 1947 | Loose In London - May 24 1953 |
| News Hounds - August 13 1947 | Clipped Wings - August 14 1953 |
| Bowery Buckaroos - November 22 1947 | Private Eyes - December 6 1953 |
| Angels' Alley - March 21 1948 | Paris Playboys - March 7 1954 |
| Jinx Money - June 27 1948 | Meet The Monsters - June 6 1954 |
| Smugglers' Cove - October 24 1948 | Jungle Gents - September 5 1954 |
| Trouble Makers - December 10 1948 | Bowery To Bagdad - January 2 1955 |
| Fighting Fools - April 17 1949 | High Society - April 17 1955 |
| Hold That Baby! - June 26 1949 | Spy Chasers - July 31 1955 |
| Angels In Disguise - September 25 1949 | Jail Busters - September 18 1955 |
| Master Minds - November 20 1949 | Dig That Uranium - January 8 1956 |
| Blonde Dynamite - February 12 1950 | Crashing Las Vegas - April 22 1956 |
| Lucky Losers - May 14 1950 | Fighting Trouble - September 16 1956 |
| Triple Trouble - August 13 1950 | Hot Shots - December 23 1956 |
| Blues Busters - October 29 1950 | Hold That Hypnotist - February 24 1956 |
| Bowery Battalion - January 24 1951 | Spook Chasers - June 2 1957 |
| Ghost Chasers - April 29 1951 | Looking For Danger - October 6 1957 |
| Let's Go Navy! - July 29 1951 | Up In Smoke - December 22 1957 |
| Crazy Over Horses - November 18 1951 | In The Money - February 16 1958 |
Copyright 1997-1999 - R.W. Finnan
