Adventures of the Flying Cadets 1943 N/R, 170 min. Genre: Adventure
Director: Lewis D. Collins, Ray Taylor Cast: Johnny Downs, Bobby Jordan, Ward Wood, William "Billy" Benedict, Eduardo Ciannelli, Regis Toomey, Robert Armstrong, Jennifer Holt, Charles Trowbridge, Joseph Crehan, Addison Richards, Philip Van Zandt
This 13-episode war adventure centers on flying students who are suspects in a series of murders when they are set up by a Nazi agent known as "The Black Hangman." It is the agent who murdered members of an expedition in order to keep secret the location of a helium deposit in Africa. Our flying heroes are determined to clear their names, and those Nazis better watch out.
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Angels with Dirty Faces 1938 N/R, 97 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Michael Curtiz Cast: James Cagney, Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, George Bancroft, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Harry Hayden, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsly, Joe Downing, Edward Pawley
Father Jerry (Pat O'Brien) tries to help his parish kids develop honest characters. He runs into problems when his childhood friend, Rocky (James Cagney), introduces the children into the criminal side of life. Both Cagney and Director Michael Curtiz were nominated for Oscars.
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Bowery Blitzkrieg 1941 N/R, 62 min. Genre: Comedy aka: Stand and Deliver
Director: Wallace Fox Cast: Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Warren Hull, Charlotte Henry, Martha Wentworth, Bobby Stone, Keye Luke, David Gorcey, Ernest Morrison, Jack Mulhall, Donald Haines
In this East Side Kids entry, Muggs (Leo Gorcey) is in the Golden Gloves boxing championship fight while gamblers plot to fix the outcome.
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Boys of the City 1940 N/R, 68 min. Genre: Comedy aka: The Ghost Creeps
Director: Joseph H. Lewis Cast: Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Dave O'Brien, George Humbert, Hal E. Chester, Ernest Morrison, Frankie Burke, Donald Haines, Vince Barnett, Minerva Urecal, Eugene Francis
The East Side Kids, along with their friend Knuckles, head to a camp in the mountains when they pick up a judge and his ward who had car troubles. The judge is headed to his mansion in the mountains, and it turns out to be a creepy mansion at that. When the judge is murdered, the boys bungle their way into solving the crime.
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Clancy Street Boys 1943 N/R, 66 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: William Beaudine Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Benny Bartlett, Noah Beery, Lita Ward, Rick Vallin, Martha Wentworth, J. Farrell MacDonald, Dick Chandlee, William "Billy" Benedict, Ernest Morrison
The East Side Kids are back in action when Muggs' (Leo Gorcy) rich uncle (Noah Beery) comes for a visit. The uncle has been told that Muggs' parents had seven children, so Muggs has his gang members act as his siblings to ensure that his mother will continue getting money from the uncle. But trouble brews when a rival gang member tells of the scheme.
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Crime School 1938 N/R, 90 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Lewis Seiler Cast: Billy Halop, Humphrey Bogart, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, Gale Page, Charles Trowbridge, Milburn Stone, Harry Cording
This is the story of Warden Mark Braden's (Humphrey Bogart) attempts to rehabilitate the boys in his reform school.
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Dead End 1937 N/R, 93 min. Genre: Drama
Director: William Wyler Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Wendy Barrie, Claire Trevor, Marjorie Main, Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan
New York's lower East Side is the setting for this insightful film about the escape from poverty through crime. This was the film debut of the Dead End Kids, which evolved into the East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys.
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Flying Wild 1941 N/R, 63 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: William West Cast: Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Donald Haines, Joan Barclay, David Gorcey, Bobby Stone, Ernest Morrison, Dave O'Brien, Eugene Francis, Herbert Rawlinson, George Pembroke, Dennis Moore
Mugs (Leo Gorcey) and the rest of the East Side Kids work at an airplane factory where they uncover a plot to steal secrets and provide them to enemy agents.
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Ghosts on the Loose 1943 N/R, 64 min. Genre: Comedy aka: The East Side Kids Meet Bela Lugosi
Director: William Beaudine Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Bela Lugosi, Ava Gardner, Rick Vallin, Minerva Urecal, Ernest Morrison, Bobby Stone, William "Billy" Benedict
The East Side Kids take on a Nazi gang (headed by Bela Lugosi) in this wartime film that depicts the mood in the country during World War II when Nazis threatened the world.
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Hell's Kitchen 1939 N/R, 82 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Ewald Andre Dupont, Lewis Seiler Cast: Margaret Lindsay, Ronald Reagan, Stanley Fields, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Grant Mitchell, Arthur Loft, Bernard Punsly, Frankie Burke
This remake of "The Mayor of Hell," is about ex-con Buck's (Stanley Fields) attempts to turn the Dead End Kids around and steer them in the right direction.
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Kid Dynamite 1943 N/R, 73 min. Genre: Comedy aka: Queen of Broadway
Director: Wallace Fox Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Ernest Morrison, Bobby Stone, Benny Bartlett, Pamela Blake, Gabriel Dell, Henry Hall, Charles Judels, Vince Barnett, Minerva Urecal
This patriotic story, set during World War II, is another in the "East Side Kids" series. East Side boxing champ Muggs McGinnis (Leo Gorcey) is challenged to a match by the West Side champ. As luck would have it, Muggs gets kidnapped before the fight, and his friend, Danny (Bobby Jordan), fills in and wins the fight. Muggs is sure Danny arranged the kidnapping, and this sets the scene for many clashes between wise-guy Muggs and nice-guy Danny.
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Let's Get Tough! 1942 N/R, 62 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: Wallace Fox Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Tom Brown, Ernest Morrison, Florence Rice, Robert Armstrong, David Gorcey, Philip Ahn, Bobby Stone
This film, shot shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, demonstrates the anti-Japanese sentiments of the country as the Bowery Boys uncover a Japanese plot to overthrow the U.S. government.
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Mr. Wise Guy 1942 N/R, 70 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: William Nigh Cast: Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Billy Gilbert, Guinn "Big Boy" Williams, Douglas Fowley, Joan Barclay, Warren Hymer, Ann Doran, Gabriel Dell, Jack Mulhall, Bobby Stone
The East Side Kids are wrongly accused of stealing a truck and are summarily sent to reform school. Meanwhile, Bill (Douglas Fowley), the brother of Danny (Bobby Jordan), is falsely accused of and sentenced to death for a murder. The boys come up with the solution to the crimes–and just in time.
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Neath Brooklyn Bridge 1942 N/R, 61 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: Wallace Fox Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Ernest Morrison, Ann Gillis, Noah Beery Jr., Marc Lawrence, Gabriel Dell, Stanley Clements, Bobby Stone, Jack Raymond, Betty Wells
The Bowery Boys are back in action when they hide Sylvia (Ann Gillis) after her guardian is killed by bar-owner Butch (Noah Beery Jr.). Now the boys are suspects in the murder, and it's up to them to prove Butch's guilt.
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Pride of the Bowery 1941 N/R, 61 min. Genre: Comedy / Drama aka: Here We Go Again
Director: Joseph H. Lewis Cast: Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Donald Haines, Carleton Young, Bobby Stone, Mary Ainslee, Kenneth Howell, David Gorcey, Ernest Morrison, Kenneth Harlan, Nick Stuart, Lloyd Ingraham
Muggs (Leo Gorcey) is training for a boxing tournament when Danny (Bobby Jordan) talks him into training at a camp, which turns out to be a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp where young men help in land reclamation for financial aid for their families. But Muggs alienates others in the camp and is falsely accused of stealing money. Intended to give assistance to the President Roosevelt's CCC, the film flopped–as did the CCC a year later.
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A Slight Case of Murder 1938 N/R, 85 min. Genre: Comedy / Drama
Director: Lloyd Bacon Cast: Edward G. Robinson, Jane Bryan, Allen Jenkins, Ruth Donnelly, Willard Parker, John Litel, Edward Brophy, Harold Huber, Paul Harvey, Margaret Hamilton, Eric Stanley, Bobby Jordan, Joe Downing, Bert Hanlon
Edward G. Robinson is again excellent as he plays a gangster who goes broke after Prohibition ends. His brewery collapses due to the terrible tasting product, and he heads to his summer home where the fun begins as assorted guests appear, and bodies of gangsters are discovered along with half a million dollars of their loot. A fine, funny flick.
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Smart Alecks 1942 N/R, 68 min. Genre: Comedy / Drama
Director: Wallace Fox Cast: Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Stanley Clements, Bobby Stone, Ernest Morrison, David Gorcey, Max "Slapsie Maxie" Rosenbloom, Gale Storm, Roger Pryor, Walter Woolf King
Muggs (Leo Gorcey) and gang need money for baseball uniforms, and when Danny (Bobby Jordan) receives a reward for helping capture Butch (Max 'Slapsie Maxie' Rosenbloom), the gang forces Danny to turn over the money, thinking Danny wants it all for himself. But when Danny is severely injured by the escaped Butch, the gang comes to his aid. A weak entry in the series.
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Spooks Run Wild 1941 N/R, 69 min. Genre: Comedy / Horror
Director: Phil Rosen Cast: Bela Lugosi, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, David Gorcey, Ernest Morrison, Donald Haines, Dave O'Brien, George Pembroke, Angelo Rossitto, Dorothy Short, Dennis Moore, P.J. Kelly, Guy Wilkerson
While the East Side Kids are camping in the mountains, they hear that a monster-killer is on the loose. Muggsy (Leo Gorcey) suffers a gunshot wound, and the boys seek shelter in an old mansion, which happens to be owned by Nardo (Bela Lugosi). Later, the kids see Muggsy walking around in a trance and think that Nardo has turned him into a zombie. But, is Nardo a monster-killer, or is he simply a magician–only the horrors experienced within the walls of the old mansion will reveal the answer.
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That Gang of Mine 1940 N/R, 62 min. Genre: Comedy
Director: Joseph H. Lewis Cast: Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Clarence Muse, Dave O'Brien, Joyce Bryant, Donald Haines, Milton Kibbee, Ernest Morrison, David Gorcey, Eugene Francis, Hazel Keener
The East Side Kids are back, and Muggs (Leo Gorcey) decides he wants to be a jockey. Despite ridicule from the other Kids, he persists, and the group finds a thoroughbred owned by a poor man (Clarence Muse). Now they must come up with the money for the entry fee. But, the benefactor will not put up the money unless a different jockey is in the saddle (since Muggs has proved to be a terrible jockey).
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They Made Me a Criminal 1939 N/R, 139 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Busby Berkeley Cast: John Garfield, Claude Rains, Gloria Dickson, Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, May Robson, Ann Sheridan, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Ward Bond
After he thinks he has accidentally killed a man, a prizefighter (John Garfield) retreats to a children's home where he finds security.
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Young Tom Edison 1940 N/R, 82 min. Genre: Drama
Director: Norman Taurog Cast: Mickey Rooney, Fay Bainter, George Bancroft, Virginia Weidler, Eugene Pallette, Victor Kilian, Bobby Jordan, J.M. Kerrigan, Lloyd Corrigan, Clem Bevans
This is the first half of two films planned by MGM about the life of Thomas Edison. It was followed by "Edison, the Man." Mickey Rooney stars as the inquisitive teenager, Tom, in his days before fame and fortune. Spencer Tracy took on the title role in the second film about an older Thomas Edison.
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| 1. Adventures of the Flying Cadets (1943)
2. Angels with Dirty Faces (1938)
3. Bowery Blitzkrieg (1941) aka: Stand and Deliver
4. Boys of the City (1940) aka: The Ghost Creeps
5. Clancy Street Boys (1943)
6. Crime School (1938)
7. Dead End (1937)
8. Flying Wild (1941)
9. Ghosts on the Loose (1943) aka: The East Side Kids Meet Bela Lugosi
10. Hell's Kitchen (1939)
11. Kid Dynamite (1943) aka: Queen of Broadway
12. Let's Get Tough! (1942)
13. Mr. Wise Guy (1942)
14. Neath Brooklyn Bridge (1942)
15. Pride of the Bowery (1941) aka: Here We Go Again
16. A Slight Case of Murder (1938)
17. Smart Alecks (1942)
18. Spooks Run Wild (1941)
19. That Gang of Mine (1940)
20. They Made Me a Criminal (1939)
21. Young Tom Edison (1940)
In The News
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