First they were the Dead End Kids. Then came the Little Tough Guys in a series for Universal. The gang's third incarnation (before ending up as The Bowery Boys) was as the East Side Kids -- and the first film in that series was appropriately titled East Side Kids (1940). But it was a very different movie from all of the East Side Kid flicks that would follow. First of all, the plot was much darker, more violent and certainly less comedic. Six people die over the course of the film. And it is the only one of the series where a member of the boys' gang is killed. Also, none of the usual Kids are present. Leon Ames heads up this cast, but series regulars Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall are nowhere to be found. It's no wonder that East Side Kids is often thought of as the film that inspired the series rather than being considered a part of it.

The East Side Kids were the creation of producer Sam Katzman. A successful producer of low budget Westerns, Katzman founded his own studio, Victory Pictures, in 1935. When Victory folded, Katzman moved to Monogram Studios to head his own unit called Four-Bell Productions. East Side Kids was his first Monogram project. In the movie, Leon Ames plays a punk-turned-detective who helps the kids foil a counterfeiting ring. The boys are led by Hally Chester and Harris Berger, with Dave 'Tex' O'Brien (perhaps most memorable as the crazed piano playing pothead in Refer Madness (1938), along with regular appearances in Pete Smith Specialty shorts) as the wrongly accused brother who's facing execution.

East Side Kids was successful enough that Katzman saw series potential. He retooled the concept, making the tone lighter, and signed all the original Dead End Kids (except for Billy Halop and Bernard Punsley) to help create more charismatic characters. Of course Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall were brought in to lead the gang. Danny (Harris Berger's role) was recast with Bobby Jordan. Tex O'Brien was kept on board as Knuckles, but his character was reformed and served as a mentor to the boys in the next few films. Also continuing in the series after East Side Kids was the young academic Algernon Wilkes (originally played by Jack Edwards). His character was also changed (and recast), giving him a wealthy background -- in an apparent attempt to explain his studious ways.

These changes kept the East Side Kids rolling along through 21 more movies, including two with another Katzman regular - Bela Lugosi. The East Side-Lugosi movies were Spooks Run Wild (1941) and Ghosts on the Loose (1943).

Producer: Sam Katzman
Director: Robert F. Hill
Screenplay: William Lively
Cinematography: Arthur Reed
Film Editing: Earl Turner
Music: Johnny Lange, Lew Porter
Cast: Leon Ames (Pat O'Day), Dennis Moore (Milton Mileaway), Joyce Bryant (Molly Dolan), Hal E. Chester (Fred 'Dutch' Kuhn), Harris Berger (Danny Dolan), Frankie Burke (Skinny).
BW-62m.

by Stephanie Thames