Hot Picks
|
|
|
Bowery Blitzkrieg
USA 1941
produced by Sam Katzman for Monogram (Banner Productions)
directed by Wallace Fox
starring the East Side Kids (= Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Sunshine Sammy Morrison (= Ernest Morrison), David Gorcey, Donald Haines), Warren Hull, Charlotte Henry, Bobby Stone, Keye Luke, Martha Wentworth, Eddie Foster, Dennis Moore, Tony Carson, Jack Mulhall, Pat Costello, Minerva Urecal, Dick Ryan
story by Brendan Wood, Donn Mullahy, screenplay by Sam Robins, musical directors: Johnny Lange, Lew Porter
East Side Kids, formerly Dead End Kids, later Bowery Boys
review by Mike Haberfelner
|
|
|
|
Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
|
|
|
|
|
For streetfighting, Muggs (Leo Gorcey) continuously gets into trouble,
and nobody really doubts that reform school is the only place for him -
nobody but Sergeant Tom Brady (Warren Hull), "a copper who wears his
heart on his badge", who thinks that Muggs should train to be a
professional boxer. Eventually, Brady can persuade Muggs to move in with
him and his mother (Martha Wentworth) and train for the Golden Gloves
Championship. But soon enough, gangsters Slats Morrison (Eddie
FosterI) and Dorgan (Dennis Moore) appear on the scene and offer him a
grand if he throws the fight. And Muggs even pretends to accept, while he
is really collecting evidence against them ...
A parallel story concerns Danny Breslin (Bobby Jordan), kid brother of
Sgt Brady's sweetheart Mary (Charlotte Henry) and former friend of Muggs,
who has always been the good kid, but at one point the lure of money was
big enough to make him throw in with crook Monk (Bobby Stone) - which
eventually gets him into a shootout, with Sgt Brady being the adversary.
It is only then that Danny finds back to his good self and saves the life
of Brady, even if he catches a bullet himself ... and it's the day of
Muggs' big fight.
For some reason, only hours before the fight, Muggs decides to visit
Danny in the hospital and learns he needs blood - and since the two share
the same blood type he gladly gives his blood.
Later, at the boxing ring, Muggs is feeling a bit dizzy because of his
bloodloss ... but he wins the fight - which everyone thought he would
throw - anyhow before passing out. And he can finally deliver evidence
against Slats Morrison and Dorgan to the police, who promptly arrest them
...
Ok entry into the (not so great) East Side Kids-series, a
typical boxing- and crime-drama. Obviously the film was made on the cheap,
but it plays quite nicely if one expects nothing spectacular.
|