The East Side Kids films were made between 1940 and 1945 for producer Sam Katzman, a master at exploitation films who churned out teen-oriented dramas for three decades, ranging from lightweight romantic comedies at MGM to the rock-n-roll musicals of the '50s and psychedelic dramas of the late '60s and early '70s. He corralled several actors from the original Dead End Kids when they ended their string of films at Warner Bros. One portion of the team had gone to Universal for a series of "Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys" movies, leaving Katzman to rename the team. Their first film, East Side Kids (1940), didn't even include trademark members Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. Gorcey would join the team with the second feature, Boys of the City (1940), while Hall would wait until Bowery Blitzkrieg in 1941 to jump on the bandwagon. Eventually, they would recreate themselves as a more comedy-oriented group, the Bowery Boys, in 1946.
Of course, these troubled teens were already a little long in the tooth when Katzman took them on. Leo Gorcey, the star of both the East Side Kids and Bowery Boys films, was 25 when Kid Dynamite came out. In fact, he would soon marry Kay Mavis, a dancer in the film's musical sequence. By the time he left the series in 1957, he would be pushing forty. And though he would later play his character as a tough but good-hearted dumbbell, for Kid Dynamite Gorcey strived for real drama, playing a bully brought low by his own pride.
Not that the film was all heavy drama. Most of the comedy was handed to Huntz Hall, who would continue as Gorcey's co-star through the '50s. His comic lines were written by rising comedian Morey Amsterdam, himself on the road to television stardom on Broadway Open House and The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Like many a B-movie from Hollywood's golden years, Kid Dynamite brought together new talent and veteran performers. Along with Amsterdam, the key actor on the way up was character actress Minerva Urecal, a stand-out in her one scene as a judge. During the '40s, she was the poverty row answer to Marjorie Main, playing a series of comic housekeepers and farm women. With the coming of television, however, she became a star, taking on the title role in the Tugboat Annie series and reigning over Peter Gunn's favorite hangout as Mother. Looking back to a brighter past were silent screen star Jack Mulhall, once a specialist in light, romantic comedy, and slapstick comic 'Snub' Pollard, second banana to Harold Lloyd in some of his biggest hits. But though they were working in low-budget pictures, they still lent a much needed professionalism to films like Kid Dynamite that has kept fans watching for six decades.
Producer: Jack Dietz, Sam Katzman
Director: Wallace Fox
Screenplay: Gerald Schnitzer, Morey Amsterdam, based on "That Old Gang" by Paul Ernst
Cinematography: Mack Stengler
Art Direction: David Milton Music: Edward J. Kay
Cast: Leo Gorcey (Muggs), Huntz Hall (Glimpy McGleavey), Bobby Jordan (Danny Lyons), Gabriel Dell (Harry Wycoff), Pamela Blake (Ivy McGinnis), Benny Bartlett (Beanie Miller), Minerva Urecal (Judge), Jack Mulhall (Clancy), 'Snub' Pollard (Dance Official).
BW-67m.
by Frank Miller
