Search - East Side Kids - Let's Get Tough! on DVD

Lets get duped

Richard Rivera | Pocono Summit, Pa United States | 10/25/2003

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This edition of Alpha videos Lets get Tough is an abomination. Save your money until some other company decides to do it right.Unviewable."

The East Side Kids find a secret message and magnesium.

James McDonald | Southern California | 03/19/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Would you believe it? The East Side Kids (Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Sunshine Sammy Morrison, David Gorcey, Bobby Stone) want to join the U.S. Army, but they have to be 21 years of age. (In real life, they all were over 21 except for Bobby Jordan and Bobby Stone who were almost). Not even the whiskers worked. So they went to the U.S. Marines. The muscles didn't work. Too young. So they go to the U.S. Navy. Smoking cigars didn't work. The japenese small business owners don't really care for the East Side Kids because thay are trouble makers. They like to throw eggs at store front businesses. Phil Ahn (Kung Fu tv series 1972-75 as "Master Po") plays the bad guy, Joe. While they go to Miss Keno to apologize to her for the damages they made, they see Joe make an exchange with Miss Keno. Later at the hide-out, Huntz Hall had taken a pen as a "souvenir". The pen won't work, but he finds a mysterious note inside. Leo does a trick he learned from correspondence college. They discover a secret message. They go to Matsui's Tea Shop to interpret the message. mat sui tries tio take it, but Leo says "no stealing". Matsui then releases a small dagger and kills himself. The boys run to Policeman Pop (Robert Armstrong) to tell him. They all go back to Matsui's Tea Shop. The old man is alive, or is he? Policeman Pop is angry at the boys. The boys go back to Matsui's. The old man is gone now. Huntz steals a bag of tea. Outside, the boys discover in the bag, it is not tea, it is not sugar, it's magnesium. Can the boys uncover this spy ring and catch the crook, Joe? Gabriel Dell appears in this one. The next film in the series: SMART ALECKS (1942)."

An artifact of its era

yaremar | Pilsen, USA | 11/20/2005

(2 out of 5 stars)

"After the Dead End Kids and before the Bowery Boys, there were the East Side Kids: Leo "Muggs" Gorcey, Huntz "Glimpy" Hall, and Bobby "Danny" Jordan-along with Ernie "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison as "Scruno," the token black member of the gang-starred in a series of rough-and-tumble action-comedies set in New York's Lower East Side (but actually shot at the lowly Monogram Pictures studio in Hollywood) that combined the dramatics of the Dead End films with the knockabout slapstick of the Bowery epics. These cheaply produced, quickly made films (in which much of the dialogue was improvised) proved popular with moviegoers and were run repeatedly on local TV stations for years.

If nothing else, the East Side Kids movies were a product of their era, which is why, in these Politically Correct times, you're not likely to see LET'S GET TOUGH! (1942) turn up on television anytime soon. In this flag-waving World War II entry, the East Side Kids tangle with a Japanese spy ring that has ties to Nazi infiltrators. As you might expect, the racial epithets fly fast and free, though perhaps no moreso than any other patriotic war-themed production of the '40s.

This Alpha Video edition is typical of many of the East Side Kids movies available on DVD: transferred from a used 16mm print (splices, scratches), with scenes edited out (for TV?). There's no "Digital Restoration" going on here.

The East Side Kids movies are, at best, a pleasant diversion, though they were never as funny as the later Bowery Boys efforts. LET'S GET TOUGH! is not one of the better ESK entries; fans of this team will want to see it, but it's of little interest to anyone else.
"

Warning: Anti Japanese Wartime Film

Paul J. Mular | San Carlos, CA USA | 03/04/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"While the film used to make this DVD has lines and splices, it is sharp and clear. When you see the story content you will understand why.
Made during WWII, the boys talk about killing Japanese. This film was pulled from Television syndication a while back, so the only original prints around are a bit old.

In comparison, try to find a copy of the 3 STOOGES anti-Japanese film "THE YOKES ON ME". Japanese owned Columbia will not release that through their Sony DVD division.

Take this film in its historic context and watch a rare piece of 1940's B-Hollywood influenced by the war."