Search - East Side Kids - Smart Alecks on DVD

Calling all Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom fans!

Craig Edwards | By the sea in NC | 12/23/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Smart Alecks (1942) After the Broadway play Dead End became a huge hit in 1935, the six teen stars (Leo Gorcey, his brother David, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Charles Duncan and Gabriel Dell) were brought to Hollywood to make the film version for MGM, which premiered in 1937. The movie was also a big hit, but the young stars had run rampant on the lot, getting into mischief and tearing stuff up, so producer Sam Goldwyn sold their contracts to Warner Brothers, where they made six more movies with stars like John Garfield, James Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart. By this time other studios in Hollywood were noticing the popularity of these films and when the Warners contract ended, the boys split and some were snapped up by Universal for the Little Tough Guys series and others were grabbed by Monogram for the Dead End Kids movies. By the mid 40's the two groups had made more than 35 movies and 3 cliffhanger serials! In 1946 Leo Gorcey and his agent revamped the Dead End kids into The Bowery Boys, which lasted through 48 (!) more movies through 1958! This effort is one of the East Side Kids entries, which were a mix of comedy and melodrama. This time out the boys (including Gorcey, Hall, Dell, and original Our Gang star Sunshine Sammy Morrison) want to buy some baseball uniforms to give their sandlot team some oomph, but as usual have no money. Before long they are mixed up with a gang of bank robbers led by former boxing champ Slapsie Maxie Rosenbloom and have to save one of their own members and his comely nurse sister from Maxie's revenge plans. As usual, Gorcey mangles the English language, Hall gets in some funny shtick, Morrison tap dances for everybody, and the movie veers back and forth from light comedy to syrupy melodrama, but it's short (just over an hour) and Gorcey and Hall are always worth a look, so this one gets a recommendation for those so inclined."

GREAT EAST SIDE KIDS!!!!!

larryj1 | AZ, USA | 06/28/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Another great East Side Kids film. The Alpha DVD quality is average. It's just great that this print is not full of splices. The only issue is the replacement of the Monogram title card with the Astor Pictures re-issue title."