When their friend Steve is killed, the East Side Kids go to tell his family the news but find out that they can't as mother Virginia Brissac is way too excited over an impending visit from him. So what did they do? Stick around pretending to be waiting for him too, dealing with his disagreeable brother (Dick Hogan) and befriending the pretty Grace McDonald, eventually finding out some sordid information about Hogan involving the local rackateers.
For much of the movie, the plotline is interrupted by a bunch of senseless sketch like scenes such as Huntz Hall pretending to be a woman getting harassed to open the door to the boys trying to sell her magazines. Billy Halop, Gabriel Dell and Bernard Punsly round out the gang, forced to deal with a different kind of gang. The comic moments seem out of place here, although the confession scene with Halop and Brissac is well directed, and her forgiving him for lying perfect atonement.
Tommy Kelly briefly plays the role of the dead friend. Veteran comic Jed Prouty plays the partner in the storage company Brissac owns, used as a front by rackateers. I found the premise cruel and certain aspects of the gang (participate Hall) to be unbelievably stupid. Fortunately he'd smarten up enough to remain dim but still funny as after this, the Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys would leave Universal to head to Monogram where he'd remain for the next 16 years.
For much of the movie, the plotline is interrupted by a bunch of senseless sketch like scenes such as Huntz Hall pretending to be a woman getting harassed to open the door to the boys trying to sell her magazines. Billy Halop, Gabriel Dell and Bernard Punsly round out the gang, forced to deal with a different kind of gang. The comic moments seem out of place here, although the confession scene with Halop and Brissac is well directed, and her forgiving him for lying perfect atonement.
Tommy Kelly briefly plays the role of the dead friend. Veteran comic Jed Prouty plays the partner in the storage company Brissac owns, used as a front by rackateers. I found the premise cruel and certain aspects of the gang (participate Hall) to be unbelievably stupid. Fortunately he'd smarten up enough to remain dim but still funny as after this, the Dead End Kids/Little Tough Guys would leave Universal to head to Monogram where he'd remain for the next 16 years.