SanteeFats Okay this is a typical Kids format. Troubled youth one step from reform school get a second chance. This one sees them get offered reform school or a country camp. They chose the camp naturally. There is a crooked judge going to trial for corruption and embezzlement and the mob is trying to off him. His male secretary is in on the deal and tries to facilitate the judges demise. There is the young niece whose estate is being embezzled from. We have the adult chaperone Knuckles who is an almost executed for a murder he didn't do by guess who this judge!! While the boys are on their way to the camp the judge, niece, secretary, and a bodyguard are on their way to his country house. The judges party needs a lift and as you might expect get one from the boys et al. When they get to the judges house they reluctantly get an invite to stay the night. Things pick up from here. Ghosts in the cemetery, a scary housekeeper, frightening notes and occurrences, and the usual secret passages. Though this is a murder mystery it also has some very funny moments from the Kids. There are a couple of uncomfortable scenes by today's standards concerning the black Kid. There is watermelon served as dessert only to him and he does get called boy once. All in all though this is a really funny but predictable movie except for who turns out to be the killer. I will leave that for you to discover.

bkoganbing Boys Of The City is the only film of the East Side Kids that had a continuity with the previous one in the series. It is the second film in the series and first one with former Dead End Kids Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan in the cast. When the Dead End Kids were turned loose from their Warner Brothers contract, Sam Katzman of Monogram started signing them and I'm sure on the cheap.For whatever reason, I suspect box office, Katzman replaced a lot of the young actors in the first film when he found the better known Dead End kids at liberty. One character who was not replaced is Dave O'Brien who was cleared of the crime that put him on death row he repeats his character of Knuckles Dolan, brother of Bobby Jordan.The kids are up to their usual mischief and O'Brien decides a little time in the country is what they need away from the big city streets. On the way up the car breaks down and O'Brien and the kids have to spend a night in an old house that looks just like something from some English murder mystery. It even has a Mrs. Danvers like housekeeper in Minerva Urecal.It's owned as it happens by the judge who sent O'Brien to the death house in the first film. So when he winds up strangled O'Brien is accused of the crime. Of course the kids find out who did it.I have to say the murderer was a surprise in this one. All the usual signs pointed to other characters, but for once Sam Katzman showed a bit of creativity here.Boys Of The City is a good East Side Kids film and from Monogram, it's practically a classic.

wes-connors The fourteenth "Dead End"-related film introduces "The East Side Kids" as a series banner. Herein, Bobby Jordan replaces Harris Berger (as Danny Dolan), from the previous "East Side Kids" movie. Dave O'Brien (as "Knuckles" Dolan) continues as Mr. Jordan's reformed older brother. Fellow "Dead End" kid Leo Gorcey (as Muggs McGinnis) joins "Danny's Gang" (after three films, Mr. Gorcey will become the undisputed leader). The returning junior gangsters are: Hally Chester (as Buster), Frankie Burke (as Skinny), Donald Haines (as Peewee), and David Gorcey (as Pete).This film most notably introduces former "Our Gang" member Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison (as Scruno), a new member of the Bowery "kids". Unfortunately, Mr. Morrison is included as insulting, race-based comic relief; and, the story doesn't take advantage of Joseph H. Lewis' relatively fine direction (or some good locations). Fortunately, Morrison would be allowed to bring some integrity to the "Scruno" character; in later films (like "Bowery Blitzkrieg") he plays a more dignified humorous role.The story begins with Mr. O'Brien and well-to-do Eugene Francis (as Algy Wilkes) expressing concern about "Danny's Gang", and their propensity for trouble. Their fears prove to be well-founded, as Jordan and the "Boys of the City" decide to get relief from hot New York City streets by opening up a fire hydrant. The incident lands the lads in juvenile court - but, the judge allows them cool their heels by spending some time in the country. They wind up in a spooky old mansion, with scene-stealing Minerva Urecal (as Agnes).***** Boys of the City (7/15/40) Joseph H. Lewis ~ Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Ernest Morrison, Minerva Urecal

henri sauvage Cheap sets. B-list performers and some typical-for-the-era (but nonetheless annoying) racial stereotypes fail to distinguish this tale of embezzlement and murder set at a creepy country mansion. Leo Gorcey and the gang provide the comic relief, which -- except for the cigar scene -- is not particularly funny. Unless, that is, you get a kick out of things like watching Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison get pop-eyed over graveyards and spooks, or listening to him extol the virtues of a big slice of watermelon.Though Minerva Urecal did a fairly good job as a sort of cut-rate Mrs. Danvers, I'd only recommend this one to rabid Gorcey fans and B-movie antiquarians.