Boys of the City
About Boys of the City
Facing a malicious-mischief sentence and the city heat, the East Side Kids head for a camp in the Adirondacks with their guardian, Knuckles Dolan. The car dies, and Judge Malcolm Parker puts them up. Parker is under a bribery indictment, his niece Louise has been threatened, and he once sent Knuckles to death row on a conviction that was later thrown out. That night Louise is kidnapped and the judge is found strangled. Giles and the bodyguard Simp blame Knuckles. The boys catch the two men, follow the real killer, and unmask Simp.
Cast & crew
More about Boys of the City
Joseph H. Lewis directed. Sam Katzman produced for Four Bell Pictures. Monogram distributed it. Lew Porter is credited with the music. The AFI gives the release date as 15 July 1940. Also issued as The Ghost Creeps.
Themes
Background
Monogram and Sam Katzman were turning the East Side Kids into a series after the Dead End Kids had scattered across studios. This entry drops them into an old-dark-house plot.
Reviews
Nathaniel Thompson, writing for TCM in 2004, placed the film next to The Cat and the Canary (1939) and The Ghost Breakers (1940), and noted that the director was Joseph H. Lewis, later of Gun Crazy.
Music
Lew Porter composed the music.
Preservation
A print survives and has circulated on home video from the Monogram library.
Notes
- The second East Side Kids feature, and the first to star Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, and Ernest Morrison.
- Bobby Jordan plays Danny, Leo Gorcey plays Muggs, and Dave O'Brien plays Knuckles Dolan.
- Forrest Taylor is Judge Parker, Inna Gest is Louise, Vince Barnett is Simp, and Minerva Urecal is the housekeeper Agnes.
- Knuckles is the brother Danny tried to clear in the previous film, East Side Kids (1940). Parker is the judge from that case.
- Hal E. Chester plays Buster.
Scenes
- The boys' car breaks down and Judge Parker, who once sentenced Knuckles to death, has to take them in.
- Louise is taken in the night and the judge is found strangled.
- The boys run the killer down and Simp is unmasked.
Influenced by
- East Side Kids (1940)
Also available
- Internet Archive (boys_of_the_city)
