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Post by profh0011 on Feb 28, 2020 15:03:40 GMT -5
The history of the DEAD ENDS KIDS is long and confusing (to some). It started with a stage play, " DEAD END", which was adapted into a movie. They did a sequel, " CRIME SCHOOL", in which these irredeemable scum, by the end of the story, saw a glimmer of hope that they might turn their lives around. And it went on from there. Without looking it up (or quite knowing every detail of this), apparently 2 different sets of films follwed the original films, the EAST SIDE KIDS on one hand and a series of random films on the other. Then, I read somewhere, they were "re-organized" as THE BOWERY BOYS, which had a nice long run. Somehow, I think the closest thing I can compare them to in later decades might be the feel of "HAPPY DAYS"... or, maybe... "FAT ALBERT AND THE COSBY KIDS" (heh).
You know, for decades, I kept running across reference to the name "DINGBATS OF DANGER STREET", and the name alone totally turned me off (shades of "Buckaroo Banzai"). Then I read the 1st epsode, and LOVED it!! I felt certain that it was Kirby's "answer" to "FAT ALBERT AND THE COSBY KIDS"... and that it might have sold had the name been changed to "DANGER STREET". It would have made a GREAT Saturday morning cartoon show. (Although, in the 70s, the damned networks and the censors running Saturday mornings into the ground might have strongly objected to having the word "Danger" in the title of a "kids show". Idiots. With only a very few exceptions, Saturday mornings in the 70s was a wasteland.)
Humphrey Bogart played the government inspector who looked into corruption at the reform school in the 2nd film, and who the bad guys tried to frame and/or murder. I have a sneaking suspicion he was the model for "The Guardian" in the NEWSBOY LEGION series.
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 28, 2020 15:15:41 GMT -5
Dead End is a great film, and Angels with Dirty Faces even better. (Cagney in particular is excellent.) You'd think that Kirby's Hell's Kitchen settings had come to life.
Yes, they're melodramatic, and yes, they're old-fashioned, but then, so are comic, and that's part of their charm.
Oh, also wonderful is They Made me a Criminal with John Garfield and Claude Rains working with the gang. Directed by, of all people, Busby Berkeley(!).
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 28, 2020 15:23:38 GMT -5
Re kid gangs, thanks to the late Don Markstein's invaluable Toonopedia: Gene Byrne's Reg'lar Fellers strip "In 1917 an ensemble cast of urchins became part of the mix. They included Jimmy Dugan (the main character, to the extent there was one), Puddinhead Duffy (Jimmy's best friend, and the group's inevitable fat kid), Pinhead Duffy (Puddinhead's younger brother, virtually a clone except smaller), Angie Riley (the group's inevitable girl), and several bit players. Jimmy's dog was named Bullseye (no relation), for the black circle around his left eye." Full entry here: toonopedia.com/reglar.htm |
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Post by kirby101 on Feb 28, 2020 15:56:06 GMT -5
Kirby/Colletta the video.
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Post by electricmastro on Feb 28, 2020 16:42:18 GMT -5
The original Our Gang had 'Sunshine Sammy' as a main lead, this was in the silents. Farina was a baby in some of them. I often date Our Gang from the Sammy-Farina-Stymie-Buckwheat lineage. You can almost also do it through the main not-funny girl too. Mary-Jean-Darla. 'Sunshine Sammy' Morrison was in The East Side Kids (below) when he was a little older... the East Side Kids and Bowery Boys were big in movie theaters and a big influence on the tough boys groups in comics.   Our Gang was what probably started the trend of comedic kid gangs. Even though quite a number of people may accuse the series of racial stereotyping, I’ve heard that African-American actors Ernie Morrison, Matthew Beard and Billie Thomas had apparently defended the series and maintained that any stereotyping they went through was in line with the stereotyping the white kids went through as well (e.g. the "freckle-faced kid", the "fat kid", the "neighborhood bully", the "pretty blond girl", the "mischievous toddler,” etc.). Even the 1940s Our Gang comics appeared to respectably portray the kids as equals.  |
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Post by profh0011 on Feb 28, 2020 22:24:07 GMT -5
Dead End is a great film, and Angels with Dirty Faces even better. (Cagney in particular is excellent.) You'd think that Kirby's Hell's Kitchen settings had come to life. Yes, they're melodramatic, and yes, they're old-fashioned, but then, so are comic, and that's part of their charm. Oh, also wonderful is They Made me a Criminal with John Garfield and Claude Rains working with the gang. Directed by, of all people, Busby Berkeley(!). I haven't had cable in some time, but about 10-15 years ago I caught a number of the early films on TCM, starting with the 1st and then the 2nd one. The 1st is REALLY downbeat and dreary, and it's astounding a series resulted from it!
It cracked me up that Bogart was in both films playng drastically-different characters. The 2nd film seems clearly designed to set up what could be a workable series.
My Dad used to talk about ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES for decades, but I finally got around to seeing it after he'd passed away. Like CRIME SCHOOL, is seems intended as a slow progression to drag the gang up from the gutter and make them characters general audiences would want to watch in ongoing installments.
I also recall Ronald Reagan being in one or two of the films I saw, and it quite surprised me that I got to like him as an actor.
From all I've read about him since, it's a shame he didn't STAY an actor. Apparently, his position in the Screen Actors' Guild during contract negotiations resulted in countless actors only getting LIMITED TV rerun residuals. How many TV actors wound up destitute because of his actions? (In England, in the early 80s, Equity actually managed to secure RETROACTIVE residuals. Anything any actor or anyone involved in TV had ever done in their entire career, they got a tiny piece of in reruns, videotapes, DVDs... the sort of situation the "money" people in America would no douibt go to their graves to prevent ever happening here.)
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Post by MDG on Feb 29, 2020 8:43:22 GMT -5
The Bowery Boys was a staple on NYC TV when I was growing up, but it was only recently I realized the series went well into the 50s, when a couple of the "boys" were close to 40!
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Post by profh0011 on Feb 29, 2020 11:28:42 GMT -5
Although to this day, I'm not sure I've seen any of them, James Robert Parish' "THE GREAT MOVIE SERIES" book had a section devoted to THE BOWERY BOYS. Stupidly, it didn't cover any of the earlier films. For many years, that book was at once an indispensible reference (decades before the internet) and absolutely maddening. The editor seemed to hold ALL film series in equal CONTEMPT (so why did he write the book-- other than money, I mean?), and it had the WORST "design", with often as much as 50% of some pages totally blank.
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 29, 2020 12:02:55 GMT -5
The Bowery Boys was a staple on NYC TV when I was growing up, but it was only recently I realized the series went well into the 50s, when a couple of the "boys" were close to 40! Didn't realize you grew up in "the greater metropolitan area," too, MDG . I remember when Channel 5 (WNEW) showed the Bowery Boys movies on Saturday afternoons (one o'clock, maybe?), and they'd show the trailers for them as commercials during the week or as a preview of the next week's feature. Occasionally they'd show some of the East Side Kids movies, too. By the end, the "boys" did look pretty elderly. And the sets looked just as tired. Of course, as a kid, I could not have cared less; I just thought they were funny. Over on Channel 11, Officer Joe showed the Jungle Jim movies on Saturday afternoons. Another of my introductions to the great movies! On weekdays, Officer Joe was showing the Three Stooges, but for a while, he was also showing a chapter a day of some great old movie serials, like "King of the Rocketmen." That hooked me on those immediately. He even did a secret code about the next episode (probably the title) at the end of each of his shows, like the one Ralphie deciphered in Christmas Story. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Feb 29, 2020 12:09:53 GMT -5
The original Our Gang had 'Sunshine Sammy' as a main lead, this was in the silents. Farina was a baby in some of them. I often date Our Gang from the Sammy-Farina-Stymie-Buckwheat lineage. You can almost also do it through the main not-funny girl too. Mary-Jean-Darla. 'Sunshine Sammy' Morrison was in The East Side Kids (below) when he was a little older... the East Side Kids and Bowery Boys were big in movie theaters and a big influence on the tough boys groups in comics. Even though quite a number of people may accuse the series of racial stereotyping, I’ve heard that African-American actors Ernie Morrison, Matthew Beard and Billie Thomas had apparently defended the series and maintained that any stereotyping they went through was in line with the stereotyping the white kids went through as well (e.g. the "freckle-faced kid", the "fat kid", the "neighborhood bully", the "pretty blond girl", the "mischievous toddler,” etc.). Even the 1940s Our Gang comics appeared to respectably portray the kids as equals. In the movies, yes, but strips like Reg'lar Fellers, (referred to above) preceded them by 20 years. The movies drew upon the strips. |
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Post by electricmastro on Feb 29, 2020 14:23:10 GMT -5
Were they delineated in personality? Looks like. I assume all the Kid Gangs could be traced back to the Little Rascals, so there was a "smart" one a "tough" one a "funny" one, etc/ And, wow, is this a kid gang with a black member who isn't 1000% an "hilarious" racial stereotype? Kirby and Eisner etc. coulda learned a lot from Oskner & etc. The clearly defined personalities thing doesn't strike me as THAT big a deal. The Sub-Mariner acted differently from the Human Torch who acted very differently from Toro, ferinstance. And virtually all humor books had strongly deliniated characters, so most funny superheroes - Red Tornado or Johnny Thunder or Supersnipe - did as well. What’s interesting about Ebony White is that even though Will Eisner drew him with an appearance that some may accuse of being “less than human,” he gave him what could also be described a very human personality, and makes it as if the Spirit and Ebony are like father and son. Perhaps Kirby attempted to do something like that with Whitewash Jones, but failed. Anyway, other kid gangs: Young Americans:  Fearless Fellers:  Secret Seven:  Defense Kids:  Kid Patrol:  |
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Post by profh0011 on Feb 29, 2020 16:46:16 GMT -5
On weekdays, Officer Joe was showing the Three Stooges, but for a while, he was also showing a chapter a day of some great old movie serials, like "King of the Rocketmen."
When I was a kid, I used to WISH they'd have done that in Philadelphia. The more time went on, and I discovered HOW MANY of those things existed, I realized, a programmer with real initiative could have set up a time slot 5 times a week (I don't like 7 days a week-- weekdays & weekends should always remain separate), and running one chapter a day, they could run for YEARS ON END without showing the same thing twice. (I like "variety", not endless reurns of the same thing.)
The most I recall was when Channel 17 ran 3 Buster Crabbe serials in rotation. GET THIS:
BUCK ROGERS FLASH GORDON CONQUERS THE UNIVERSE FLASH GORDON'S TRIP TO MARS
How does that make ANY sense?
Since getting hooked on Youtube (which I have to watch sitting in front of my computer-- not the most comfy position to have), I've found myself watching a PILE of these things, most I never saw before, at a rate of one chapter a day...
MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN THE PHANTOM THE GREEN HORNET THE GREEN HORNET STRIKES AGAIN CAPTAIN MARVEL THE SPIDER STRIKES DICK TRACY DICK TRACY RETURNS DICK TRACY'S G-MEN DICK TRACY VS. CRIME, INC. KING OF THE ROCKETMEN RADAR MEN FROM THE MOON ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE COMMANDO CODY, SKY MARSHAL OF THE UNIVERSE SPY SMASHER THE NEW ADVENTURES OF TARZAN
Most of these are excellent! Only "MANDRAKE" really sucked, because it veered so far from its source material... the unsold "MANDRAKE" tv-pilot was a vast improvement, making it tragic most never saw it.
The non-continuity of the 4 "ROCKETMEN" films is mind-boggling and jaw-dropping. Clearly "RADAR MEN" was written as a direct sequel to "KING...", but they changed all the character names. Ditto with "ZOMBIES..." What kind of drugs were those studio execs taking?
The ERB-produced "TARZAN" was a surprise, mainly as I'd seen the 2 feature films derived from it. I would have guessed the bloodbath in the lost city came near the end of the first half of the serial, not about 2 chapters into the 12!! It's infuriating that Burroughs signed a deal for more films with MGM just so he could finance his own film-- but then MGM did all they could to SABOTAGE the distribution OF his film! (Bastards!!)
Warren Hull was totally wrong as Mandrake, but he was FANTASTIC as The Green Hornet-- and also, The Spider! I liked how in the Spider serial, his masked identity and his regular one were both hard-asses never hesistent to shoot it out with the bad guys, and yet somehow, they never quite connected they were both the same guy. I love the one bit early on where 3 killers tried to ambush him at the airport, and he took out all 3 killers with only 3 shots fired (just like DIRTY HARRY would have).
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Post by profh0011 on Feb 29, 2020 16:57:23 GMT -5
"other kid gangs:"Wee Pals:
(this was actually turned into a short-lived Saturday morning cartoon called KID POWER)  Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids:
Dingbats Of Danger Street: 
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Post by electricmastro on Feb 29, 2020 18:12:22 GMT -5
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Post by kirby101 on Feb 29, 2020 21:48:54 GMT -5
It is very interesting to see how Kirby went from those earlier lithe figures to the more robust blocky figures he is identified with.
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