The Bowery Boys

[zoomgirl]

Does anyone have any information of the Bowery Boys (aka The Dead End Kids) on DVD? To freshen your memory these were movies from the 1940's and 1950's starring Leo Gorcey as "Slip" Mahoney and Huntz Hall as "Satch". They usually came on Channel 11 in NYC around the same time that channel 11 played Abbot and Costello (mostly on Sunday's). I have seen two for dirt cheap but they look shabbily done. I don't want to waste my money on crap DVD's.
Does anyone know what the hell I am talking about?
Can you help a sister down and out on her luck??

[cisco1959]

Here's a few, not sure of the quality.

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...5876&searchID=

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...8724&searchID=

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...item_id=465858

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...item_id=465822

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...item_id=475378

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...item_id=476942

http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...item_id=214035

[papibear]

Well, this is kinda tricky. First you have the Dead End Kids (Gabriel Dell, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, & Bernard Punsly), then also the Little Tough Guys (Hall, Gorcey, others), then you also have the East Side Kids (most of the same kids) and then the Bowery Boys (Gorcey, Hall, & Dell, plus others). Related, but not always the same groups, although it would be fair to say that Huntz Hall was in pretty much all of them, and Leo Gorcey was in most of them. So it depends upon which you're looking for - Dead End Kids DVDs, Little Tough Guys DVDs, East Side Kids DVDs, or Bowery Boys DVDs (or all of them).

The earliest Warner Bros. Dead End Kids film available on DVD (and since it's public domain, from various dvd manufacturers at that) is 1939's They Made Me A Criminal, with John Garfield and directed by Busby Berkeley.

The following 5 Warner Bros. 'Dead End Kids' films are not yet on DVD:

Dead End (1937) - {the Samuel Goldwyn-produced, William Wyler-directed, Lillian Hellman-written adaptation of the Broadway stage play, co-starring Humphrey Bogart, Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, and Claire Trevor, and the one that started it all!}
Crime School (1938)
Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) - {not exactly a "Dead End Kids" film per se, but an A-level picture with Cagney and Bogart, and the kids in supporting roles}
Hell's Kitchen (1939)
Angels Wash Their Faces (1939)
Dead End Kids On Dress Parade (1939)

Although not yet on DVD, these films DO turn up on Turner Classic Movies. In fact, they were featured just this past January.

The weakest and least known of all the film series spawned from the "Dead End" Kids were those made by Universal. These Universal films, which were cranked out between 1938 and 1943, overlapped the concurrent "Dead End" Kids at Warner Bros (1938-1939), and The East Side Kids films (1940-1945) at Monogram. Little Tough Guy was the first of Universal's contribution to the series. It's available on DVD at Movies Unlimited.com. The "Little Tough Guy" films feature Hall as a character named "Pig", Gabe Dell as "String", Bernard Punsly as "Ape" and Billy Halop as "Tom". Leo Gorcey was not a part of the Universal series.

From 1940 to 1945, Leo Gorcey was in several pictures with Huntz Hall and sometimes a few of the other original Dead End Kids, along with other actors. Gorcey played a character nicknamed 'Muggs', while Hall played "Glimpy" in these. These were the Monogram Pictures' "East Side Kids" series, and it is largely these that are available on DVD, usually in substandard presentation from Gotham Distribution.

From 1946 to 1958, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, occasionally Gabriel Dell and others, began making what are considered the "Bowery Boys" films, which were essentially the same, just that the boys were getting older and starting to wear suits a little more often (and by the mid-fifties, they were obviously getting too old for the schtick; Leo Gorcey wasn't even in the last 7 of them because he was so broken up over the death of his father in 1955). These were also for Monogram Pictures, which changed its name to Allied Artists Pictures in 1953, and which later filed for bankruptcy in 1980 (they had produced the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Papillon, among dozens of B pictures, so film rights for their productions are all over the map). Some of the Bowery Boys films are on VHS, but none are on DVD, from what I've been able to determine.

I hope this helps.

[zoomgirl]

HOLY CRAP!!!!

You both ROCK!!!!!!

Thank you SO much for all that information! Cisco thank you for the links...and Papibear thank you for all that background information!!!!!

to you both......

I have They Made Me A Criminal From Front Row Entertainment (or whatever they're called. I'm at work right now and can't remember the exact company's name).

The picture quality isn't fantastic, as Papi stated it's public domain, but it is watchable. I'd say it was comparable in quality to the print that Turner Classics runs every now and then. I can't vouch for any of the other releases out there as I haven't picked them up yet.

I would hope that MGM gets on the stick and releases the original Dead End as its a fantastic film with great performances from both Bogart and Cagney. The rest of the original series isn't too bad, with the exception of On Dress Parade which with just cringe inducing.

[papibear]

Originally Posted by frulad

I would hope that MGM gets on the stick and releases the original Dead End as its a fantastic film with great performances from both Bogart and Cagney. The rest of the original series isn't too bad, with the exception of On Dress Parade which with just cringe inducing.

Why would MGM need to get on the stick? Doesn't Warner Home Video own the DVD rights to the original Warner Bros. Dead End Kids films?

And you're right, On Dress Parade is pretty cringe-inducing. It almost seems like a cartoon.

[zoomgirl]

Thanks Frulad! Nice to get some "I actually own one of these" information. Eh, for that price I may as well pick it up.....Lord knows I would spend that money on some sort of foolishness anyway

Thanks again!
AND
to you too!!!

Originally Posted by papibear

Why would MGM need to get on the stick? Doesn't Warner Home Video own the DVD rights to the original Warner Bros. Dead End Kids films?

You're right. I was thinking that Goldwyn produced Dead End and it was distributed by MGM before te series went over to Warners with the second installment Crime School. Moot point as Warners now holds all those 30s and 40s MGM titles.

Originally Posted by zoomgirl

Thanks Frulad! Nice to get some "I actually own one of these" information. Eh, for that price I may as well pick it up.....Lord knows I would spend that money on some sort of foolishness anyway

No problem. The disc only cost me around five to seven bucks, so it's not much of a dent in the pocket to begin with.