home/movie/1940/boys of the city

Boys of the City

NR

ComedyMysteryThriller

5.4/10(11 ratings)

Street kids get sent to the country, where they get mixed up in murder and a haunted house.

07-15-1940

1h 8m

Boys of the City

Backdrop for Boys of the City

Main Cast

Movie Details

Production Info

Director:: Joseph H. Lewis

Production:: Sam Katzman Productions, Monogram Pictures

Key Crew

Screenplay:: William Lively

Story:: William Lively

Producer:: Sam Katzman

Assistant Director:: Bobby Ray

Original Music Composer:: Lew Porter

Locations and Languages

Country:: US

Filming:: US

Languages:: en

Main Cast

Bobby Jordan

Bobby Jordan

Though he was the youngest, Jordan was the first of the boys who made up the Dead End Kids to work in films with a role in a 1933 Universal short. In 1935, he became one of the original Dead End Kids by winning the role of Angel in Sydney Kingsley's Broadway drama Dead End about life in the slums of the east side of New York City. The play was performed at the Belasco Theatre and ran for three years with over 600 performances. He appeared for the first season and the beginning of the second but left in mid-November 1936. He returned in time to join the others in 1937 in Hollywood, California to make the movie version of the play, starring big names such as Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea, Sylvia Sidney, and Claire Trevor. Following the making of Dead End, Jordan found himself "released" from his contract at Goldwyn, and, subsequently, he appeared at Warner Brothers with the rest of the Dead End Kids. After one year, Warners released most of them, but kept Leo Gorcey and Jordan as solo performers. Jordan appeared (as "Douglas Fairbanks Rosenbloom") in Warner's Damon Runyon comedy A Slight Case of Murder (1938) and at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in Young Tom Edison (1940). In 1940, Jordan appeared in the film Military Academy and accepted an offer from producer Sam Katzman to star in a new tough-kid series called "The East Side Kids." Leo Gorcey soon joined him, then Huntz Hall, and the trio continued to lead the series through 1943, when Jordan entered the United States Army during World War II as a foot soldier in the 97th Infantry Division. He was subsequently involved in an elevator accident, when the elevator fell five floors, that forced him to have surgery to remove his right kneecap.

Known For

Dead End

Dead End

1937

Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen

1939

Angels with Dirty Faces

Angels with Dirty Faces

1938

Leo Gorcey

Leo Gorcey

Leo Gorcey's parents were actor Bernard Gorcey (born 1888) who stood 4' 10", and Josephine Condon (born 1901), who stood 4' 11" and weighed 95 pounds; they worked in vaudeville in New York. In 1915, 14-year-old Josephine gave birth to Fred. In 1917, Leo was born, a large baby at 12 lb. 3 oz.; as an adult he would be 5' 6". In 1921 his brother David Gorcey was born. In 1935, Leo and David appeared in the stage play "Dead End." In 1937, this was made into a movie, and Leo became one of the busiest actors for the next 20 years -- from 1937-1939 he starred in seven Dead End Kids movies, from 1940-1945 in 21 East Side Kids films, from 1946-1956 in 41 Bowery Boys movies. In 1939, Leo married 17-year-old dancer Kay Marvis, who appeared in four of his movies. They divorced in 1944 after five years of marriage; she went on to marry Groucho Marx. In 1945, Leo married Evalene Bankston; they divorced in 1948. Leo was to have paid her $50,000 in a divorce settlement; however, when two detectives she hired broke into his home, he retaliated by firing his gun at them. They sued, and Leo countersued for illegal entry and won $35,000 back. In 1949, Leo married Amelita Ward, whom he met while filming Smugglers' Cove (1948). Their marriage produced Leo Gorcey Jr. in 1949, and a baby girl they named Jan (after Leo's producer and manager, Jan Grippo) in 1951. They divorced in 1956. That year Leo married his young nanny, Brandy, who was taking care of his two kids. They had a baby girl, Brandy Jo, in 1958. The couple divorced in 1962. Leo went to the altar one last time in February, 1968, marrying Mary Gannon. He stayed married to her until his death from liver failure on June 2, 1969, in Oakland, California.

Known For

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

1963

Dead End

Dead End

1937

Out of the Fog

Out of the Fog

1941

Hal E. Chester

Hal E. Chester

Hal Chester started his career as a child actor in the United States, but in the mid-1950s moved to Britain, where he is remembered as the producer of films including the classic horror Night of the Demon (1957), as well as School for Scoundrels (1960).

Known For

Little Tough Guy

Little Tough Guy

1938

Junior G-Men

Junior G-Men

1940

The Witness Vanishes

The Witness Vanishes

1939

Unknown Actor

Unknown Actor

Known For

Hell's Kitchen

Hell's Kitchen

1939

Soap

Angels with Dirty Faces

Angels with Dirty Faces

1938

Rocky - as a Boy

Women in the Wind

Women in the Wind

1939

Johnnie

Vince Barnett

Vince Barnett

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Vince Barnett (July 4, 1902 – August 10, 1977) was an American film and television actor. He appeared on stage originally. Barnett's initial involvement with Hollywood was as a screenwriter, writing screenplays for the two-reeler movies of the late 1920s. He began appearing in films in 1930, playing hundreds of comedy bits and supporting parts. One of his more sizable screen roles was the moronic, illiterate gangster "secretary" in Scarface (1932). Among his best-regarded early roles, apart from Scarface, were The Big Cage (1933), Thirty Day Princess (1934) and Princess O'Hara (1935). In later years, Barnett played straight character parts, often as careworn little men, undertakers, janitors, bartenders and drunks in pictures ranging from films noir (The Killers, 1946) to westerns (Springfield Rifle, 1952). He was a welcome presence in "B" comedies and mysteries: as Runyonesque gangsters in Petticoat Larceny (1943), Little Miss Broadway (1947), and Gas House Kids Go West (1947), and notably as Tom Conway's enthusiastic sidekick in The Falcon's Alibi (1946). After World War II, with the Hollywood studios making fewer films, Barnett became a familiar face on television.

Known For

Scarface

Scarface

1932

Brute Force

Brute Force

1947

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet on the Western Front

1930

Inna Gest

Inna Gest

Known For

Fast and Furious

Fast and Furious

1939

Babes in Arms

Babes in Arms

1939

Six Gun Gospel

Six Gun Gospel

1943

Dave O'Brien

Dave O'Brien

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Dave O'Brien (born David Poole Fronabarger, May 31, 1912 – November 8, 1969) was an American film actor, director, and writer. O'Brien was best known to movie audiences in the 1940s as the hero of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer comedy short film series Pete Smith Specialties narrated by Pete Smith. O'Brien wrote and directed many of these subjects under the name David Barclay. He also appeared in many low-budget Westerns, often billed as Tex O'Brien. In 1942, O'Brien starred in the movie serial Captain Midnight. Modern audiences perhaps best remember O'Brien as a frantic dope addict in the 1936 low-budget exploitation film Tell Your Children (better known under its reissue title, Reefer Madness). As a writer for The Red Skelton Show, O'Brien shared an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series in 1961 and shared a nomination for the same award in 1963. O'Brien died, aged 57, of a heart attack while competing in a yachting race.

Known For

Kiss Me Kate

Kiss Me Kate

1953

Rasputin and the Empress

Rasputin and the Empress

1932

The Sign of the Cross

The Sign of the Cross

1932

Unknown Actor

Unknown Actor

Known For

In This Our Life

In This Our Life

1942

Black Man in Jail (uncredited)

Fugitive from a Prison Camp

Fugitive from a Prison Camp

1940

Chuckles

Spooks Run Wild

Spooks Run Wild

1941

Scruno

Minerva Urecal

Minerva Urecal

A stage actress, Urecal made her screen debut in 1934. For the remainder of her career and two hundred plus movies, she played cleaning women, landladies, shopkeepers and the like. She was known as a Marjorie Main type actress and later went on to a career in television playing in such shows as "Tugboat Annie" and "Peter Gunn." Minerva claimed her name was an amalgam of her hometown, Eureka, California.

Known For

They Died with Their Boots On

They Died with Their Boots On

1941

Shadow of a Doubt

Shadow of a Doubt

1943

Niagara

Niagara

1953

Dennis Moore

Dennis Moore

Dennis Moore was an actor who specialized in western films and film serials. He began appearing in short subjects and low-budget feature films in the 1930s under the name "Denny Meadows," and enjoyed greater recognition and employment after he changed his professional name to Dennis Moore. His dark looks and solemn demeanor kept him working steadily as an all-purpose utility player, in both heroic and villainous roles. Moore became a familiar face in westerns but never became a major star. He did play leads or second leads in serials, and holds the distinction of appearing in the very last serials produced by Universal Pictures (in 1946) and Columbia Pictures (in 1956).

Known For

Friendly Persuasion

Friendly Persuasion

1956

The Harder They Fall

The Harder They Fall

1956

I Died a Thousand Times

I Died a Thousand Times

1955

Unknown Actor

Unknown Actor

Known For

Manhattan Melodrama

Manhattan Melodrama

1934

Young Spud (uncredited)

Fugitive from a Prison Camp

Fugitive from a Prison Camp

1940

Burly Bascomb

Love and Hisses

Love and Hisses

1937

Newsboy

Unknown Actor

Unknown Actor

Known For

Jungle Gents

Jungle Gents

1954

Chuck

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the Foreign Legion

Bud Abbott and Lou Costello in the Foreign Legion

1950

Newsboy (uncredited)

Triple Trouble

Triple Trouble

1950

Bowery Boy #4, dark-haired

Unknown Actor

Unknown Actor

Known For

Pride of the Bowery

Pride of the Bowery

1940

Algy

That Gang of Mine

That Gang of Mine

1940

Algy Wilkes

Forrest Taylor

Forrest Taylor

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Forrest Taylor (December 29, 1883 - February 19, 1965) was an American character actor whose artistic career spanned six different decades, from silents through talkies to the advent of color. Description above from the Wikipedia article Forrest Taylor, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For

Tell Your Children

Tell Your Children

1938

Winchester '73

Winchester '73

1950

Rancho Notorious

Rancho Notorious

1952

Unknown Actor

Unknown Actor

Known For

The Blob

The Blob

1958

Dr. T. Hallen

When Worlds Collide

When Worlds Collide

1951

Dr. George Frye

Les Misérables

Les Misérables

1935

Gendarme at Bishop's Home

Unknown Actor

Unknown Actor

Known For

Underworld

Underworld

1927

Paloma

The Doorway to Hell

The Doorway to Hell

1930

Gimpy, Gangster

Naughty But Nice

Naughty But Nice

1939

First Waiter (uncredited)

George Humbert

George Humbert

George Humbert (born Umberto Gianni; July 29, 1880 – May 8, 1963) was an Italian-born American actor who appeared in more than 100 films between 1918 and the 1950s. He emigrated to the United States as a steerage passenger on board the Italian steamer Sannio, which sailed from Genoa, Italy and arrived at the Port of New York in June 1907; he was examined by the U.S. immigration service on Ellis Island and allowed to enter the United States legally. He became a United States citizen in 1933.

Known For

Hellzapoppin'

Hellzapoppin'

1941

Heidi

Heidi

1937

Gilda

Gilda

1946

Jack Cheatham

Jack Cheatham

Known For

It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life

1946

The Killers

The Killers

1946

The Thin Man

The Thin Man

1934

Jim Farley

Jim Farley

Known For

The General

The General

1926

Leave Her to Heaven

Leave Her to Heaven

1945

Dodge City

Dodge City

1939

Murdock MacQuarrie

Murdock MacQuarrie

Murdock MacQuarrie was born on August 25, 1878 in San Francisco, California, as Murdock J. MacQuarrie. He was an actor and director, known for Modern Times (1936), By the Sun's Rays (1914) and Nancy's Birthright (1916). He was married to Claire M. He died on August 22, 1942 in Los Angeles, California.

Known For

Bride of Frankenstein

Bride of Frankenstein

1935

Modern Times

Modern Times

1936

Cat People

Cat People

1942