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Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

bkoganbing Monogram's Sam Katzman busted the studio piggy bank and came up with an unusually good and familiar cast of character players for the East Side Kids in Mr. Wise Guy. The story centers around the efforts of the lads to save Bobby Jordan's brother Douglas Fowley from the chair. That is if they can bust out of the reform school they're in.Turns out the same guy Guinn Williams is responsible for the fix both brothers are in. The kids unwittingly help henchmen Billy Gilbert and Warren Hymer with Williams crashing out of Blackwell's Island and then are left with the stolen truck that was used. Then Williams and the gang stickup a drugstore and kill the clerk and Williams commandeers a car driven by Fowley for the getaway.Billy Gilbert dusted off his eternally flustered character so familiar in major films like On The Avenue and His Girl Friday as the incredibly dopey henchman. Williams must keep him around for laughs because he really isn't much good for anything else. Williams gives him a chore to get the money for his getaway with a good sweepstakes ticket, but his moll Ann Doran decides to cash in herself with that one. Some days you can't trust anyone even if they're too stupid to think of a doublecross themselves.Mr. Wise Guy is the usual East Side Kids Monogram programmer on the cheap side. But the character players especially Gilbert make this one a bit above average.

Gatto Nero A very by-the-numbers East Side Kids film.Here, Leo Gorcey is a little more laid-back than usual and not as threatening as in prior roles. Bobby Jordan actually looks more the leader and is more intense.. Huntz Hall is the so-called comic relief with not much to do.. 'Sunshine Sammy' Morrison does a better job as being somewhat funny.David Gorcey,Leo's brother, is in the background as usual. Even though he is just basically background dressing, he still has some 'presence' enough for you to still acknowledge him. So does Bobby Stone who here was cast as an adversary and is Gabriel dell's partner-in-crime.Gabriel Dell makes his 1st appearance in the series that his Dead End Gang had started without him. He is cast here as an adversary of the gang. I'm not even going to mention much on the sixth member of the gang except that he was completely wasted and was background dressing at that. This was his 1st and last appearance as a East Side kid! He didn't even have any lines at all!? So it was not surprising.Billy Gilbert is miscast as a blustery mobster. So he is completely wasted and he barely gets to show off his considerable comedic skills at all. For anyone who has seen this great comic in full comic action (as in countless Laurel and Hardy and Little Rascals comedies) it is sad to see Gilbert treated as he isAnd last but not least, are two late great character actors who also happened to be Three Stooges foil in several of their shorts. The late Benny Rubin who plays a waiter in a scene with Gilbert. And the late Stanley Blystone who plays a uncredited role as a police officer who hauls the boys in. .

wes-connors The "Eastside" kids - "Mr. Wise Guy" gang leader Leo Gorcey (as Ethelbert "Muggs" McGuiness), "left hand man" Bobby Jordan (as Daniel "Danny" Collins), "right hand man" Huntz Hall (as Glimpy Stone), "yes man" David Gorcey (as Peewee), "no man" Bill Lawrence (as Skinny), and "black-out warden" Ernest Morrison (as Scruno) - are railroaded into reform school, for stealing a truck. There, they encounter rival gang kid Gabriel Dell (as Charlie Manning) and sadistic shoe-wielding guard Dick Ryan (as Jed Miller).Also, Mr. Jordan's supposedly reformed big brother, Douglas Fowley (as Bill Collins) is convicted of murder. Pretty girlfriend Joan Barclay (as Ann Mitchell) and the "kids" think Mr. Fowley is innocent. Bumbling Billy Gilbert (as Knobby) and Guinn Williams (as Luke Manning) are crooked adversaries. Jaw-dropping moments to watch for include: the gang's brief swimsuit scene, Mr. Morrison's "white-wash" after chicken-thieving (he cries out "Deliver me from temptation!" in the coop), and Mr. Ryan's scene-stealing shoe beating.**** Mr. Wise Guy (2/20/42) William Nigh ~ Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Billy Gilbert, Dick Ryan

JohnHowardReid Rather a curious entry in the series, this one is well-produced, and provides the boys, particularly charismatic Gorcey, with witty lines and snappy comebacks, but has a plot with gaping continuity holes and some very odd characters indeed. In fact, the peculiar casting of Billy Gilbert as a comic crook tends to throw the plot off balance. Other oddities: Douglas Fowley, normally the most sadistic of villains, as the clean-cut hero; "Big Boy" Williams, the perennial over-enthusiastic comic sidekick, here much more subdued as a gangster; Gabriel Dell, cast not as a fellow Kid, but as an enemy; Warren Hymer, a sort of slightly less stupid straight man for Gilbert; silent star Jack Mulhall as the incredibly lax, soft-hearted reformatory warden; Mickey Rooney's pal, Sid Miller, in a typical role on the sidelines in which he looks out of place; and Dick Ryan, an unknown actor to me, but giving (next to Leo Gorcey's), the film's most impressive performance as a heartily sadistic guard. The scene in which he lays into Leo with his shoe, slapping him across the face, knocking him senseless and puncturing his neck, is the searing stuff of Hell's Kitchen, a noirish re-visit that doesn't seem so incongruous here because of this movie's generally downbeat air.