'Neath Brooklyn Bridge (1942)

Excellent but underrated film

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

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Although in many of the Bowery Boys films the gang seemed like a bunch of hoodlums, they were never really THAT larcenous in their films. They just acted tough and the police were forever dogging them. But, as usual, they are the good guys in "'Neath Brooklyn Bridge"....and once again the police suspect one of them. This is because someone was horribly beaten to death and Danny (Bobby Jordan) was arrested because his weapons were on the murder weapon, a bat. Little does anyone know that a mute man who can only speak with his eyes was a witness. As for the gang, they spend a lot of the film taking care of a young lady who is in trouble and eventually they are instrumental in finding the real culprits. On hand as one of the supposed ex-members of the gang (he was a bit old for this...Noah Beery, Jr.).Overall, this film is pretty typical of a Bowery Boys film--- modestly entertaining and nothing more. Worth seeing if you are a fan but not among their best.

Neath Brooklyn Bridge finds the East Side Kids helping a young girl played by Ann Gillis who is being beaten on by her stepfather Bud Osborne. Leo Gorcey uses the leg of a table to knock him out. Later on Osborne turns up dead and Bobby Jordan who came back for a change of clothes gets himself in a jackpot being found with the dead Osborne.It's up to the kids on the East Side to help their pal out. The only witness to the crime is J. Arthur Young who is Gillis's grandfather and he's paralyzed and unable to speak and is in a wheelchair.It's the Navy in the form of former gang member Noah Beery, Jr. who comes to the rescue of all concerned. The fact that Young is also a former sailor helps a great deal in cracking the case and bringing justice to all concerned.Also in the cast is perennial movie heavy Marc Lawrence and henchman Gabriel Dell. Lawrence is a pretty crafty villain and his downfall comes from leaving a loose end at the scene of the homicide, namely a witness he thinks can't say anything.This East Side Kids film runs at a nice pace without a let up in any of the action. One of their better films for Monogram.

Danny (Bobby Jordan) accidentally gets a murder rap pinned on him in this East Side Kids outing, and the rest of the gang are out to find the real killer. It's a fairly standard adventure for the boys with a few surprises thrown in. Noah Beery Jr. makes an appearance as a former 'charter member' of the gang, which is a little unusual since this is the only film of the series he appeared in. It's convenient though as he turns up to become the romantic interest for Sylvia (Ann Gillis), the stepdaughter of the murder victim.Marc Lawrence appears as the villain of the piece, a hood named McGaffey who tries to enlist Muggs (Leo Gorcey) in a warehouse heist in exchange for the murder weapon and a chance to clear Danny. If you really think about it, there wasn't much to his plan at any step of the way; he could have been easily outed, and was, by the time the film ended. Such was Lawrence's fate in most films, with over two hundred movie credits, he almost always appeared as a heavy, be it Westerns, mysteries, sci-fi, or the occasional Charlie Chan flick.As in many of the East Side films, Danny's big brother is portrayed by Dave O'Brien. Here they have an extended one on one scene that goes a bit heavy on the melodrama as Phil tries to get Danny to tell what he knows. Loyalty is a gang member's best trait, so he's not saying anything, but then again, he was basically in the wrong place at the wrong time.I always enjoy Sunshine Sammy Morrison as Scruno. He doesn't have a lot to do in this one, but the good thing is he doesn't wind up on the end of any stereotyped racial references. Glimpy (Huntz Hall) fires off a few nifty one liners like the one in my summary. He even has one brief shining moment when Muggs promotes him to Vice President of Miscellaneous Stuff. It lasts less than a screen minute, but hey, it was a moment in the sun.I see this flick rated relatively high for an East Side Kids film, but don't see it as a cut above most. I always felt they did their best work when supporting a name actor, be it Cagney, Bogart or Garfield in vehicles from larger studios. Still if you're a fan, it won't hurt to take this one in. They even manage to focus in on the Brooklyn Bridge a couple of times, just to make sure there's some connection to the title.

This time Muggs, Glimpy and the gang take on a real hard case: gangster Marc Lawrence, a cold-blooded baddie who entraps sweet young thing Ann Gillis (whose most recent film credit remains 2001: A Space Odyssey) in a murder case. Lawrence elevates this Poverty Row billfiller above its station; as always, he brings absolute conviction to his role. There's also a fun subplot involving a wheelchair-bound paraplegic played by Ed Wood regular Bud Osborne. The fact that these films were all shot on a shoestring oddly benefits the East Side Kids movies: the threadbare sets, minimal costuming, and muffed lines add a patina of Bowery believability to these endearing little films.