Clancy Street Boys

Clancy Street Boys
Original film poster
Directed by	William Beaudine
Produced by	Sam Katzman Jack Dietz
Written by	Harvey Gates
Starring	Leo Gorcey Bobby Jordan Huntz Hall Noah Beery
Music by	Edward J. Kay
Cinematography	Mack Stengler
Editing by	Carl Pierson
Distributed by	Monogram Pictures Corporation
Release date(s)	April 23, 1943 (US)
Running time	66 mins.

Clancy Street Boys is a 1943 film directed by William Beaudine and starring the East Side Kids. It is Beaudine's first film with the team; he would direct several more in the series and many in the Bowery Boys canon. Leo Gorcey married the female lead [Ame]Lita Ward.

Plot

The film opens with Mugs trying to avoid being seen on his 18th birthday lest he be given a birthday spanking which happens first from his own gang, secondly from the rival Cherry Street Gang, and lastly by the neighbourhood policeman.

The main plot of the film involves Mugs (Leo Gorcey) and his pals posing as a family to impress a friend of his late father's who is visiting the east side from Texas. The friend "Uncle" Pete Monahan (Noah Beery) has been regularly sending checks to Mugs' impoverished mother to help pay for the upbringing of her many children...none of whom actually exist, except for Mugs. Rather than admit the fraud, Mugs persuades his buddies to pose as his siblings for the friend's visit. This requires Glimpy to dress in drag as a girl and Scruno to claim he was adopted by the family.

Pete and his daughter Judy literally ride into the neighbourhood on horseback with both carrying six guns. The charade initially goes well until Pete keeps the gang and Judy out all night at a night club. When the enraged parents of the gang come over to the McGuinness flat to find out where there children were, Muggs explains the story as Pete and Judy hear as they walk in the flat; they depart enraged. Sensing an opportunity to make a score, gangsters lure Pete and Judy into capture where the combined gangs of the East Side and Cherry Street rescue them and give the gangsters a beating.

There is no mention of "Clancy Street" in the film, but a rival gang at Cherry Street appears at the beginning and climax of the film.

The East Side Kids

• Ethelbert 'Mugs' McGinnis - Leo Gorcey
• Glimpy Freedhoff - Huntz Hall
• Danny - Bobby Jordan
• Benny - Benny Bartlett
• Scruno - Ernest Morrison
• Stash (a.k.a. Skinny) - Dick Chandlee
• Dave (a.k.a. Eddie) - Eddie Mills

Cast and characters

• Pete Monahan - Noah Beery
• Judy Monaham - Amelita Ward
• George Mooney - Rick Vallin
• Butch, Cherry Street Leader - William Benedict
• Police Sergeant Flanagan - J. Farrel MacDonald
• Violinist - Jan Rubini
• Mrs. Molly McGinnis - Martha Wentworth
• Williams - George DeNormand
• Liquor Store Owner - Bernard Gorcey (uncredited)
• Cherry Streeter - Johnny Duncan (uncredited)
• Cherry Streeter - William Frambes (uncredited)
• Cherry Streeter - Jimmy Strand (uncredited)

Notes

The film features William Benedict's first appearance with the East Side Kids. Long a juvenile player, Benedict had made several films in Universal Pictures' similar Little Tough Guys series. He would later replace Scruno as one of the gang in further films in the series and in the later Bowery Boys series.

The Films of the Bowery Boys^[1] noted the films comedy and fast pace with a new situation developing every ten minutes. The authors noticed that the same format of ten minute segments proceeded as follows-

1st) Unrelated scenes
2nd) Plot devlopment
3rd) Introduction of new aspect
4th) Isolated sequence
5th) Transitory scenes
6th) Bam! Pow! Sock!

A film review from the Motion Picture Daily noted that in Clancy Street Boys the film was a variation from the previous series of starting the film with the boys on the right side of the law and keeping them there throughout the picture.^[2]

The photo in the film of Muggs' father is Leo Gorcey's real father Bernard Gorcey who would play Louie in the Bowery Boys series. Bernard also had a small appearance in the film as a liquor store owner in his first film of the series.

The character of "Stash" is played by William Frambes, but Stash was played in several of the films of the series by Stanley Clements who would later replace Gorcey as leader of the Bowery Boys.

References

1. ^ pp72-73 Hayes, David & Walker, Brent The Films of the Bowery Boys Citadel Press 1982
2. ^ p.223 Marshall, Wendy L. William Beaudine: From Silents to Television Scarecrow Press, 2005

External links

• Clancy Street Boys at the Internet Movie Database
• Clancy Street Boys is available for free download at the Internet Archive [more]