The first entry for the Dead End Kids & Little Tough Guys series for Universal from 1938. Made between "Crime School" & "Angels With Dirty Faces". This series also overlapped the popular East Side Kids series for Monogram. Their last entry for Universal was "Keep 'Em Slugging" in 1943 with Bobby Jordan replacing Billy Halop as the gang leader. "Little Tough Guy" stands out in seeing Huntz Hall as a real tough guy & gang leader instead of playing his usual dumbbell clown role. I just wish he would've done it more often because he was good at it & it also worked better with a more serious Huntz Hall matched against Billy Halop but in the subsequent entries he's back to being goofy again & it doesn't work as well with Halop as it does with Leo Gorcey. Although he was a bit serious & dramatic in the 3 serials.
I have the entire Universal Little Tough Guys DVD box set from "Little Tough Guys In Society" (1938) & "Call A Messenger" (1939) to "Mob Town" (1941). I've watched all these films & it's probably their rarest & least known series but it's still good & entertaining. Some of the films like "Give Us Wings" (1941) feature all the original Dead End Kids, all except Leo Gorcey. Too bad Leo Gorcey wasn't in any of these films because it might've worked better than it did & maybe the films would've been more memorable. In the original Dead End Kids I always enjoyed the confrontations between Leo Gorcey & Billy Halop. Too bad they couldn't work together anymore after Warner Bros dropped them.
I have the entire Universal Little Tough Guys DVD box set from "Little Tough Guys In Society" (1938) & "Call A Messenger" (1939) to "Mob Town" (1941). I've watched all these films & it's probably their rarest & least known series but it's still good & entertaining. Some of the films like "Give Us Wings" (1941) feature all the original Dead End Kids, all except Leo Gorcey. Too bad Leo Gorcey wasn't in any of these films because it might've worked better than it did & maybe the films would've been more memorable. In the original Dead End Kids I always enjoyed the confrontations between Leo Gorcey & Billy Halop. Too bad they couldn't work together anymore after Warner Bros dropped them.