The gang is sent to the Wilton Reform School after they are unjustly convicted of stealing a truck. Bill Collins, brother of co-leader Danny, becomes involved in a killing and, while also innocent, is convicted and sentenced to death. Through a series of events, Muggs, Glimpy, Danny and the rest of the gang, learn that Knobby, a henchman of Luke Manning, knows something about the murder.
Acting
Leo Gorcey's Muggs—gravel-voiced chaos engine in a newsboy cap.
Production
Poverty Row speed: shot in days, barely rehearsed, somehow works.
Director
William Nigh
Leo Gorcey
Muggs McGinnis
Bobby Jordan
Danny Collins
Huntz Hall
Glimpy Stone
Billy Gilbert
Knobby
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams
Luke Manning
Douglas Fowley
Bill Collins
Joan Barclay
Ann Mitchell
Warren Hymer
Dratler
Ann Doran
Dorothy Melton
Jack Mulhall
Jim Barnes
Gabriel Dell
Charlie Manning
Sidney Miller
Charlie Horse
David Gorcey
Peewee
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Monogram Pictures cranked out 22 East Side Kids films between 1940-1945, often in under a week each. This was number ten.
The 'reform school' genre let Depression-era audiences laugh at institutional failure while secretly rooting for the system to work—classic Hollywood doublethink.
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