Kid Dynamite (1943)

★★★★★ · Second Best "Bowery Boys" / "Dead End Kids" I've Seen · learning richard · 2010-11-22

Let's get something straight right from the start. This is not a propaganda movie for WWII as a previous perhaps bitter reviewer claimed. Sure the war was integrated into the plot but for crying out loud it was 1943! This was more of a coming of age movie for the b-boys. I liked this movie because it moved fast and was consistent along the way. Also, it was touching to see the mugs grow up and actually take responsibility for their destinies. I was incredibly impressed with the treatment of the black actors... only lightly stereotyped in an era where movies all around this one showed blacks…

★★★★★ · Bowery Fan · jimelena · 2006-05-25

Well, I've never bored you guys with my expertise about the boys, so here goes. The Dead End Kids were five actors and one plumber's assistant from New York who appeared in Dead End on Broadway. They then went to Hollywood when they filmed the play, and remained until 1958. The original kids from the play were Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Charles Duncan, Bernard Punsly and Gabriel Dell. Duncan was replaced by Leo B. Gorcey. Gorcey later became Muggs in Monogram's East Side Kids and as Slip with Allied Studios The Bowery Boys. Following Dead End, the kids ended up at Warner Bros.…

★★★★★ · Old Fan · mandon · 2015-02-01

Have been watching The East Side Kids, Dead End Kids, Bowery Boys, since I was a little guy many years ago. They were always entertaining and fun to watch. As for the WWII comment, if you were not around then or shortly after than you don't know what it's all about. Sorry that today we don't have this type of entertainment. These were real people. Leo was the plumbers helper who became an East Side Kid. Poor Billy H.

★★★★ · Dynamite is right! · Spuzz · 2005-09-20

Well, to be honest with you, I was expected to flip this one off as another boring Bowery Boys vehicle. But while watching this, I became quite enchanted with everything that was going on! Mugs (Leo Gorcey) is all set to become the amateur boxing champion. When a mafia fix of the event makes him miss the fight, Danny (Bobby Jordan) takes his place, and much to the disgust of the mafioso, wins! This puts Mugs in a bit of a jealous fix as he thinks Danny fixed the fight so that Mugs would be not able to compete just so he could win it. The jealousy bug continues as they enter a jitterbug…

★ · Cheap Propaganda film · Jennabar · 2010-04-27

I disliked this one immensely. It's basically a war propaganda movie, and it watches like one great big ad for WWII. I felt the propaganda was the film and the story was built in around it as an afterthought. If you want to watch a typical East side kids film, don't watch this one. By the end of it I was wishing Muggs would get hit by a truck. It is interesting as piece of cinematic/WWII propaganda history, but if you want an enjoyable comedy, don't pick this one.