The Million Dollar Kid (1944)

ORIGINAL SHOOTING SCRIPT FOR
“THE MILLION DOLLAR KID”
PROF FRED’S MOVIE MARVELS,
SCCTV, 1-3-08

Hey students, auditors, and just plain fans of the weird, arcane and obscure in that cinematic ultra cheap carnival grab-bag known as “B-Movies!” It is I, Prof. Fred Hopkins, your teacher (“maestro” in Spanish; “professeur” in French) for Schlock Cinema 101! For today’s class, we have that rarest and most precious of all things---A good “East Side Kids” movie!

Yes, you heard me right. “Million Dollar Kid,” made in 1944, by the infamous Monogram Studios, and starring Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall, is entertaining, well-directed, smartly acted and has bountiful production values---NOT!!!!!! Did you really think we’d show a “good” movie for our Schlock Cinema 101 class? You know me too well.

But the film does have a certain primitive, almost-no-budget enthusiasm that literally carries it into the pantheon of so-awful-it’s-wonderful.

An added bonus is that most of the East Side Kids had not yet become grandfathers at the time this was made! With Gorcey being 21 and Hall being somewhere around that age. Of course, they were supposed to be playing 11-12 year-olds, but no one gave a rip back then, so why should we question it now?

OK, let’s do a quick history review. Everyone who was watching TV in the 1950’s and 1960’s remembers the East Side Kids (a/k/a The Dead End Kids a/k/a The Bowery Boys). There are no exceptions, because these totally cheap, throw-away, Grade Z, 65 minute movies were the absolute staple of Saturday afternoon programming on every TV set in America.

A typical baby-boomer, boob-tube zombie would start the early afternoon with an old Tarzan movie; then view an unreleased Italian Sword-and Sandal movie (usually dubbed “The Sons of Hercules” even though none of the characters were called Hercules or bore the slightest relation to the Hercules myth); and then his or her local channel would finish the late afternoon with an East Side Kids comedy, starring Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall (usually named Mugs and Slip in the films).

America was a simpler place back then---no drugs, no crime, no graffiti—just Tarzan, Hercules and The Bowery Boys—then go to McDonalds for a 14 cent hamburger and 10 cent shake, go to a go-cart track or a trampoline park and drive or bounce for an hour for 60 cents, and go home. It has never really gotten any better than that.

OK, in the 1950s and 1960s, American television was faced with a shortage of material to broadcast. Hollywood simply could not film enough “stuff” to fill that little one-eyed screen from 6AM (right after the “Farm Report”—remember we were an agrarian country back then) to 12 midnight, when broadcasting ended for the day.

So, someone came up with the brilliant idea of broadcasting old, funky, cheap “B” movie series, whose rights could be purchased for almost nothing, and showing them at the same time every Saturday to little babyboomers who didn’t realize that the films were almost 25 years old. Guess what, it worked!

God bless America, because these movies attracted a crowd of kids who spent every Saturday afternoon watching these “East Side Kids” movies and who actually liked them!

Here’s where we’re going with Kid Millions. Mugs and Slip and the boys help foil a mugging of this rich guy and get his wallet back, but the local police captain, using poverty profiling, thinks The Dead End Kids are in on it. The Rich Guy gets them off and brings them to his mansion where he gives them free reign and use of his gigantic in-house gymnasium! Mugs then meets the rich guy’s daughter, who’s dating a sleazy French guy, and here comes trouble!!!

Enough boring cinematic history and enough of Prof. Fred’s “leaky” and “highly selective” nostalgia for the pseudo-good-old-days! Let’s start our Schlock Cinema 101 classroom presentation of The East Side Kids in “Kid Millions,” from 1944, starring Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall! START MOVIE

#1 BREAK

Hey, I hate to break in on this exciting and wondrous cinematic masterpiece, but that’s what they pay me for! And you can bet I’m gonna keep on doing it, students!

Wow, Louise! What a babe---‘40s style! Muggs is in love! And he and the boys have just been given their own private basement gymnasium. Does it really ever get any better than that? But, watch out, because trouble is definitely brewing!

How about a little more gratuitous information about the history of our heroes, The East Side Kids?

OK, The East Side Kids originally started in 1937 when Metro Goldwyn Mayer decided to make a film adapted from “Dead End,” a popular and gritty Broadway play about young urchins growing up in the streets of New York. The movie starred Joel McCrae, Sylvia Sydney, and Humphrey Bogart. For the other roles, the actors from the play were hired, and this included Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan and Gabe Del, who had played the tough, scruffy young slum kids.

These young actors were then imported to Hollywood to star in the movie, which was a smash. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the only smash. At the end of filming, Gorcey (who had been a 21-year-old plumber’s assistant before turning actor), Hall and the other “boys” (now in their mid- ‘20s) got a little excited—a little bit frisky-- and trashed an entire studio, ruining an expensive sound stage.

The Dead End Kids (as they were then called) were promptly fired from MGM—and never worked for the studio again. Ooooooh, that’s what I call an extremely bad start for these actors’ careers (even by Prof Fred standards, and those are awfully low), but they were as Teflon as Teflon could be and they just kept on going!

Undaunted, Warner Bros. Pictures bought the series and turned out six more “Dead End” movies, with titles like “Angels With Dirty Faces,” and stars like Pat O’Brien and Jimmy Cagney interacting with The Dead End Kids. One of the last films in the series was “Angels Wash their Faces,” starring the up-and-coming Ronald Reagan. Once again, Gorcey, Hall, and company trashed another sound stage and their run was soon over.

Universal, at the very same time, “borrowed” The Dead End Kids (minus Leo Gorcey) to make “The Little Tough Guys” series. It commences to get extremely confusing here since Universal also promoted “The Little Tough Guys” as “The Dead End Kids.”
They made approximately 12 films and three movie serials.

Again, in the middle of all of this (late 1930s to early ‘40s), Monogram Pictures “borrowed” The Dead End Kids to make their own no-budget series, which they called “The East Side Kids”—this version did include Gorcey and Hall and is the second most well-known series of films to baby-boomers. This is where Gorcey perfected his ringleader character, Muggs Mahony (often called Muggs McGinnis) and Huntz Hall developed his second-banana persona of “Glimpy”—the slow talking guy with the dorky hat. 22 East Side Kids films were produced.

OK, Back to our movie, but first this Schlock Cinema #101 POP QUIZ QUESTION—This is a hard one students, so you get extra credit if you can answer it. If not, well….Igor will deal with you.

Though this film was made in 1943, Gorcey, Hall and the gang were later (in 1946) signed to a very long term contract as “The Bowery Boys” with notorious producer Sam Katzman. Katzman is often called “The King of the B’s” and he made such films as “I Was A Teenage Frankenstein” and “I Was A Teenage Werewolf” (both made while the Bowery Boys films were still being made!).

“ IN 1966, PRODUCER KATZMAN, EAGER TO EXPLOIT THE RECENT BRITISH INVASION MUSICAL TREND, MADE A FILM CALLED “HOLD ON,” STARRING HERMANS’ HERMITS. KATZMAN HAD ALREADY DIRECTED ELVIS (WHO WAS FADING PRETTY FAST AND WOULDN’T REALLY BE HAPPENING AGAIN UNTIL HIS AMAZING 1968 COMEBACK) IN WHAT MANY PEOPLE CALL THE WORST ELVIS MOVIE, “HARUM SCARUM,” IN 1965.”
UNDAUNTED, KATZMAN GRABBED ANOTHER ‘50S/EARLY ‘60S ROCK’N’ROLL STAR (WHO WAS ACTUALLY, AT ONE TIME, ON THE RECORD LABEL WHERE ELVIS STARTED) TO MAKE A 1967 “ROCK’N’ROLL WESTERN.” WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE MOVIE AND WHAT ROCKER STARRED IN IT?
FOR EXTRA CREDIT, A ‘60S ROCKER HAS A BIT PART AS A TRAIN GUARD IN THE MOVIE. CAN YOU NAME HIM?
HE WORE A TURBAN.

NOW BACK TO OUR MOVIE!


BREAK #2
Here’s the answer to our first quiz question:
(THE FASTEST GUITAR ALIVE, 1967, STAR: ROY ORBISON
AND SAM “THE SHAM” ZAMUDIO)


Wow! Muggs’ mom, Mrs. McGinnis!!! How Irish can you get?
Students, I was raised in a Catholic household in the 1950s and I knew quite a few Mrs. McGinnisses, let me tell you! She looks like she could give the entire East Side Gang cauliflower ears, kick ‘em in the pants, and then have a good breakfast! But even Mrs. M isn’t ready for the trouble that’s coming!

Here’s some more info:

Two of The East Side Kids movies starred Bela Lugosi, usually as a German spy or a would-be vampire. Many actors who worked with Gorcey, Hall, Dell and the boys found them to be difficult, but the aging East European horror star and the gang actually liked each other, and there are many photos of Lugosi and The East Kids just horsing around on the set.


The East Side Kids movies (most made during W W II) were very patriotic, and in real life, many of them were drafted.

Then in 1946, producer Sam Katzman regrouped the boys and made 48 films with them, as “The Bowery Boys.” These films started in 1946 and ended in 1958. That’s about 4 films per year!

Most of The Bowery Boys films featured a standard, usually trite and stereotyped, plot about some conflict between loudmouthed , braggadocio Muggs (Gorcey) and his loyal, but chuckleheaded, stooge, Glimpy (Hall) usually based on a misunderstood action or misheard comment. And remember, most of the Bowery Boys (still playing teenagers from the N.Y. slums) were now in their early ‘30s! 48 Bowery Boys movies were released (with Leo Gorcey dropping out after the 41st film).

OK, HERE’S OUR SECOND POP QUIZ QUESTION. PENCIL AND PAPER READY? LET’S STICK WITH OUR MUSICAL THEME. SAM KATZMAN WAS INTO COMEDY/ROCK’N’ROLL WESTERNS. IN 1962, HE MADE “THE WILD WESTERNERS!” AND IT STARRED TWO ROCK’N’ROLLERS. ONE WAS A FORMER ‘50S BIG BAND SINGER WHO HAD A HIT OF “SINGING THE BLUES” AND THE OTHER WAS AN INSTRUMENTAL GUITAR PLAYER, WHO CAME BACK IN THE 1980’S DOING A VERSION OF THE DRAGNET THEME FOR THE MOVIE OF THE SAME NAME. READY, GO! And now back to our movie!

MOVIE ENDS

Was that a wonderful example of classic American film-making or what? Hey, who got an answer for our 2nd Pop Quiz question?
It was a hard one. THE WILD WESTERNERS (prod. By Sam Katzman in 1962) starred Guy Mitchell and Duane Eddy!


All together, the original “Dead End Kids” (with pretty much the same repertory cast) made 92 features over a 30 year period. Wow! And I thought some of the films I made in the late 1980s were shot quickly!


Gabe Dell, who plays the vicious racketeer that won’t let the rich kid out of the rackets, was an original Dead End Kid from the first movie and was an East Side Kid as well as a Bowery Boy, but in every film, he’s never actually “one of the guys.” He’s always a bellboy who helps them, or a bad guy who harasses them (as in this film), or a store clerk who gives them food. He’s sort of an appendage of the East Side Kids without ever being one of them.

That has to bite—to almost, but never quite, be an East Side Kid!
But hey life has its hills and valleys for all of us!