- TCM’s 2024 “Summer Under the Stars” schedule – Aug. 29: Turner Classic Movies will be airing 18 titles featuring Leo Gorcey, best remembered as the sneering, malapropism-prone, Brooklynese-speaking member of the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids, and the Bowery Boys in B movies from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s.
TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars’ Aug. 29 schedule: 18 Leo Gorcey movies, best remembered for his malapropism-prone, Brooklynese-speaking youths in a trio of B-movie franchises
Turner Classic Movies’ 2024 “Summer Under the Stars” series continues on Thursday, Aug. 29, with 18 titles featuring debutant Leo Gorcey (1917–1969), the sardonic, malapropism-prone, Brooklynese-speaking member of a B-franchise youth gang known at various times and in various incarnations as the Dead End Kids, the East Side Kids, and the Bowery Boys. (See TCM’s Leo Gorcey movie schedule further below. Most titles will remain available for a while on the Watch TCM app.)
Curiously, the movie that birthed the big-screen Dead End Kids, William Wyler’s Dead End* – a prestigious 1937 production starring Sylvia Sidney and Joel McCrea – is not in the TCM lineup. The earliest entry on the Leo Gorcey schedule is Lewis Seiler’s 1938 B drama Crime School, featuring a pre-stardom Humphrey Bogart (Dead End’s villain) as a deputy commissioner out to reform reformatories. Gorcey plays one of the Dead End Kids.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, Gorcey, at the time in his early-to-mid 20s, often played the same character but with different names: Spit, Spike, Bim, Leo, Gyp, etc. His companions were usually Huntz Hall, Billy Jordan, Billy Halop, Gabriel Dell, and/or Leo’s younger brother David Gorcey.
In the East Side Kids (1940–1945 at the Poverty Row studio Monogram) and Bowery Boys movies (1946–1958 at Monogram and its more prestigious successor, Allied Artists), Gorcey played the same characters: Ethelbert ‘Mug[g]s’ McGinnis in the former franchise; Terence Aloysius ‘Slip’ Mahoney in the latter.
By the time his final Bowery Boys entry was released in 1956, he was pushing 40. His small stature and boyish manner helped to perpetuate the illusion that his character was – and forever would remain – on the cusp of adulthood. Having said that, by the 1950s Gorcey’s real-life alcohol addiction could be easily discerned on his harder, heavier appearance.
* From Sidney Kingsley’s 1935 Broadway play featuring Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, et al.
Non-franchise titles
The only TCM titles that are not Dead End Kids, East Side Kids, or Bowery Boys franchise entries are:
- David Miller’s B romantic comedy Sunday Punch (1942), starring William Lundigan and Jean Rogers, and supposedly featuring soon-to-become stars Dane Clark and Ava Gardner in bit parts.
- Edward Ludwig’s B action-crime drama Born to Sing (1942), with Virginia Weidler and Ray McDonald.
- Roy Del Ruth’s Maisie Gets Her Man (1942), an entry in the B+/A- Maisie franchise starring Ann Sothern, here playing opposite Red Skelton.
Of interest in the franchise titles are some of the non-Kids/non-Boys cast members. For instance, a post-stardom Bela Lugosi and a pre-stardom Ava Gardner in Ghosts on the Loose (1943); Adele Jergens and Craig Stevens in Blues Busters (1950); Eric Blore (as a Genie) in Bowery to Bagdad (1956).
Bowery Boys’ Oscar nod
Also of interest is the Bowery Boys’ 1956 entry High Society, which earned an Academy Award nomination in one of the writing categories.
Before you go, “Were Academy voters on drugs?” remember that Mel Gibson’s Braveheart and Ridley Scott’s Gladiator won Best Picture.
Anyhow, this particular Oscar nomination wasn’t a case of smoking bad weed but of mistaken identity.
Too busy watching the final episodes of I Love Lucy to pay attention to which movie they were nominating in the Best Story category, enough Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members selected the Bowery Boys’ High Society instead of that other High Society (a musicalized adaptation of The Philadelphia Story, thus ineligible in the Best Story category) directed by Charles Walters, and starring Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Celeste Holm.
Likely after some extended ROFL’ing, nominees Edward Bernds and Elwood Ullman withdrew their names from consideration.
Viewer beware
Lastly, one must point out that some of the franchise titles’ one-line synopses (found on the TCM site) are very enticing.
Here are a few examples:
- “The Bowery Boys get into the escort service and get mixed up with crooks” (Blonde Dynamite).
- “The Bowery Boys open a night club when a tonsillectomy turns one of them into a singing star” (Blues Busters).
- “The Bowery Boys open a detective agency when one of them develops mind-reading talents” (Private Eyes).
- “The Bowery Boys unleash an Arabian nightmare when they find Aladdin’s magic lamp” (Bowery to Bagdad).
- “When an electric shock turns one of them into a psychic, the Bowery Boys invade Las Vegas” (Crashing Las Vegas).
But viewer beware: There’s a good chance you’ll find yourself chuckling while spending 65 seconds reading the one-liners listed above, but there’s also a good chance you’ll find yourself squiggling while spending 65 minutes watching the titles listed above (and most of those listed below).
And here it is, Leo Gorcey’s full “Summer Under the Stars” schedule.
Leo Gorcey movies: TCM’s ‘Summer Under the Stars’ schedule (EDT) – Aug. 29
6:00 AM Crime School (1938)
Director: Lewis Seiler. Cast: Humphrey Bogart, Gale Page, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Bernard Punsly, Gabriel Dell, George Offerman Jr., Charles Trowbridge, Spencer Charters, Edward Gargan, John Ridgely.
86m7:30 AM Hell’s Kitchen (1939)
Director: Lewis Seiler. Cast: Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Stanley Fields, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsly, Frankie Burke, Grant Mitchell, Vera Lewis.
81m9:00 AM On Dress Parade (1939)
Director: William Clemens. Cast: Leo Gorcey, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsly, John Litel, Frankie Thomas, Cecilia Loftus, Selmer Jackson.
61m10:15 AM Spooks Run Wild (1941)
Director: Phil Rosen. Cast: Bela Lugosi, Leo Gorcey, Bobby Jordan, Huntz Hall, Ernest Morrison, Dave O’Brien, Dorothy Short, David Gorcey, Donald Haines, Dennis Moore.
69m11:30 AM Ghosts on the Loose (1943)
Director: William Beaudine. Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Bela Lugosi, Ava Gardner, Rick Vallin, Ernest Morrison, William ‘Billy’ Benedict, Stanley Clements, Bobby Stone, Minerva Urecal, Wheeler Oakman, Jack Mulhall.
67m12:45 PM Sunday Punch (1942)
Director: David Miller. Cast: William Lundigan, Jean Rogers, Dan Dailey, Guy Kibbee, J. Carrol Naish, Connie Gilchrist, Sam Levene, Leo Gorcey, Rags Ragland, Johnny Mitchell, Anthony Caruso, Tito Renaldo, Dane Clark, Ava Gardner.
76m2:15 PM Maisie Gets Her Man (1942)
Director: Roy Del Ruth. Cast: Ann Sothern, Red Skelton, Leo Gorcey, Allen Jenkins, Donald Meek, Lloyd Corrigan, Walter Catlett, Fritz Feld, Ben Welden, Rags Ragland, Frank Jenks, Pamela Blake, Willie Best.
85m3:45 PM Born to Sing (1942)
Director: Edward Ludwig. Cast: Virginia Weidler, Ray Mcdonald, Leo Gorcey, Douglas McPhail, Rags Ragland, Sheldon Leonard, Henry O’Neill, Larry Nunn, Margaret Dumont, Darla Hood, Joe Yule, Lester Matthews, Connie Gilchrist.
82m5:15 PM Live Wires (1946)
Director: Phil Karlson. Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Mike Mazurki, Bobby Jordan, William ‘Billy’ Benedict, William Frambes, Claudia Drake, Pamela Blake, John Eldredge, Patti Brill, Bernard Gorcey, Robert Emmett Keane.
65m6:30 PM News Hounds (1947)
Director: William Beaudine. Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, William ‘Billy’ Benedict, David Gorcey, Christine McIntyre, Tim Ryan, Anthony Caruso, Bill Kennedy, Ralph Dunn, John Hamilton.
68m8:00 PM Angels in Disguise (1949)
Director: Jean Yarbrough. Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Mickey Knox, Edward Ryan, Richard Benedict, William ‘Billy’ Benedict, David Gorcey, Joe Turkel, Bernard Gorcey, Ray Walker, Rory Mallinson, William Forrest.
63m9:15 PM Blonde Dynamite (1950)
Director: William Beaudine. Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Adele Jergens, Gabriel Dell, Harry Lewis, Murray Alper, Bernard Gorcey, Jody Gilbert, William ‘Billy’ Benedict, Buddy Gorman, David Gorcey, Stanley Andrews.
66m10:30 PM Blues Busters (1950)
Director: William Beaudine.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Adele Jergens, Gabriel Dell, Craig Stevens, Phyllis Coates, Bernard Gorcey, William ‘Billy’ Benedict, Buddy Gorman, David Gorcey.
67m11:45 PM Ghost Chasers (1951)
Director: William Beaudine.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Lloyd Corrigan, Lela Bliss, Philip Van Zandt, Bernard Gorcey, William ‘Billy’ Benedict, Buddy Gorman, David Gorcey, Jan Kayne, Robert Coogan, Argentina Brunetti.
69m1:00 AM Private Eyes (1953)
Director: Edward Bernds.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Robert Osterloh, Joyce Holden, William ‘Bill’ Phillips, Rudy Lee, William Forrest, Chick Chandler, David Gorcey, Benny Bartlett, Lou Lubin, Tim Ryan, Myron Healey.
64m2:15 AM Bowery to Bagdad (1955)
Director: Edward Bernds.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Joan Shawlee, Eric Blore, Jean Willes, Robert Bice, Dick Wessel, Michael Ross, Rayford Barnes, Rick Vallin, Paul Marion, David Gorcey.
64m3:30 AM High Society (1955)
Director: William Beaudine.
Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, Amanda Blake, David Gorcey, Addison Richards, Paul Harvey, Dayton Lummis, Ronald Keith, Gavin Gordon, Dave Barry, Benny Bartlett.
61m4:45 AM Crashing Las Vegas (1956)
Director: Jean Yarbrough. Cast: Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Mary Castle, Don Haggerty, David Gorcey, Jimmy Murphy, Mort Mills, Jack Rice, Nicky Blair.
62m
notes
Leo Gorcey “Summer Under the Stars” movie schedule via the TCM website.
“Leo Gorcey Movies: Dead End Kids & Bowery Boys” last modified in August 2024.