Mr. Wise Guy

The casting in this East Side Kids film is pretty weird. Three guys star as a gang of killers and thieves---yet all three of these guys usually played bumbling idiots (particularly Billy Gilbert). Who would have thought of making Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams the gang leader as well as Warren Hymer as the other gang member?! Odd to say the least.'

Also odd are the occasional logical lapses in writing. For instance, when the boy help a truck driver, the police later arrest them because the truck and its contents were stolen. Instead of looking for the driver, they just assumed the boys were guilty despite no real evidence...and they are sent to reform school. Later, the same sort of thing happens when Danny's straight-arrow brother is accused of murder...there really isn't any evidence and so it's up to the boys to get out of reform school and investigate things themselves (in other words, find one of the crooks and beat him up). A rather dopey episode...but at least it isn't one where Muggs (Leo Gorcey) is so obnoxious and unlikable like he is in "Kid Dynamite" and a few other East Side Kids films!