Mr. Wise Guy

Hold on to your seat 'cause that opening's got enough Kids energy to light up a city, especially when goofy Huntz Hall gets his wardrobe from a ladies thrift shop. Pretty good East Side madcap as the guys try to save Jordan's brother from execution for a crime he didn't commit. But then that's only if they can escape reform school where they've been sent for a crime they didn't commit. Plus, who's going to reform the reform school that needs reform. Sound complicated?- yeah but who cares since it's the laughs that count.

Several points to mention. Note how the popular film star Billy Gilbert as fatso Knobby gets highlighted in the second part. But then he's a funny knock-about too. And, oh my gosh, is that Ann Doran as Dorothy the curvy youthful vamp. I only remember her from her middle-age roles like James Dean's mother in Rebel Without A Cause, (1955), among some 400 other screen credits! And add Douglas Fowley to the list, getting a sympathetic non-villianous role for a change.

Anyway, the flick's not an exceptional one in the Kids series, but does have its share of goofy chuckles. Meanwhile, as dictionary whiz Hall asks, ' Don't you like cinema on your toast'? I sure do, Huntz, especially when I'm munching a cheesy sandwich and watching your incomparable ditz.