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MR. MUGGS RIDES AGAIN (1945) is not the first film in the East Side Kids series to cast the group's leader, Muggs McGinnis (Leo Gorcey), as a jockey. Here he runs afoul of Dollar Davis (George Meeker), a local gambler/horse owner, by winning a race he wasn't supposed to and winds up getting disqualified and then suspended from the track when an illegal "buzzer," a device designed to spur a horse to run faster, is planted on his saddle. The rest of the film follows the characters in little slice-of-life neighborhood/racetrack vignettes as the boys rescue a beloved horse from the glue factory and keep him illegally in their tenement basement clubhouse, leading to a confrontation with the police. Eventually, Muggs has find a way to clear his name.

The boys' mentor, Mrs. Brown (Minerva Urecal), a middle-aged horse-and-stable owner, is helped by the boys at crucial moments and she helps them in turn at other crucial moments. Her pretty niece, Elsie (Nancy Brinckman), is befriended by the boys, but is viewed with concern when she dates a local gambler, Gaby O'Neill (Bernard Thomas), who works for Dollar Davis. Gaby was the one who planted the buzzer in Muggs' saddle and Muggs has not forgotten. A key scene takes place at a carnival midway when Muggs' sidekick Glimpy (Huntz Hall) takes the place of a drunken fortune teller, dons his disguise, and reads the future for Elsie and Gaby, making up a grim on-the-spot premonition. This leads to a heart-to-heart talk between Elsie and Gaby and a change in moral direction, resulting in a battle with would-be killers in a hospital room and a last-minute session with the racetrack stewards just before the big race.

The plot is never terribly suspenseful or compelling, but the film is only an hour long and gives plenty of good scenes to Gorcey and Hall. Gorcey's later Bowery Boys character, Slip Mahoney, would adopt a trademark habit of mangling big words ("This was the pinochle of my career"), but Muggs, at least in this film, throws a large vocabulary around quite skillfully. At one point, he describes the harm done to Elsie's "mental equilibrium" by falling for Gaby. Hall's Glimpy is a goofball like his later Sach character in the Bowery Boys, but he's no dummy. He's crafty, streetsmart and a bit of a ladies' man. The East Side Kids, in general, were more defiant than the Bowery Boys, more inclined to mouth off to local beat cops, and more inclined to confront local tough guys.

None of the other original Dead End Kids, aside from Gorcey and Hall, are in the cast, not even Bobby Jordan or Gabe Dell, who were in several of the other East Side Kids movies. Black actor Ernest "Sunshine Sammy" Morrison, who played Scruno in previous movies in the series, is missing in action as well, although a character named Scruno, a racetrack worker, is introduced to the boys at one point and it's clear that he's new to them. He's played by another black actor, John H. Allen, who played the role just this once. The character of Gaby is listed as Gaby Dell in the cast list at the beginning, yet a newspaper headline about the character appears in the film and identifies him as Gaby O'Neill. Perhaps Gabe Dell, a series regular, was set to play the part, which is similar to the characters he generally played in the series, but pulled out at the last minute for some reason. The actor playing Gaby is listed in the cast list as Bernerd Thomas, a misspelling of Bernard. The other East Side Kids are played by a rather nondescript bunch, without much effort to differentiate them. Leo's father, Bernard Gorcey, turns up in a bit part as the driver of the horse truck sent by the glue factory. The elder Gorcey would, of course, become an important series regular in the Bowery Boys films, playing soda shop owner Louie Dumbrowsky.

MR. MUGGS RIDES AGAIN (Monogram, 1945), directed by Wallace Fox, the 21st installment of "The East Side Kids" series, reverts back to early formula by which the title character, Ethelbert Aloysius "Mugs" Maginnis (Leo Gorcey) becomes a horse racing jockey as he did in THAT GANG OF MINE (1940). With this not being a rehash nor a remake, the material gears towards a brighter function allowing formula material of some originality. Huntz Hall and Billy Benedict are back in their recognizable roles as Glimpy and Skinny, while unfamilar faces and actor names of the other East Side Kids such as Mende Koenig (Danny); Buddy Gorman (Sammy) and Johnny Duncan ("Squeegie" Robinson). For a change, Gabriel Dell does not appear, though the actor who fills in for Dell's formula territory, Bernard Brown, interestingly plays a character (according to opening cast credits) called Gaby Dell. (Any connection?) There's also another character in the story named Scruno, a stablemate played by John H. Allen, bearing no connection to the East Side Kids member earlier enacted by Sunshine Sammy Morrison from 1940 to 1943. Other than being more drama than comedy, MR. MUGGS RIDES AGAIN is Leo Gorcey's movie from start to finish.

Opening not of the traditional sky view of New York's Bowery district, but at the horse race where the East Side Kids cheer on their leader, Mugs" (Leo Gorcey) as he rides his horse to victory, only to be called in and disqualified by judges when an electrical device is discovered under the saddle of his horse. Although innocent, Mugs suspects the big fix done by gambler "Dollar" Davis (George Meeker) and his accomplice, Gaby Dell (Bernard Brown), but cannot prove it. Suspended from further horse racing, Mugs and his pals assist Nora "Ma" Brown (Minerva Urecal) by gathering the $163.79 needed for her to keep stable and horses, Storm Cloud and Sweet Alice, from being taken away to the glue factory. As a friendly gesture, Mugs takes Sweet Alice, the horse he admires, for security and placed in the basement of the East Side Club. As Mrs. Brown tries to lift the suspension of Mugs to ride her horse in the upcoming handicap, Mugs attempts on keeping Brown's niece, Elsie (Nancy Brinckman) from getting romantically involved with Gaby. Others in the cast include Pierre Watkin (Doctor Fletcher); Milton Kibbee (The Veterinarian) and Betty Sinclair (The Nurse). Leo's father, Bernard Gorcey, appears briefly as "Pop," the man hired to take Mrs. Brown's horse away. Minerva Urecal, making her sixth appearance in the series, and never playing the same character, is always an added pleasure to these films no matter what roles she plays.

With more drama than comedy, Huntz Hall gets his chance of amusements set at the Midway amusement park filling in for the unavailable soothsayer, The Great Swami, by telling bogus fortunes to unsuspected patrons. Racing scenes using close-ups on Gorcey is obviously done in rear projection screen with production values obviously on low-budget scale. MR. MUGGS RIDES AGAIN may not win any world cups for its 60 minutes presentation but enough satisfaction for fans of the series.

Not as well-known nor revived as the earlier editions of the series, MR. MUGGS RIDES AGAIN is available for viewing DVD. Next and last in the series: COME OUT FIGHTING (1945). (** horseshoes)

One weird thing about the East Side Kid and Bowery Boys movies is that a plot can come from out of no where AND never be mentioned again in subsequent films. A great example is "Mr. Muggs Rides Again".

Muggs (Leo Gorcey) is a jockey and he wins the race at the beginning of the story. But he's soon disqualified when a cheating device is found under his saddle. Of course Muggs wasn't cheating...but someone planted it there to throw the race. And, as a result, Muggs is banned from being a jockey. The rest of the film is about him regaining his job and finding the folks responsible. In the middle are a few other things...but it's all incidental.

This film is okay...just okay. Rarely is the ending in doubt and the story is pretty much what you'd expect...with Muggs being a tough guy and Glimpy (Huntz Hall) a complete idiot. Not a bad film but also not one that is particularly distinguished...with the obligatory rear projection since I can only assume Gorcey never rode a horse before or after. A time-passer and not much more.