By the time of Flying Wild (oh, and most of the East Side Kids’ titles are chosen randomly, like Bond movies), the series starts to embrace the same propagandistic World War Two fervor most B-cinema was obsessed with at the time. And yadda yadda yadda, U.S. not yet in the war, wuzza wuzza, we have no budget anyway, la-ti-da, but we can still focus upon –
SABOTAGE!
There are saboteurs at the airfields, busy destroying planes and sneaking blueprints out of the country, and only our heroes can stop them. Now…this is not an original story, not even by 1941. In fact, I’ve seen this story before, about, oh, how many times? Just how many films from the ‘40s have I reviewed so far? Not that many, but it is an archetypal tale.
As such, the only distinction Flying Wild can offer beyond, say, Junior G-Men (a Little Tough Guys joint – and as such, in the same “troubled youths” genre with different connected leads), is how effectively Flying Wild’s specific cast and crew can run through the motions. And here comes the startling and controversial statement: I prefer the “East Side Kids” to the “Little Tough Guys.” I know, I know, picking Monogram over Universal, but it’s an effect of this troupe’s far more easy-going temperament. They’re a far cry, in their lightly comedic misadventures, from their original gritty Dead End roots, but this humorousness is a natural evolution, and the kids’ fullest effort to date as actors. (Dead End and most other Dead End Kids films used the kids far more symbolically, in an incomparable way.)
That comedic approach is immediately obvious, as the East Side Kids do a series of legitimately funny pratfalls – funny partly because it is vicious at a level even “Tom & Jerry” wouldn’t touch, even with classics like the banana peel slip or the window frame crushing your head (eh, maybe only the banana). And what of today’s latest mania for Muggs McGinnis (Leo Gorcey), the lead boy? Well…with the intrusion of German agents, and an adventure romp, there’s little time for that now. So rather, Muggs simply shares Peter’s Office Space passion – to do nothing. (Also Lebowski.) This is why he’s driving the other East Side Kids to work at the aviation factory, where he shall spend his day uselessly loitering.
There are now seven “East Side Kids,” meaning Eugene Francis has rejoined Gorcey, the second Gorcey (David), Bobby Jordan, Ernie Morrison, and Donald Haines. You know, the same names as always. (And some kid called Bobby Stone, whose presence I wasn’t even aware of – oh wait, he was in Pride of the Bowery! How can I forget?) Their character names are the same as ever, though for no apparent reason whatsoever those with last names have had those last names changed. It’s possible even the filmmakers weren’t aware of this, and surely no one in 1941 was paying enough attention to notice, so this is (hopefully) the last I’ll ever bother pointing out such oddities. (Dave O’Brien is back too, but as a character who is not Knuckles for equally “whatever” reasons.)
So Muggs messes around idly at the airfield, scoping out the “Flying Ambulance” medical airplane staffed by attractive, attractive nurse Helen (Joan Barclay). I suspect plenty of nurse fascinations come directly from Helen and similar ‘40s figures. For a lack of anyone better to exposit towards, Helen is busy explaining all about the Flying Ambulance to Muggs when – Ba-boosh! Plane footage crashes and burns suddenly. It must be…
SABOTAGE!
Ace pilot Tom Lawson (O’Brien) survives – Muggs saves him. Oh, and he’s Helen’s beaux, Tom is, ‘cause we already got our characters, but we need our “romance.”
Token wealthy East Side Kid Algy (nee Algie) (oh, and actor Francis) tells his pals all about the potential –
SABOTAGE!
- and they resolve, sans request, to do something about it. But first Muggs gives them an unescorted tour of the Flying Ambulance, all the while lobbying about series-standard malapropisms, something else so omnipresent I’m about ready to stop mentioning it. Humantarian : Humanitarian. Vegetabletarian : Vegetarian. Detective: Defective. Dignity: Dignitary. Incriminating : Discriminating. It isn’t the cleverest thing ever, frankly, but Leo Gorcey sells it far better than it deserves. Their Itchy & Scratchy-esque examination of the medical equipment is very amusing too.
Owner of the Flying Ambulance, Dr. Richard Nagel III (George Pembroke), arrives to show his fellow associates in –
SABOTAGE!
- around the Flying Ambulance, when they find the East Side Kids. Muggs, who doesn’t have the benefit of a job or a blog to command his attention, immediately starts suspecting Nagel of –
SABOTAGE!
- and even overhears Nagel’s dastardly blueprint-stealing schemes once the other lads are away.
Meanwhile, Algy’s airfield-running Pa also suspects imminent blueprint stealing, and indeed intends to use them as bait. Specifically, he designates Danny (Jordan) to “deliver” the blueprints, fully expecting any number of spies to descend upon him. Muggs goes along to, but don’t call it “work.” (Or “woik.”)
Strange skipping suggests a reel problem, or poor editing (it is Monogram). No matter, it turns out both boys were bounced by Nagel’s nasties, unseen, and even deposited in garbage cans. And, yes, while they saw no nogoodniks, still Muggs firmly suspects Nagel, and convinces Danny likewise. So they go over to his offices, Danny feigning “colic” (it turns out this is a disease only babies get, where they scream endlessly – I think the dog next door has it). Needless to say, Danny shows no signs of this disease, as he isn’t screaming incessantly (that’s more of a “Little Tough Guys” thing), and he isn’t a toddler (though these teenaged “child” actors do love playing below age). Nagel “treats” Danny – the giving of disgusting medicine = komedy. The boys leave, presumably no longer suspecting Nagel, while Nagel reassembles his baddy battalion there in the office to further discuss –
SABOTAGE! [Sting chords!]
Okay, so the boys go back to the factory, without a plan, but with a plane. A plane dangling directly overhead. And something has been done to that plan, something I am taken to typing in full caps in separate paragraphs. So the plane topples directly for Muggs and Danny, only Peewee makes his presence known for the first time in four movies, and shoves them out of the way. Thus he takes the full brunt of a crushing, and is in dire need of a doctor.
More specifically, the closest doctor Peewee needs is a good 500 miles away, and the only way to get there in time is…the Flying Ambulance. When asked, Nagel OKs this, even letting non-SABOTEURS Helen and Tom accompany 3/7ths of the East Side Kids on the flight. This may be another effort on Nagel’s part to dispel suspicion, or it may just be whatever. And Peewee is succinctly ushered to the appropriate hospital, well on the mend due to modern medicine and a proliferation of hot nurses (the ‘40s, man!). (The melodramatic strings on the soundtrack rise, this being the one rare moment where an East Side Kids film attempts the sort of emotional manipulation of Little Tough Guy and its ilk.)
Flying back in the Flying Ambulance, Muggs discovers a…a…a piece of plane, I think, inside the Ambulance. That syncs it, though, this is sure evidence that Nagel is involved in…Yes, yes, we know where this is going…
SABOTAGE!
Then, for no reason (this combination of words being the operating principle of all East Side Kids films), the plane is about to crash. But it doesn’t. Tom lands it. Oh well, I guess that allowed the soundtrack to make up for its recent melodrama with equally manipulative tense chords.
Now, with all suddenly convinced of Nagel’s evilness (by a stray piece of scrap), legitimate plans can be made to take him down! Specifically, Helen reports that Nagel is planning a patient shipment to the San Casenta hospital – a hospital which doesn’t exist, and which is this close to the border. (They’re moving blueprints, of course, this being in the days before faxes.) Nagel’s ploy involves a “patient” named Forbes who is really a coconspirator. Oh, and Forbes is about the same size as Danny (who previously pretended as a baby in this movie).
The East Side Kids as a whole sneak into Nagel’s offices, in a suspense sequence which clearly favors laffs over seriousness (which differentiates this series from its associates). Danny switches with Forbes, who earns a head clonk for his villainous ways. Head clonks = instant unconsciousness, zero brain damage. And so Danny, bandaged up like a mummy in Forbes’ stead, shall be flown via the Flying Ambulance to San Casenta. Precisely what they expected Danny to do once getting there, I surely cannot say.
Indeed, it seems the East Side Kids themselves realize the silliness of this error once Danny has left with the SABOTEURS. (Though the heroes now have the blueprints, so that’s something at least.) They attempt to tail the Flying Ambulance in Tom’s non-SABOTAGED biplane, and it’s only because Helen remembers some of the Flying Ambulance’s former flights that she’s able to guess it’s going to San Casenta (this part of the plan, none of our heroes knew). These bad guys are not the cleverest cats the world has known.
So they just luck their way into a team of nurse-men unloading Danny from the plane. And follow them, at a discrete distance, to a mansion lair which is more or less the same precise place as that in Junior G-Men (one year prior, and I am dead sure this film series is proud of its plagiarism). Everyone faces off inside, in a slapstick action sequence full of head clonkings by way of wicker chair. Victory comes with great ease for the East Side Kids, literally as quickly as the reading of it takes.
The tale complete, another East Side Kids film comes to an admirably efficient ending, with just a brief pause for the traditional one-per film incredibly racist joke at the expense of Ernie Morrison’s skin tone: the token Kid got punched, and got a white eye. I feel bad merely relaying that information.
But these racial mistakes are a dime a dozen for the era, and the overall effect of Flying Wild is quite painless and pleasant. For the fifth time in as many movies, I must declare this the best East Side Kids entry to date – I swear, these films get a little more self confident and enjoyable every time, even while their plots remain desultory and error-ridden. It’s to the credit of the actors almost entirely, and at least I can understand the clout this group enjoyed.
Related posts:
• No. 1 East Side Kids (1940)
• No. 2 Boys of the City (1940)
• No. 3 That Gang of Mine (1940)
• No. 4 Pride of the Bowery (1940)
• No. 6 Bowery Blitzkrieg (1941)
• No. 7 Spooks Run Wild (1941)
• No. 8 Mr. Wise Guy (1942)
• No. 9 Let's Get Tough! (1942)
• No. 10 Smart Alecks (1942)
• No. 11 'Neath Brooklyn Bridge (1942)
• No. 12 Kid Dynamite (1942)
• No. 13 Clancy Street Boys (1943)
• No. 14 Ghosts on the Loose (1943)
• No. 16 Million Dollar Kid (1944)
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