BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Seraherrera The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

hte-trasme I wasn't too familiar with the East Side Kids or Bowery Boys going into this cheap, short 1940 feature, and without the context that many other reviews have, it leaves a lot to be desired. The first thing that's wrong is the title, as the "Boys of the City" spend almost the entire film in the country.The band of broadly-portrayed juvenile delinquents are going to be sent to jail for not very much, but instead accept a deal to spend time at a house in the mountains of upstate New York. Maybe this is a thing that really happened, but it doesn't seem very plausible.From there it turns into a listless attempt at a spook comedy, the trouble being that there aren't many attempts at comedy. Most of the apparent jokes are broad racial stereotypes of the one black character played for humor. The "joke" being that he is extremely cowardly, and on one occasional that he is delighted to get a slice of watermelon instead of actual dinner. The final "gag" consists of a couple of his friends confusing his hand with a piece of chocolate cake, then shoving the actual cake in his face. Even allowing for different social mores in 1940, this is just mean-spiritedly racist. And even if it weren't be very funny.There's a large section of the short running time devoted to the "straight" plot, involving a judge who is on the run, afraid he'll be murdered. None of this is very compelling or sensible. The "spooky house" is clearly supposed to be an old mansion, but looks like an undisguised studio set house.So in all, not much to recommend this modest comedy. There are few gags, and most of the ones that are there are undisguised racism. The mystery plot is dull. The chills aren't very chilling. If it weren't for the vigorous stereotyping, it would be almost pleasant viewing, but without inspiring any real laughs, scares, or attention.

dougdoepke I never thought I would say it, but this Gorcey and gang entry had me wishing for the buffoonery of Huntz Hall. That would at least have livened up some of the byplay. Except for a few clever malaprops, the only "humor" comes from Scruno's crudely racial gags. Otherwise, the gang trails after Jordan and Gorcey in pretty unimaginative fashion. Director Lewis may have been a brilliant helmsman of noir, but he doesn't seem comfortable with low-grade humor. That may be because the screenplay loads too much familiar plot into an hour's run-time, which Lewis then has to coordinate. Anyway, as others point out, Urecal's performance as the witchy housekeeper is worthy of an A-feature, making the 60-minutes almost worthwhile. All in all, if you think you've seen the spooky plot done better before, you probably have, (Spooks on the Loose {1941}, Ghosts Run Wild {1943}).

mark.waltz Determined to keep the East Side Kids out of trouble and ultimately out of juvenile hall (which to be honest, they'd still be too old for at this early point in her career...), an understanding judge sends them to his country home in the mountains. They end up in the spooky mansion of a judge who is an important witness in a criminal case and deal with the possible presence of ghosts, as well as a spooky housekeeper, various secret passageways, and most frighteningly, murder! The result is one of the best of the early East Side Kids films after their Warner Brothers years that is entertaining from start to finish.While this entry in the series is missing Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan and Leo Gorcey are still around as the leaders of the gang, leading in both dialog and action, with only a few comic bits given to the black Sammy Morrison. Of course, some of those bits are extremely racist, especially when sinister looking housekeeper Minerva Urecal serves the boys small fruit cups and gives Morrison a huge piece of watermelon. Urecal has one of the best roles of her career, spoofing every sinister housekeeper or strange relative, most obviously Eva Moore in "The Old Dark House" (spooking heroine Inna Gest with comments on her "pale, white flesh") and Judith Anderson in "Rebecca".While the plot is predictable, the screenplay is loaded with some of the funniest malapropisms of the kid's extremely lengthy career and there is definitely a macabre element to the spooky atmosphere, from the antique graveyard in Judge Forrest Taylor's back yard to the "Cat and the Canary" like candle-lit hallways. It ranks high above many of the similar films being done at the low-grade Monogram and PRC (and even the slightly more expensive Universal) and the results make this a film you might want to re-visit, even if you'll steer clear of this delightfully haunted mansion.

MartinHafer The gang are hot and looking to find a way to cool off during the summer heat. They decide to open up a fire hydrant and naturally are caught by the cops. But instead of punishing them, the kids are convinced to go to a summer camp by their friend, Knuckles. On the way, they meet up with a car load of strange people--people who are on the run. Together, the East Side Kids, Knuckles and these strangers are unexpectedly stuck in a house--a seemingly haunted house. And, in the sorts of coincidences that only happen in films, Knuckles just happens to have a reason to kill one of the strangers (a judge) and the housekeeper just happens to be a crazed lady bent on revenge who makes the housekeeper in "Rebecca" seem like Maria von Trapp!! This sort of haunted house film might be awfully familiar to those acquainted with the East Side Kids and their later incarnation as the Bowery Boys--too familiar. Such films as "Ghost on the Loose", "Spooks Run Wild" and "Spook Busters" had similar themes that seemed to work pretty well in these B-movies but were just over-used. Plus, the films were far from intellectual fare and seemed very similar to each other.While Sunshine Sammy (Ernest Morrison) was a familiar black member of the gang (it's nice to see they were integrated), in this film he's given some rather distasteful lines--such as when Muggs (Leo Gorcey) treats him like a servant and calls him 'boy' in one scene, his constantly being afraid of 'ghostes' and at one point he's sitting down to a giant plate of watermelon! Not exactly enlightened entertainment!Overall, a rather low-brow and familiar but generally enjoyable B-film. Aside from the awful stereotypical humor, the film also seems a bit contrived--as there are just one too many coincidences to make this anything other than a time-passer.