LITTLE TOUGH GUY (1938) The Dead End Kids, Robert Wilcox & Helen Parrish | Crime, Drama | B&W

Little Tough Guy is a 1938 American crime film that starred several of the Dead End Kids. In the follow-up films, the studio began using the group name The Little Tough Guys, and later The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys. This was the first of several films and serials that Universal made using several of the "Kids", whom they borrowed from Warner Bros.

SYNOPSIS
After his father is sentenced to death for accidentally killing a cop, Johnny's family is left to fight for survival. His sister becomes a burlesque performer for money while Johnny joins a local gang and turns to a life of street crime.

Johnny Boylan's father was sentenced to death for a crime that he was never fully proven to have committed. He and his family move to a poorer section of the East Side in New York City. His sister, Kay dances in a burlesque theater after she is fired from her job. Her former fiancé, Paul Wilson, still cares for and wants to help her, but she avoids him out of shame.

Johnny tries to enlist his fellow newsboy friends to help prove his father's innocence. They try to convince the judge, but are unsuccessful. In frustration, Johnny tosses a brick through the judge's car window, which begins his life of crime. He enlists his friend "Pig" to help him rob a drugstore. They are subsequently chased by the police and hide out.

CAST & CREW
Billy Halop as Johnny Boylan
Huntz Hall as "Pig"
Gabriel Dell as "String"
Bernard Punsly as "Ape"
David Gorcey as "Sniper"
Hally Chester as "Dopey"
Robert Wilcox as Paul Wilson
Helen Parrish as Kay Boylan
Marjorie Main as Mrs. Boylan
Jackie Searl as Cyril Gerrard
Peggy Stewart as Rita Belle
Helen MacKellar as Mrs. Wanamaker
Edward Pawley as Jim Boylan
Olin Howland as Baxter
Pat C. Flick as Peddler

Directed by Harold Young
Screenplay by Gilson Brown, Brenda Weisberg
Story by Brenda Weisberg
Produced by Ken Goldsmith
Cinematography Elwood Bredell
Edited by Philip Cahn
Music by Charles Previn
Production company Universal Pictures
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date July 22, 1938
Running time 86 minutes
Country United States
Language English

NOTES
Little Tough Guy is in the public domain.