Code of the Streets

Last updated
Code of the Streets
Directed by Harold Young
Written by Arthur T. Horman
Produced byBurt Kelly
Starring The Little Tough Guys
Frankie Thomas
Harry Carey
Cinematography Elwood Bredell
Edited byMaurice Wright
Music byFrank Skinner
Charles Previn
Distributed by Universal Studios
Release date
  • April 14, 1939 (1939-04-14)
Running time
72 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Code of the Streets is a 1939 Universal Studios film starring The Little Tough Guys .

Contents

Plot

Convicted on circumstantial evidence, Tommy Shay, a young product of the Front Street slums, is sentenced to die for the murder of police lieutenant Carson. When Denver Collins, Tommy's only alibi, mysteriously disappears, Tommy's younger brother Danny and his gang of alley kids determine to find a way to save Tommy from the electric chair. Lieutenant Lewis, Tommy's arresting officer, also believes that the boy is innocent and tries to get the case reopened. For his efforts, Lewis is demoted to patrolman, prompting his son Bob, a radio bug with an ambition to become a detective, to initiate his own investigation by which he hopes to find the real murderer and reinstate his father.

While searching for Collins on Front Street, Bob meets Danny and after he fibs that his father is a gangster, the boys join forces to track down Carson's killer. Acting on a tip, Danny and Bob visit a gambling club operated by Chick Foster and warn Foster that the police have reopened the Carson murder case and are looking for Denver Collins. In response, Foster begins to act strangely, giving the boys a look at his henchman, Halstead, whom they suspect is Collins.

When the boys discover that Bob is really a cop's son, they beat him up but have a change of heart upon learning that Bob's father was arrested while trying to help Tommy. Joining forces once again, the boys locate Halstead's hideout and lure Foster to the spot with a phony telegram. Eavesdropping by means of a Dictaphone, they learn that Halstead is really Collins and that he was hired by Foster to kill Carson. Overcome with fear, Halstead demands that Foster pay him off, and in the ensuing argument, Foster kills Halstead and hurries back to his club. Refusing to give up, Bob follows Foster and, after connecting a microphone attached to a radio in Foster's office, broadcasts a fake news flash telling how Halstead made a full confession before his death. Attempting to escape, Foster hails a cab in the alley which has been commandeered by Danny and the gang. After the boys force a confession from Foster, Officer Lewis arrives to arrest the gambler, and all ends happily as Tommy is freed, Lewis is reinstated as lieutenant, and the kids decide to go straight.

Cast

The Little Tough Guys

Additional cast

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ward Bond</span> American actor (1903–1960)

Wardell Edwin Bond was an American film character actor who appeared in more than 200 films and starred in the NBC television series Wagon Train from 1957 to 1960. Among his best-remembered roles are Bert the cop in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and Captain Clayton in John Ford's The Searchers (1956). As a character actor, Bond frequently played cowboys, cops and soldiers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack McGurn</span> American mobster

Jack "Machine Gun Jack" McGurn was a Sicilian-American boxer, mobster, and eventually a made man and caporegime in Al Capone's Chicago Outfit.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom London</span> American actor (1889–1963)

Tom London was an American actor who played frequently in B-Westerns. According to The Guinness Book of Movie Records, London is credited with appearing in the most films in the history of Hollywood, according to the 2001 book Film Facts, which says that the performer who played in the most films was "Tom London, who made his first of over 2,000 appearances in The Great Train Robbery, 1903. He used his birth name in films until 1924.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Henry (actor)</span> American actor (1914–1982)

William Albert Henry was an American actor who worked in both films and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regis Toomey</span> American actor (1898–1991)

John Francis Regis Toomey was an American film and television actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Haggerty</span> American actor (1914–1988)

Don Haggerty was an American actor of film and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Harlan</span> American actor (1895–1967)

Kenneth Daniel Harlan was a popular American actor during the silent film era, playing mostly romantic leads or adventurer roles. His career extended into the sound film era, but during that span he rarely commanded leading-man roles, and became mostly a supporting or character actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Bridge</span> American actor (1891–1957)

Alfred Morton Bridge was an American character actor who played mostly small roles in over 270 films between 1931 and 1954. Bridge's persona was an unpleasant, gravel-voiced man with an untidy moustache. Sometimes credited as Alan Bridge, and frequently not credited onscreen at all, he appeared in many westerns, especially in the Hopalong Cassidy series, where he played crooked sheriffs and henchmen.

<i>Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu</i> Novel by Lee Goldberg

Mr. Monk and the Blue Flu is the third novel by writer Lee Goldberg based on the television series Monk. In this novel, in response to a blue flu, the mayor of San Francisco reinstates several police officers who suffer from debilitating mental issues, including Adrian Monk. The squad of half-crazy detectives must contend not only with each other's eccentricities and a series of murders linked only by missing left shoes and shared birth dates, but their former friends on the other side of the labor dispute. Like the previous two books, the book is narrated by Natalie Teeger, Monk's assistant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eddy Chandler</span> American actor (1894–1948)

Eddy Chandler was an American actor who appeared, mostly uncredited, in more than 350 films. Three of these films won the Academy Award for Best Picture: It Happened One Night (1934), You Can't Take It with You (1938), and Gone with the Wind (1939). Chandler was born in the small Iowa city of Wilton Junction and died in Los Angeles. He served in World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Blystone</span> American actor (1894–1956)

William Stanley Blystone was an American film actor who made more than 500 films appearances from 1924 to 1956. He was sometimes billed as William Blystone or William Stanley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Flavin</span> American actor (1906–1976)

James William Flavin Jr. was an American character actor whose stage, film, and television career lasted some forty years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Desmond (actor)</span> American actor (1878–1949)

William Desmond was an American actor. He appeared in more than 200 films between 1915 and 1948. He was nicknamed "The King of the Silent Serials."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fred Graham (actor)</span> American actor (1908–1979)

Fred Graham was an American actor and stuntman who performed in films from the 1930s to the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ralph Dunn</span> American actor (1900–1968)

Ralph Dunn was an American film, television, and stage actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Eldredge</span> American actor (1898–1977)

George Edwin Eldredge was an American actor who appeared in over 180 movies during a career that stretched from the 1930s to the early 1960s. He also had a prolific television career during the 1950s. He was the older brother of actor John Dornin Eldredge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Vallin</span> American actor (1902–1996)

Rick Vallin was an actor who appeared in more than 150 films between 1938 and 1966.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles C. Wilson</span> American actor (1894–1948)

Charles Cahill Wilson was an American screen and stage actor. He appeared in numerous films during the Golden Age of Hollywood from the late 1920s to the late 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Bryar</span> American actor (1910–1985)

Paul Bryar was an American actor. In a career spanning nearly half a century, he appeared in numerous films and television series.