The Gas House Kids "in Hollywood" | |
---|---|
Directed by | Edward Cahn |
Screenplay by | Robert E. Kent |
Produced by | Sam Baerwitz Ben Stoloff (in charge of production) |
Starring | Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer Benny Bartlett Rudy Wissler Tommy Bond |
Cinematography | James Brown, A.S.C. |
Edited by | W. Donn Hayes Alfred DeGaetano (editorial supervision) |
Music by | Albert Glasser |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Producers Releasing Corporation Pathe Industries, Inc. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 62 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Gas House Kids "in Hollywood" is a 1947 American comedy feature directed by Edward Cahn and starring Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, Benny Bartlett, Rudy Wissler, and Tommy Bond. It was the third and last in the series of Gas House Kids films, about a group of unruly boys from New York City. [1]
Alfie, Orvie, Scat, and Chimp, driving from New York to California, stop to help a motorist in distress, who invites them to be his house guests. Their host is Prof. Crawford, an eccentric scientist who is experimenting with a cadaver. At a poolside party, the boys discover another corpse: the realtor who sold the secluded house to Crawford. The boys crash a movie studio, taking the murder mystery to their idol, movie detective Lance Carter. What they don't know is that Carter is in debt to gambler Mitch Gordon. Gordon and Carter are determined to find a treasure hidden somewhere in the Crawford house. Alfie and Chimp, exploring the depths of the creepy old house, encounter a skeleton, eerie voices, and apparitions. Gordon captures the kids and leaves them to languish there. Scat and Orvie spring into action, reuniting with their pals. Together they slug it out with the villains.
The low-budget PRC studio had produced a juvenile-delinquency feature in 1946, Gas House Kids , in direct competition with Monogram Pictures' new and popular series with The Bowery Boys. Former leader of the Dead End Kids Billy Halop and former leader of the Our Gang comedies Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer were signed to head the cast.
By 1947 Halop had departed PRC, which decided to retool Gas House Kids as a comedy series. Switzer recruited his buddy Tommy Bond, [2] another Our Gang alumnus, and they were joined by juvenile actors Rudy Wissler (the singing voice of the young Al Jolson in The Jolson Story ) and Benny Bartlett. The new Gas House Kids series was successful, but came to an abrupt halt in mid-1947, after only two installments, when PRC discontinued operations. The Gas House Kids in Hollywood was in fact the very last PRC production, released August 23, 1947. PRC's successor, Eagle-Lion, released some low-budget westerns in 1948 under the PRC trademark.
Dead End is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by William Wyler. It is an adaptation of the Sidney Kingsley 1935 Broadway play of the same name. It stars Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie, and Claire Trevor. It was the first film appearance of the acting group known as the Dead End Kids.
The Jolson Story is a 1946 American biographical musical film, a fictionalized account of the life of singer Al Jolson. It stars Larry Parks as Jolson, Evelyn Keyes as Julie Benson, William Demarest as his manager, Ludwig Donath and Tamara Shayne as his parents, and Scotty Beckett as the young Jolson. Many of the film's episodes are based on fact but the story is simplified, with some people disguised or combined into single characters.
The Dead End Kids were a group of young actors from New York City who appeared in Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play Dead End in 1935. In 1937, producer Samuel Goldwyn brought all of them to Hollywood and turned the play into a film. They proved to be so popular that they continued to make movies under various monikers, including the Little Tough Guys, the East Side Kids, and the Bowery Boys, until 1958.
Carl Dean Switzer was an American singer, child actor, dog breeder, and guide. He was best known for his role as Alfalfa in the short subjects series Our Gang.
Bored of Education is a 1936 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 146th entry in the Our Gang series to be released.
William Halop was an American actor.
Scott Hastings Beckett was an American actor. He began his career as a child actor in the Our Gang shorts and later costarred on Rocky Jones, Space Ranger.
Thomas Ross Bond was an American actor, director, producer and writer. He was best known for his work as a child actor for two nonconsecutive periods in Our Gang comedies. Also, he is noted for being the first actor to appear onscreen as DC Comics character Jimmy Olsen, in the film serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950).
The Our Gang personnel page is a listing of the significant cast and crew from the Our Gang short subjects film series, originally created and produced by Hal Roach which ran in movie theaters from 1922 to 1944.
The following is a complete list of the 220 Our Gang short films produced by Hal Roach Studios and/or Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer between 1922 and 1944, numbered by order of release along with production order.
Our Gang is an American series of comedy short films chronicling a group of poor neighborhood children and their adventures. Created by film producer Hal Roach, also the producer of the Laurel and Hardy films, Our Gang shorts were produced from 1922 to 1944, spanning the silent film and early sound film periods of American cinema. Our Gang is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way; Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children, rather than have them imitate adult acting styles. The series also broke new ground by portraying white and black children interacting as equals during the Jim Crow era of racial segregation in the United States.
Our Gang Follies of 1938 is a 1937 American musical short subject, the 161st short subject entry in Hal Roach's Our Gang series. Directed by Gordon Douglas as a sequel to 1935's Our Gang Follies of 1936, the two-reel short was released to theaters on December 18, 1937, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Floyd B. Bartlett, known professionally as Benny Bartlett or Bennie Bartlett, was an American child actor, musician, and later a member of the long-running feature film series The Bowery Boys.
Glove Taps is a 1937 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 151st Our Gang short to be released.
Canned Fishing is a 1938 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. It was the 162nd Our Gang short to be released.
Came the Brawn is a 1938 Our Gang short comedy film directed by Gordon Douglas. Produced by Hal Roach and released to theaters by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, it was the 165th entry in the Our Gang series.
Party Fever is a 1938 Our Gang short comedy film directed by George Sidney. It was the 170th Our Gang short to be released.
Practical Jokers is a 1938 Our Gang short comedy film directed by George Sidney. It was the 174th Our Gang short to be released.
Gas House Kids Go West is a 1947 American comedy film directed by William Beaudine. A sequel to the 1946 film Gas House Kids, which had starred former Dead End Kids leader Billy Halop, this new film emphasized comedy and recast the gang with Our Gang alumni Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer and Tommy Bond, East Side Kids alumnus Benny Bartlett, and juvenile actors Rudy Wissler and Ray Dolciame.
Gas House Kids is a 1946 American comedy-drama film directed by Sam Newfield and starring Robert Lowery, Billy Halop and Teala Loring. It was followed by two sequels, Gas House Kids Go West and Gas House Kids in Hollywood, both released in 1947. In the film, a group of unruly New York City children from the Gas House District battle a criminal gang. Along with several other series made at the time, it was inspired by the Dead End Kids.