Let's Get Tough

Let's Get Tough (1942)

Rejected by the Army, Marines, and Navy for being too young, the punks help the war effort by throwing fruit at a shop they believe is owned by a Japanese American. Confronted by him wielding a short sword, the gang decides to come back at night but find him dead.

Date of release
1942-05-29
TMDB
5.3 / 10 (9)
Runtime
1h 2m
Genres
Comedy, Drama, Mystery
Director
Wallace Fox
Collection
East Side Kids Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

Let's Get Tough! is a 1942 film and the ninth film in the East Side Kids series, starring Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, and Robert Armstrong. Released in early 1942, it was directed by Wallace Fox, and features the gang caught up in World War II and fighting the Black Dragon Society, an enemy sabotage ring.

Production

Made between Mr Wise Guy and Smart Alecks, the East Side Kids go from being a gang of punks to a group of, as Danny puts it, "Junior G-Men" (an in joke as that was the name of two serials the gang did for Universal Pictures). The film captures the attitudes many Americans felt towards Japanese but this is tempered with the boys being chastised and shamed for attacking an innocent shopkeeper.

The Black Dragon society also appeared in Black Dragons a 1942 release starring Bela Lugosi also written by Harvey Gates and filmed by Sam Katzman's production company.

Ernest Morrison who played Scuno in the film said that in a scene where the gang runs off he thought the filming had stopped and began counting his money he had in his pocket. The gang ad-libbed an attack on him.

The British Board of Film Censors who usually gave the East Side Kids series an 'A' (adult) rating gave Let's Get Tough! a rating approving it for all audiences, perhaps as a wartime morale booster.

At just over an hour, Let's Get Tough! is fast-paced with the romantic subplot and comedy setpieces blending into the main plot of the sabotage ring. For example, Glimpy's incompetent violin playing grating on his teacher's nerves lead to the gang pawning the violin to buy flowers for Mr Keno's widow, that leads them to see Matsui's son take the pen that contains the secret message.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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