Mug Town Reviews

Halop's last "Dead End Kids" film sees the gang check into a rural flophouse where they meet a severely ill boy. The boy accompanies the gang while they engage in their usual pastimes, such as climbing around on boxcars, but he can't keep up with them and is killed while trying to escape a railroad detective. Feeling guilty, the boys locate the kid's mother to break the news, but her overwhelming kindness prevents them from making the announcement. Halop spins a yarn that moves the woman to allow the boys to stay in her home, and he earns his keep by getting a job pumping gas. Soon Halop finds himself involved with some shady trucking racketeers, and when he drives a wounded crook to a private doctor, rather than a hospital, he finds himself indicted. The dead boy's mother, however, comes to his rescue and clears his name by testifying as to his honesty. With that, and the news that the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor, the boys decide to join the Army. Halop, with his last line as a Dead End Kid, looks directly at the camera at film's end and says, "And we're not kidding!," no doubt referring to the gang's enlistment.