Sunday, March 14, 2010

Streets of New York / Abe Lincoln of Ninth Ave (1939), William Nigh.

Juvenile delinquents on trial, including little Gimpy.

Augh!  I'm such a sucker!  I bawled through this one (how embarrassing!) which was basically a pretty standard story about po' Bowery kids who just might (sniff) get to taste Christmas turkey for the first time in their lives.  Jackie Cooper plays a young man from a tough neighbourhood (with a gambling Irish dad, and a gangster brother, living in a dive basement apartment...) who runs a newspaper stand to pay for night classes, where he's studying to become a lawyer.  Gets a little creaky here and there but there's good acting between Jackie and little Martin Spellman who plays adoptive runt Gimpy.  Darn you, Monogram! 

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