Sorry, this movie sucks

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

In sunny California's Los Angeles area, clean-cut white youth gang members are ready to retaliate against a rival Hispanic gang. Later, a friendly police officer tries to talk a young Spanish-accented boy out of continuing his life of crime. Alienated in an "unfriendly" environment, the boy narrates this short drama. It's a social consciousness effort by Sid Davis and Arthur Swerdloff. Most likely, this was shown to 1950s schoolchildren in an attempt to fight juvenile delinquency. Those who've seen the 1961 musical "West Side Story" will notice plot similarities. That show was staged in 1957, and was first proposed as about similar Los Angeles gangs. Among other things, it had Sharks, a concerned officer, an integrated dance and "happiness" in the form of Natalie Wood. "Growing up in an angry world" is repeated as the story's main problem. There are no songs, but "Gang Boy" provides a solution in caring for younger siblings and finding common ground. The film is definitely not art, but it does effectively make its point.***** Gang Boy (1954) Sid Davis, Arthur Swerdloff ~ Curly Riviera

The people who made this short film were very sincere and tried to make a nice film about the evils of gangs and how everyone can just get along. The problem is that even though the film uses real gang members and was in some ways a positive thing, the production is so badly made that it made me laugh! I assume you'll probably feel about the same.One problem with the film is some of the acting. In particular, the cops could barely read their lines and sounded quite robotic. However, the supposedly poignant scene about the boy dying by falling off the cliff--that was amazingly bad! It's OBVIOUSLY a dummy being tossed own the hill and looks just horrible--so bad that you might think it was meant as a joke!! I am sure gang members that were shown this film thought is was hilarious--and you really cannot blame them. A truly awful public service film that was dated when it was made.

Interesting artifact, very much a reflection of its time. During those post-war years, juvenile delinquency grew as a national concern as a teenage sub-culture began to emerge. In urban areas, gang "rumbles" often made headlines as youths clashed with chains, fists, and sometimes, knives, as dramatized in this 30-minute short. These could be seen as "turf' wars or, at times, as racial clashes, but rarely—if I recall the LA area of this short correctly— was anyone killed. Note how the solution portrayed here can be described as a "liberal" one — that is, by appealing to youths' better instincts, instead of the more traditional reform school path.However, gangs-- at least in the last 50 years-- have evolved from street-level "clubs" into criminal enterprises, trafficking in drugs, guns, and other illicit activities that are often connected with adult-level prison gangs like the Mexican Mafia or the Aryan Brotherhood. Unlike the 1950's, rivalries are now routinely settled with "drive-by" shootings, at the same time, the bodies pile up in poorer and minority neighborhoods. Younger kids can easily be recruited since gang membership offers both status and the prospect of a money-making future. Just as importantly, liberal solutions, as portrayed in the Davis short, offer little prospect of success, while only those programs addressing the deeper causes of poverty and racism hold much promise.Nonetheless, this earnest little docu-drama presents an interesting contrast to such sensationalized youth films of the time as Rebel Without a Cause (1955) or The Blackboard Jungle (1955). I am curious, however, where the producers expected the 30-minutes to be shown and to what effect.

Gang Boy (1954) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Sid Davis isn't a name most people know but he produced many "message" pictures that are currently being re-discovered on TCM Underground. Subjects ranged from drug abuse to STDs and racial hatred, which is the category this short falls into. Here we see a white gang and a Mexican gang getting into fights for reasons that they don't even know. A caring police officer finally makes both sit down together and discuss their feelings. The entire message of this picture could be laughed off but you have to give the film credit that it's heart was in the right place. As with most films from Davis, this one here was shot doubt with narration and other items editing it later. This brings a certain cheapness to the film and this is especially noticeable whenever the dialogue is added over the lips and it's never matching. I did find this short, running 27-minutes, to be a little better than some of the other Davis shorts I've seen because there were a few shocking moments in the film including a rather violent death sequence that I won't ruin but you'll certainly notice it when it happens. The color also helps as it really brings out some of the clothes being worn at the time as well as the many locations used. Another plus is the fact that the gang in the film were real gang members who really hated each other at the time. This isn't the greatest movie ever made and God knows there have been many better films dealing with gangs but this here isn't too bad if you have the time to kill.