''Hit the Road'' is a 1941 crime comedy film featuring the

Dead End Kids 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 prov ...

and

Little Tough Guys The Little Tough Guys (later billed as 'The Dead End Kids and Little Tough Guys') were a group of actors who made a series of films and serials released by Universal Studios from 1938 through 1943. Many of them were originally part of The Dead End ...

Plot

Delinquent gang members Tom, Pig, Ape, and String are trying to break out from the reformatory their confined to, but they are caught and brought to the parole officer Cathy Crookshank. All of the gang members are sons of gangsters, which makes it even harder for them to get paroled. They tell their superintendent this, and that they have no sponsor. To remedy this, Miss Crookshank asks the leader of the boys fathers' gang, Valentine, to come to her office. Valentine is barely released from prison. He is reluctant to help the boys, arguing that he is a reformed man and is now living on a farm with his wife Molly and their daughter Pat. He has also decided to take a new name, "Ryan." Miss Crookshank explains the boys’ predicament, however, and Valentine agrees to take them in under his wings. One of the younger members of the gang, Pesky, is also taken in by the ex-gangster. The would-be mobsters in reformatory are quite disappointed when they are sent away to the horse-breeding farm in the country instead of out into the city streets. When the boys are transported out to the farm, a gangster named Spike the Butcher, who had killed Valentine's men ten years earlier, follows Valentine to his farm in hopes of finishing the job and kill Valentine too. Spike brings his two henchmen, Creeper and Dingbat, to ambush Valentine/Ryan in his new home. District attorney Paul Revere Smith, who is Pat's boyfriend, arrives at the farm at the same time. Later that day the delinquent boys try to steal Valentine's station wagon, but the car has a flat tire and an old hunting dog gets in the way of the car, spoiling the boys’ plan to escape. Inspired by Paul's father, Colonel Smith, Valentine raises $50,000 in an effort to build a trade school and give the boys something to do with themselves. Pretending to visit a dentist, Tom goes into the nearby town, where he hopes to plan the gang's escape. It doesn’t take long for him to run into Creeper and Dingbat, who take the young man to see Spike. Tom reveals to the gangster about the money raised for the trade school, and Spike suspects it is in fact a "charity racket." When talking to the hardened gangster, Tom suddenly realizes that he is talking to his father's killer. Shaken, Tom goes back to his gang, and they plan to protect the charity money from Spike. Pesky finds them scheming and suspects that the gang will attempt to steal Pat's car. Pesky holds the teenagers at gunpoint until they explain what they are really doing. The boys are unable to stop Spike and his gang when they run Colonel Smith’s car off the road and steal the money. Both cars are wrecked and the gangsters take off on foot. The teenage gang follow them in close pursuit. In the meantime, the Colonel takes Pat's car into town to tell the police. The gangsters manage to get away, and Paul tells Valentine that he now is officially listed as a suspect in the robbery. The police arrive and return the teenagers to Valentine's home. There they are sent upstairs to their rooms, but as soon as they are out of sight from Valentine and the rest of the house members, they find Spike and his gang in Tom's room. Spike has prepared a trap for Valentine, which the family walks right into. The boys are locked in the cellar, along with Molly, Pat, and the house servants. Valentine manages to talk his old antagonist into hiding out at the farm until the heat blows over. Miss Crookshank arrives, and Spike gets the idea to use her for his plan to escape the farm. The kids manage to break out of the cellar and get into a fight with Spike and his gang. The gangsters are defeated by the boys and the money is recovered. The boys are congratulated by the Colonel for their bravery. The boys are very happy, until they realize that they have saved their own trade school.

Cast

The Dead End Kids

Billy Halop William Halop (February 11, 1920 – November 9, 1976) was an American actor. Early life Halop was born to Benjamin Cohen Halop and Lucille Elizabeth Halop on February 11, 1920. Halop came from a theatrical family; his mother was a dancer, and ...

as Tom *

Huntz Hall Henry Richard "Huntz" Hall (August 15, 1920 – January 30, 1999) was an American radio, stage, and movie performer who appeared in the popular "Dead End Kids" movies, including ''Angels with Dirty Faces'' (1938), and in the later " Bowery ...

as Pig Grogan *

Gabriel Dell Gabriel Dell (born Gabriel Marcel Dell Vecchio; October 8, 1919 – July 3, 1988) was an American actor and one of the members of what came to be known as the Dead End Kids, then later the East Side Kids and finally The Bowery Boys. Acting care ...

as String *

Bernard Punsley Bernard Punsly (July 11, 1923 – January 20, 2004) was an American actor who later left show business to become a physician. His last name was often spelled incorrectly in film credits as Punsley. Early life and acting career Punsly was born on ...

as Ape

Additional cast

Gladys George Gladys George (born Gladys Clare Evans; September 13, 1904 – December 8, 1954) was an American actress of stage and screen. Though nominated for an Academy Award for her leading role in ''Valiant Is the Word for Carrie'' (1936), she spent most ...

as Molly Ryan *

Barton MacLane Barton MacLane (December 25, 1902 – January 1, 1969) was an American actor, playwright, and screenwriter. He appeared in many classic films from the 1930s through the 1960s, including his role as General Martin Peterson on the 1960s NBC ...

as James J. "Valentine" Ryan *

Bobs Watson Robert Ball Watson (November 16, 1930 – June 26, 1999), credited as Bobs Watson, was an American actor and Methodist minister. Early years Robert Ball Watson was a member of the Watson Family, famous in the early days of Hollywood as being ...

as "Slugger" Mickey Nolan, a. k. a "Pesky" *

Evelyn Ankers Evelyn Felisa Ankers (August 17, 1918 – August 29, 1985) was a British-American actress who often played variations on the role of the cultured young leading lady in many American horror films during the 1940s, most notably '' The Wolf Man'' (1 ...

as Patience "Pat" Ryan * Charles Lang as Paul Revere Smith *

Shemp Howard Samuel Horwitz (March 11, 1895 – November 22, 1955), known professionally as Shemp Howard, was an American actor and comedian. He was called "Shemp" because "Sam" came out that way in his mother's thick Lithuanian Yiddish, Litvak accent. He is ...

as Dingbat *

Walter Kingsford Walter Kingsford (born Walter Pearce; 20 September 1882 – 7 February 1958) was an English stage, film and television actor. Early years Kingsford was born in Redhill, Surrey, England. Career Kingsford began his acting career on the Lo ...

as Colonel Smith *

Eily Malyon Eily Malyon (born Eily Sophie Lees-Craston; 30 October 1879 – 26 September 1961) was an English character actress from about 1900 to the 1940s. She had a stage career in Britain, Australia and America before moving to Hollywood to perfo ...

as Cathy Crookshank *

Edward Pawley Edward Joel Pawley (March 16, 1901 in Kansas City, Missouri – January 27, 1988 in Charlottesville, Virginia) was an American actor of radio, films and Broadway. The full name on his birth certificate is Edward Joel Stone Pawley; he never ...

as Spike the Butcher * John Harmon as Creeper * Charles R. Moore as Martin *

Hally Chester Hal E. Chester (born Harold Ribotsky; March 6, 1921 – March 25, 2012), was an American film producer, writer, director, and former juvenile actor. Early life and career Born in Brooklyn, New York City, he was the youngest of seven child ...

as Trust

References

External links

* {{Joe May 1941 films 1940s crime comedy films American crime comedy films American black-and-white films American crime films Universal Pictures films Films directed by Joe May 1941 comedy films 1940s English-language films 1940s American films