In these three "Lemon Grove Kids" shorts, R.D. Steckler pays homage to the Bowery Boys. In the first short, R. D. bills himself as Cash Flagg and plays "Gopher", the Huntz Hall role. Steckler is predictably unfunny.
Steckler directed the first short, but for the next two features turned the chore over to Ted Roter (real name: Peter Balakoff), who apparently found a tripod. The first short tells the story of two gangs that settle their turf war by running a cross-country race. Somehow it ends up as a monster movie. In the second one, the Lemon Grove kids are visited by a female vampire and an alien grasshopper. In the third, the Lemon Grove kids -- who now number only Gopher, Don Snyder, and three (probably unpaid) kids -- perform housework for a famous star. While they do their chores (apparently child labor laws aren't enforced in California), the star is kidnapped. Her low-life producer refuses to pay the ransom, but the Kids save the day. Don Snyder sings "The Lemon Grove Kids" twice.
R.D. tried to sell these as TV pilots, without success. He laments that the Hollywood bigwigs are only in it for the dollar. If they were interested in awful, low-budget home movies, R.D. would be the king.
The Lemon Grove Kids truly are the Dead End kids.
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