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Customer Reviews of The Sidewalks of New York

Wearysome...
I have never been a fan of Buster Keaton, even though I can appreciate what his fans think of him. But, in my opinion, he spoils the whole movie here. The lovely Anita Page stars in this picture which is reminiscent of "Angels With Dirty Faces." Set on the Lower East Side of New York, nobody really sounds like it, except Miss Page, who hails from Queens. The story progresses through Keaton's character, Homer Harmon, buying and fixing up a gymn for the neighbourhood kids, and continuing through some very tiring shticklech with Ukelele Ike, such as a mock wrestling scene(yawn!). Some action ensues with an older thug getting ahold of Miss Page's 14-year-old brother and attempting to turn him into Junior Thug, which he only partially succeeds in doing. There ensues a ridiculous courtroom scene with Keaton doing pratfalls(yawn)and the whole debacle thankfully ends as it always did in 1930's movies: the bad guys are put down, and the good guys win. Ho-hum. If you like Anita Page, which I do, she is the only reason for viewing this laborious flicker.

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The Sidewalks of New York
THE SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK is awful. Think of The Dead End Kids mixed with a bad Three Stooges short (except without the stooges). That about sums it up. There is not much to like about The Sidewalks of New York. Buster plays a weathy man who attempts to reform a group of steet kids who live in a building he owns. This was Buster's fourth (of seven) sound features for MGM (fall 1931). By this time Buster had lost all creative control and support. View The Sidewalks of New York only if you wish to see everything Buster was in. MGM should be ashamed of themselves.

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Slumlord Buster
Buster plays Homer Harmon, a wealthy landlord of tenement buildings in a poor Irish neighborhood of New York City. He falls madly in love with the older sister of a teenage delinquent, whose gang is defacing his property. In order to win favor with the sister, Buster builds a gym for these unappreciative brats. The gang uses dialogue like "yer yella", "you big lug", "you mugs" - sort of like pre-Dead End Kids, but not as serious.

One of the best scenes in the film is where Buster gets beat up a lot while trying to teach the youngsters wrestling and boxing, something his character knows nothing about, and borrows techniques he used in the 1926 silent "Battling Butler". His partners include his co-star Cliff "Ukulele Ike" Edwards (who growls at him), and what is probably a 1931 junior wrestling champ hired for this film, a guy named Baloney (who really shows him a thing or two).

Another good scene is where Buster and Ike put on a show to raise money for the neighborhood. Bus dresses up like a gypsy girl and flirts with Ike, who's playing the part of a Russian Cossack. Later, he appears in drag again when he's mistaken for a crook named the Blonde Bandit and appears in a dress that struck me as looking like it was borrowed from Joan Crawford's dressing room.

Buster disliked "Sidewalks of New York" the most out of all the features he made at MGM between 1928-33, but it's really not that bad. The pacing moves along without dull moments, and it made a lot of money at the box office, probably because the subject matter attracted kids. But it wasn't up to his standard of quality entertainment (he knew he could do better).