The very same year that Warner Brothers cast the Dead End kids opposite James Cagney for "Angels With Dirty Faces", Paramount brought a bunch of youngsters together to create the sons of the Legion. Among them were Billy Cook and Billie Lee, both forgotten, and Donald O'Connor as a tough guy ironically named Butch. He has a gangster father Edward Pawley who he claims is dead, while the to Billy's are the son of Lynne Overman, a veteran who was dishonorably discharged on charges of being absent without leave. Any boy who has a father who was in a legion or honorably discharged from the military can join this honorary boys club, and the two Billy's are forbidden by their father to join out of embarrassment for his situation. It all comes together with a little pause thanks to Pawley's return, and a military parade that was needed at a patriotic time when the world was beginning to fall apart.
The conflict isn't much and it is easily rectified, but this is an enjoyable programmer that features Elizabeth Patterson and William Frawley as Overman's mother and brother. (In other words, Mrs. Trumble as Fred Mertz's mom!) O'Connor, playing a tough kid much like Mickey Rooney in the same year's "Boys Town", gives a very subtle performance unlike Rooney who snarled as if he was a bull in the ring while O'Connor is simply hiding the truth about his father through a tough attitude that isn't obnoxious. Cook is very good as the troubled youngster who very much wants to join the legion but can't because of his father's issues, and faces O'Connor and his bully gang with complete courage. Not much to the story, but it is certainly a good record of the patriotism that children felt along with their parents as we headed towards the second World War.
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