Sidewalks of New York (1931 film)

Sidewalks of New York is a 1931 American comedy film directed by Zion Myers and Jules White and starring Buster Keaton. The film was commercially successful.

Sidewalks of New York
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Zion Myers Jules White
Written by	Dialogue by Robert E. Hopkins, Eric Hatch, and Willard Mack Story by George Landy and Paul Gerard Smith
Produced by	Lawrence Weingarten
Starring	Buster Keaton Anita Page Cliff Edwards Frank Rowan Norman Phillips, Jr.
Cinematography	Leonard Smith
Edited by	Charles Hochberg
Music by	Domenico Savino
Production company	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	September 26, 1931 (1931-09-26)
Running time	74 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Plot

Harmon (Keaton) is a wealthy landlord. When he goes to visit one of his tenements, he gets caught in the middle of a brawl between groups of kids, one of whom, Clipper Kelly (Phillips) starts to attack Harmon. When Harmon defends himself, he is seen by Clipper's sister, Margie (Page). Harmon falls in love at first sight and begins to woo her following his trial for attacking Clipper. In order to demonstrate that he is okay, Harmon opens a gymnasium for the street boys, but Clipper, who has fallen in with a small-time gangster, Butch (Rowan), wants nothing to do with Harmon and turns the other boys against him.

Harmon tries to win them over by staging a wrestling match with his friend Poggle (Edwards) and a rigged boxing match with Mulvaney (Saylor). In the meantime, Butch has gotten Clipper involved in a series of robberies with Clipper dressed as a woman. When Butch and Clipper believe Harmon has learned of their illegal activities, Butch orders Clipper to kill Harmon during a stage play that is being performed at the gymnasium, but Clipper gets cold feet. Butch grabs Harmon, who is dressed in Clipper's drag costume, thinking he is Clipper, and heads up to Harmon's mansion to rob it. Butch's gang joins them and Clipper and the other boys come to Harmon's rescue.

Cast

• Buster Keaton as Harmon
• Anita Page as Margie
• Cliff Edwards as Poggle
• Frank Rowan as Butch
• Norman Phillips Jr. as Clipper
• Syd Saylor as Mulvaney
• Clark Marshall as Lefty
• Jerry Tucker as Little Boy (uncredited)

Reception

Keaton's most commercially successful film, Sidewalks of New York grossed $885,000 with a net profit of nearly $200,000.

See also

• List of boxing films

External links

• Sidewalks of New York at IMDb
• Sidewalks of New York at the TCM Movie Database
• Sidewalks of New York at AllMovie
• Sidewalks of New York at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Sidewalks of New York at the International Buster Keaton Society