To celebrate his sixteenth birthday, Frankie Cusack (Peter Fernandez) and his young sister Alice (Sharon McManus) abandon their Brooklyn tenement-house and spend a carefree day in Manhattan. As soon as they return home, Frankie seeks out the company of his friends, "The Dukes," a local gang. When hood Gaggsy Steens (Richard Benedict) offers The Dukes five dollars each to rough up a "welcher" named Giotta (Duke Green), Larry (Mickey Knox), The Dukes's leader, eagerly accepts. Everyone but Frankie participates in beating up the elderly Giotta, and Theodore "Crazy" Perrin (Joshua Shelley) happily cuts him with his knife.
Later, after Gaggsy pays the boys off outside a community center, Stan Albert (Stephen McNally), who runs the center, angrily tells Gaggsy to "lay off" the youths. Stan then warns Frankie not to become too involved with The Dukes. Frankie shrugs off the warning and soon after, is chased by a policeman for trying to break open a telephone box. Frankie's father Joe (Luis Van Rooten) helps Frankie.
Frankie's hard-working mother Katie (Thelma Ritter) comes down with appendicitis. Frankie's best friend and neighbor, Benjamin 'Benny' Wilks (Al Ramsen), then invites him on a double date, and Frankie is smitten by his date, the sweet-natured Betty Maylor (Sue England).
Later, when Frankie and Benny disrupt their manual arts class, the beleagured teacher, Mr. Bannon (Robert Osterloh), brings in the principal, Mr. Hayes (Bert Conway), who suspends the students and demands to talk with each of their parents. Benny takes out a gun and accidentally shoots and kills Bannon. Benny and Frankie sneak away from the school, and that night, while they are out driving with Betty and Lucille Ween (Ruth Tobey), Benny's girl friend, Benny tosses the barrel of the gun out of the car.
Later, Frankie and Benny are interrogated by police detective lieutenant Louie Macon (Jeff Corey). Frankie and Benny ask Lucille and Betty to lie for them, and the girls reluctantly do so. Betty's mother, however, forbids her from seeing Frankie again, and Frankie ends up stealing Crazy's date, Annie Kane (Barbara Whiting), one night. When Crazy sees Frankie with Annie, he becomes enraged and threatens Frankie with his knife.
Gaggsy now being sought for killing a policeman, is Stan's brother, and soon after, Frankie reads about Gaggsy's violent death at the hands of the police. The police find Benny's discarded gun barrel and connect it to Bannon. At the dance, Frankie fights with Larry and a full-scale brawl almost erupts.
Outside the dance hall, Frankie calls Macon and anonymously names Benny as Bannon's killer. Macon recognizes Frankie's voice, however, and a panicked Frankie races home, intending to flee the city. When the police arrive to arrest Benny, Benny also hides on the rooftop, and fights with Frankie. Benny falls off the roof to his death. Frankie is arrested for his part in Bannon's death and faces an uncertain future.
A 1949 American Black & White film-noir crime film produced & directed by Maxwell Shane, screenplay by Maxwell Shane and Dennis J. Cooper, based on Irving Shulman's novel "The Amboy Dukes" (1946), cinematography by Maury Gertsman, starring Peter Fernandez, Stephen McNally, Thelma Ritter, Sue England, Barbara Whiting, Luis Van Rooten, Jeff Corey, Sharon McManus, Richard Benedict, Al Ramsen, Joshua Shelley, Pepe Hern, Mickey Knox, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Osterloh, and Tony Curtis (as Anthony Curtis). Screen debut appearances of Peter Fernandez, and Joe Turkel. Final film of Joan Baxter. First credited film appearance of Tony Curtis (as Anthony Curtis).
Many Williamsburg residents appeared in this shock-drama such as August, Ann, Diane, Peter, Mable, Elizabeth, Rose Mary, Peggy and George Peterson, Mildred Peters and the whole Peterson family who were a show business family who were all cousins to bear trainer and showman Stanley Beebe who was under contract to both Paramount and Twentieth Century-Fox Studios.
The subdivision in which the new house mentioned in the movie is located is called "Canarsie Terrace". These houses are located on Rockaway Parkway near Avenue N in Canarsie, Brooklyn, NY 11236.
The film possibly makes a more convincing impact due to its lack of big stars. The roles are filled mainly by unrecognizable or relatively new actors. Most importantly, the film emphasizes the contention that a good education for their children is the best way to lift the next generation from a sordid and dangerous environment.
The screenplay is based on the novel "The Amboy Dukes" (1946) by Irving Shulman, Double Day & Company, New York. The book was a popular hard-hitting novel.
Variety praised the film: "Out of Irving Shulman’s grim novel, The Amboy Dukes, Maxwell Shane has whipped together a hardhitting and honest film on juvenile delinquency ... The plot threads are smoothly woven into the social fabric ... The performances by all members of the cast are marked by Shane's accent on naturalness."
