Code of the Streets (1939)

Hoodlum Tommy Shay is sentenced to die for the murder of Police Lieutenant Carson, although Tommy was in a poker game at the time with a man calling himself "Denver" Collins who has disappeared, and perjured evidence leads to Tommy's conviction. Tommy's younger brother Danny and his gang of alley kids,"The Little Tough Guys"--- Sailor, Murph, Monk, Trouble and Yap---scheme to save Tommy from the electric chair. Police Lieutenant John Lewis, who arrested Tommy, believes he is innocent and goes to the District Attorney and tries so insistently to have the case reopened that he is demoted to a patrolman in the sticks. Bob Lewis, John's son, a radio bug with detective ambitions, starts out on his own to solve the crime and help his father. Searching for Collins, Bob meets Danny and the Little Tough Guys and they join forces. Acting on a tip, they go to the gambling club owned by Chick Foster and tell him the police have reopened the Carson case and suspect him of being implicated. There, they see a man named Halstead whom they believe to be the missing "Denver" Collins. And with the aid of a phony telegram and a Dictaphone planted by Bob, The Little Tough Guys begin to bring law and order to the Gotham streets.