AllMovie

The Harlem Tuff Kids, African-American counterparts to Monogram's East Side Kids, star in the morale-boosting comedy-drama Take My Life. It all begins when the Kids-Johnny (Freddie Jackson), Bill (Eugene Jackson), Icky (Paul White), Stinky (Eddie Lynn) and Shadow (Monte Hawley)-disdainfully disregard their patriotic responsibilities as America enters WW2. Our hoodlum heroes are brought into line by tough-but-kindly Sergeant Holmes (Jack Carr), who gives them a crash course in what it means to be a "Real American". Before they've been completely won over, however,the Tuff Kids are sucked into a murder-mystery subplot. Curiously, the fact that most black American citizens in 1942 were routinely denied the very freedoms they were expected to fight for is sidestepped in this cheap but lively programmer.