AllMovie

Not a remake of the 1923 film of the same name, East Side, West Side stars George O'Brien as John Breen, who is orphaned early on when his mother and stepfather are killed in a barge accident. With nothing holding him back, John heads to the Big City he's always dreamed about. Here he becomes a champion boxer under the patronage of wealthy architect Gilbert Van Horn (Holmes Herbert). What Breen doesn't know is that Van Horn is his real father, who was forced by his wealthy family to give up custody of the boy years earlier. After accumulating enough money in the ring to start a new career, Breen develops into a brilliant architect, again with Van Horn's help. Only when both Breen and Van Horn fall in love with the same girl (Virginia Valli) does the true relationship between father and son come to surface. Based on a novel by Felix Reisenberg, East Side West Side was remade in 1931 as Skyscraper, with Thomas Meighan and Hardie Albright.