Dead End
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Movie Reviews of Dead End
Movie Review: "Dead End (1937) ... Humphrey Bogart ... William Wyler (Director) (2005)"
Summary: 5 Stars
Warner Bros. Pictures presents "DEAD END" (1937) (93 min/B&W) -- Starring Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor, Wendy Barrie, Joel McCrea, Ward Bond, Sylvia Sidney, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall & Billy Halop
Directed by William Wyler
Adapted by Lillian Hellman from Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play, Dead End concerns itself with several denizens of New York's East River district. Here the elite and the slum-dwellers rub shoulders due to the close proximity of the riverfront tenements with the East Side luxury hotels. Slum girl Drina Gordon (Sylvia Sidney) tries to prevent her younger brother Tommy (Billy Halop) from wasting his life as a member of the local street gang. Tommy and the other kids idolize Baby Face Martin (Humphrey Bogart), a onetime East- sider who has hit the "big time" as a notorious gangster. Dodging the cops, Martin makes a sentimental journey to the neighborhood to visit his mother and his old girlfriend Francey (Claire Trevor). But Martin's mother (Marjorie Maine) coldly tells him to get lost, while Francey reveals herself to be a consumptive prostitute. Despite his depressed state, Martin is still admired by the local kids; this displeases sign painter Dave Connell (Joel McCrea), who hopes to escape the slums via his romance with wealthy Kay Burton (Wendy Barrie).
The film introduces the Dead End Kids--Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey, Gabe Dell, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsley and Bobby Jordan--all of whom were veterans of the Broadway version of Dead End and would be metamorphosed into the East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys.
Oscar Nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Claire Trevor), Best Art Direction & Best Cinematography
Humphrey Bogart meets The Dead End Kids - he was to meet them again a year later in a similar tough-guy role opposed to the boys in Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) which also starred James Cagney & Ann Sheridan
BIOS:
1. William Wyler [Director]
Date of Birth: 1 July 1902 - Mülhausen, Alsace, Germany [now Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France]
Date of Death: 27 July 1981 - Los Angeles, California
2. Humphrey Bogart
Date of Birth: 25 December 1899 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 14 January 1957 - Los Angeles, California
3. Sylvia Sidney [aka: Sophia Kosow]
Date of Birth: 8 August 1910 - Bronx, New York
Date of Death: 1 July 1999 - New York City, New York
4. Joel McCrea
Date of Birth: 5 November 1905 - South Pasadena, California
Date of Death: 20 October 1990 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California
5. Claire Trevor
Date of Birth: 8 March 1910 - New York, New York
Date of Death: 8 April 2000 - Newport Beach, California
Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 5 Stars
Performance: 5 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 5 Stars
Overall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]
Total Time: 93 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (03/08/2005)
Movie Review: "Dead End" is Dead On!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is such a wonderful movie from 1937 which stars Joel McCrea, Sylvia Sidney, and a quite youthful and convincing Humphrey Bogart. But in my eyes the real stars of the movie are the Dead End Kids. Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsly were the original Dead End Kids in the Broadway play "Dead End". When the studio brought it to Hollywood to be filmed, they also brought the kids with them - much to the chagrin of studio head Louis B. Mayer! They wreaked quite a bit of havoc while on (and off) the set. Their contract was ended after the movie was made and they went to different studios where they went on to become the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys.
The movie itself is rich in the detail and style of the time. It tells the story of life on the New York riverfront where the rich built luxurious homes amidst the run-down, filthy tenaments. Times are hard and jobs are even harder to get. Dave (McCrea) has gone to college and is a degreed architect but cannot find steady work. He has fallen for Kay (Wendy Barrie), a socialite/mistress who lives in the luxury apartments but who is afraid of poverty. Drina (Sidney) is his childhood friend who still carries a torch for him. She is out of work at the time because the workers are on strike against their company. Drina's younger brother, Tommy (Halop), is the leader of his small gang of boys who hang out at the dock near the apartments. She genuinely loves her brother and desparately desires to get him out of the slums.
Enter "Baby-Face" Martin (Bogart) who used to be one of the kids in the neighborhood but is now a hardened killer come back to pay a visit to his mother and former girlfriend. He and Dave knew eachother when they were kids and Dave recognizes him despite his plastic surgery.
The gang beats up a rich kid who lives in the apartment and while Tommy is being held by the boy's father, he stabs him with a pocket knife and runs into hiding. Meanwhile, Martin is distraught to find that his mother wants him to die and his childhood sweetheart is now a prostitute. He decides that he will not leave the city empty-handed - he plans to kidnap the rich boy for ransom. Dave finds Martin and, after a struggle, Martin is killed. Spit (Gorcey) is nearby and is recognized as being one of the gang who beat up the rich kid. He snitches to the police that it was Tommy but, unbeknownst to him, Milty (Punsly) overhears him and runs to tell Drina.
Word gets to Tommy and he intends on giving Spit the "mark of the squealer" which is a cut across the face. Dave stops him and convinces Tommy to turn himself in. With the reward money he will get from killing Martin, Dave tells Drina that, together, they will get the best lawyer they can for Tommy and everything will be alright.
The ending scene is classic as it shows the gang hanging out at the dock, talking over a trash can fire...as life goes on.
Movie Review: Tight quarters
Summary: 5 Stars
The building of the spectacular tower of River House in 1931 displaced many of the tenement slums along Manhattan's East River; the early wealthy residents had to rub shoulders for years with the poor still living alongside them in order to live in luxury and gain spectacular views of the river traffic. This juxtaposition inspired Sidney Kingsley's memorable slice-of-life 1935 Broadway play that Samuel Goldwyn the very next year turned into this movie, using as its most memorable characters many of the "Dead End Kids" who had been in the original production (they would go on to play basically the same roles together for decades afterwards, in ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES and its sequel, then as the East Side Kids, the Little Wise Guys and, under their best-known moniker, the Bowery Boys). The film also features a spectacular performance by Humphrey Bogart as Baby Face Martin, a former Dead End kid who has become a national public enemy, and has come home to see his mother (Marjorie Main) and his girl (Claire Trevor), but with tragic results. Bogart's scenes with Main and Trevor are terrific, and he has never been better than when, after the latter encounter, he decides in the subsequent scene in the restaurant, he chillingly decides to salvage something for himself still out of his ill-starred sentimental journey.
Main and Trevor both seem up to the level of Bogart and the Dead End Kids here; unfortunately Sylvia Sidney, as the goodhearted sister of the kids, doesn't seem quite up to their level here mostly because of her dull part. (Joel McCrea, as her beloved, fares much better, thanks to his ability to use his innate flintiness to good effect here.) But the real stand-outs here are the director, William Wyler and his legendary cinematographer Gregg Toland. Wisely, instead of fully opening the play up, Wyler chose to emphasize the tight quarters of the East Side blocks: the play does have some somewhat stagey entrances and exits (and emphasizes unities of time and space in certain sequences), but the establishing shots before and after the film of Rockefeller Center rising in the distance--and, as viewed in the other direction, rear projections of the colossal Queensboro Bridge--emphasize the confinement of the characters to their surroundings. And Toland accomplishes remarkably inventive uses of deep focus, tricky shadow and light effects, and of camera placement. There are two absolutely astonishing sequences, one involving McCrea's other love interest (Wendy Barrie), the mistress of wealthy denizen of River House, walking in horror through a filthy tenement as McCrea follows her surreptitiously, and the other involving the final shootout between Bogart and McCrea in the alleys and warehouses near the river.
Movie Review: Bogie and the original Dead End Kids
Summary: 5 Stars
Dead End was a Broadway phenomenon not only because of its subject matter but because of the casting. For the tenement kids, the producers went out into the tenements to find their actors. These kids were brought to the screen intact and after a number of other films the dead end kids were born.
It is also interesting that for the screen adaptation, that award winning playwright Lillian Hellman (The Little Foxes and Watch on the Rhine) adapted the play. This probably is why the film captures the essence of the play without being too staged.
The movie takes place on a dead end street where the uptown has crept to meet the tenements during the depression. This does not have one story line but a group of stories that from time to time intersect.
Dave (Joel McCrea) grew up in the tenement. He went to college and now is an architect who is down on his luck. He is in love with Kay a private secretary to one of the uptown residents. While local girl Drina (Silvia Sidney) is in love with Dave.
Dave runs into an old gang member Baby Face Martin (Humphrey Bogart) who is wanted by the police. He has returned to see his mother (Marjorie Main) and girlfriend (Claire Trevor).
The current gang is five local boys, T.B. (Gabriel Dell), Tommy (Billy Halop) - Drina's brother, Dippy (Huntz Hall), Angel (Bobby Jordan) and Spit(Leo B Gorcey). They like to tease the rich kid Philip.
The major changes from the play is with Dave in the play is Gimpty because of his bad leg. Also, Dave informs on Baby Face for the reward to escape the tenement with Kay in the play; in the movie he seeks revenge and shoots Baby Face himself.
This was Bogart's follow-up film to The Petrified Forest. The Petrified Forest is credited for bringing Bogart to the forefront. This film solidified his standing as the perfect gangster.
Silvia Sidney gives another marvelous performance and look for Marjorie Main in an against type performance. Future Oscar winner, Claire Trevor gets a nomination for a brief role as Baby Face's girlfriend.
This is an excellent movie that started a subgenre of films.
DVD EXTRAS: None
Movie Review: Above and Below
Summary: 5 Stars
Most of us know Bogart and his performance here won't cause any major reconsideration of his icon status, but the revelations in DEAD END, especially its crisp new transfer, are in the performances of Joel McCrea and Sylvia Sidney. (Claire Trevor, too, has a wonderful part, and her wry expressiveness, which lasted on screen for close to 50 years, has an angelic touch to it in the film.) McCrea doesn't actually convince you that he's an architect, but he does seem like someone who might well have pulled himself up by the bootstraps and gotten himself out of the ghetto to join the wealthy crowd up on the terraces. As it turns out, he was once part of the crowd, an "O.G." you might say, and he and Bogart were comrades in arms a zillion years ago when both were boys together on these mean Manhattan streets.
He's not a naturally articulate actor and the pleasure is in seeing him try to communicate something of his passion for social justice to the other characters, who seem like the've all been hit over the head by the hammers of fate, so that they're walking around half-dead already. I wonder if the playwright. Sidney Kingsley, or the screenwriter Lillian Hellman, felt the same frustration trying to change things in Depression America, in the shadow of the Queensborough Bridge where this expressionist set looms bleak and tired, as though exhausted from sheer labor. McCrea supplies enough energy to ignite half a dozen sticks of gelignite, and the film keeps turning up the ratchet.
His opposite number is the exquisite Sylvia Sidney. More than any other actress, her appeal seems distant today, it's hard really to wrap your mind around the fact that she was Paramount's biggest star for many years. She is beautiful indeed, but not in any conventional way, and she was perfect for playing all sorts of parts--oddly enough she could play lower class, or royalty, but little in between. Her exotic looks are often used by directors who have nothing else to say but to display her ravishing face and hands, but when handed a proper role she can really sink her teeth into, well, get out of the way boys, there's no holding her back.