Movie Reviews for Dead End

Dead End

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Movie Reviews of Dead End

Movie Review: A Slice Of '30s Life In The Lower East Side
Summary: 3 Stars

"Gangs" and "juvenile delinquents" sure have changed. These kids, called "The Dead End Kids," were the poor, tough kids from tough neighborhoods of the Lower East Side in New York City in the 1930s. They are not to be confused with today's "gang bangers" which their drive-by shootings, drug use, etc. Times change.......not always for the better.

If you haven't seen this movie but saw "Angels with Dirty Faces," you've seen these kids. James Cagney and Pat O'Brien starred in that movie and the kids were an integral part of the story.

The same holds true here with Joel McCrea, Slyvia Sidney and Humphrey Bogart being the "adult" stars of this crime-drama-comedy-social commentary.. They, and other adult actors, are in most of the scenes but the kids are "introduced" and went on to be in a number of films, several of them becoming well-known names.

Sure, it's dated, talky compared to today's fare, and too stagy, but it's still interesting and a powerful story in parts. Some people complain and call it "preachy" in parts but if the "preaching" is common sense and decency, what's wrong with that?

Bogart fans will particularly like this because he gives one of his best performances of the 1930s. A mid-20s-in age Claire Trevor ("Francey") gives a memorable short performance, too.

All in all, nothing super but a decent piece of New York City Americana, if you will.

Movie Review: Chiefly remembered for introducing the Dead End Kids to a delighted world...
Summary: 3 Stars

"Dead End" turned out to be Bogart's most important film since "The Petrified Forest." It offers a vivid portrait of people caught up in a constant struggle to somehow fulfill themselves despite the oppressive environment that seemed to silence their every attempt...

Joel McCrea is a frustrated architect who dreams of tearing down the slums and Sylvia Sidney portrays a shopgirl striving for identity and meaning in her life, a life made even more complicated by having to look after her brother (Billy Halop). The boy idolizes the decadent Bogart, an adulation shared by the rest of the Dead End Kids, here recreating their original Broadway roles with noisy good humor...

Opposing these idealists is their real threat, Bogart, a killer named Baby Face Martin... Bogart is impolitely rejected by a mother (Marjorie Main) who detests him and an ex-girl friend (Claire Trevor) who leaves him bitter and disillusioned when he discovers that she has become a prostitute...

Rebuked by those he had been sentimental enough to want to visit, he quickly reverts to prefigure and plans a kidnapping in order to rescue something from the consumed affair...

"Dead End" remains one of Bogart's best films, where the actor proves that he is capable of handling difficult material with considerable skill...

Movie Review: Stagy melodrama still entertains
Summary: 3 Stars

Attracted by the picturesque river view, the rich rub elbows with the poor on the dead end street of the title when a ritzy apartment building is constructed there. In the shadow of plenty, several characters try to scratch out futures for themselves, most notably an out of work architect (Joel McCrea) who is having an affair with a rich man's mistress (Wendy Barrie), a shopgirl (Sylvia Sidney) trying to get her younger brother (Billy Halop) a better life away from street gangs, and a fugitive gangster (Humphrey Bogart) returning to his old neighborhood for a nostalgic visit with his mother (Marjorie Main) and old girl-friend (Claire Trevor). All of them will be changed by the end of the film. The movie retains the staginess of its Broadway origins. While consistently entertaining, the strictures placed on films at the time prevent it from being as gritty as it wants to be, causing it to come off as a bit too moralizing and melodramatic. This film is perhaps best known for introducing the Dead End Kids, who would go on to make a string of B-pictures.

Movie Review: A mess of a film...
Summary: 2 Stars

Bogie/Hellman/William Wyler/Dead End Kids/cops/gangsters/social consciousness/hookers/t.b./the East River/rich folks dancing the night away in high rise fortresses while the city below teems with resentment and crime/architecture/socialites/film noir shadow-images that didn't add to the film at all, just sort of tarted it up to be something it wasn't...it made my head hurt. It was such a mish-mash: "The Fountainhead" meets "Public Enemy Number One." The faux-city set, the maudlin plot lines, the cliches about the rich, the poor and the criminal...I couldn't believe that, when it was over, I had managed to digest the whole bloody thing. Ugh. The cutesy-bad bowery boys were particularly grating. I found their exaggerated New York accents affected. Bogie looked good - as usual - but was so obviously acting. This created a sense of total, disconnected unreality in every frame. Here's the worse part: thanks to the fact that it was originally a play, the claustrophobic set made what was supposed to be an exciting film stagnant and boring. My final comment: CORN-BALL! Skip it, unless you're doing research.