Dead End, 1937 (Grade B)

Director: William Wyler
Awards --when it was a play it won awards--but I don't think the movie did
Cast: Humphrey Bogart; Joel McCrea; Ward Bond; Sylvia Sidney; Wendy Barrie, Claire Trevor; Allen Jenkins; Marjorie Main; Billy Halos; Huntz Hall; Bobby Jordan; Leo Gorcey; Bernard Punsly; Charles Peck; Minor Watson  Dead End

sez says: ALERT SPOILER REVIEW (this will tell you what happens, so if you haven't seen the movie you might not want to go on) -- When the murderer Baby Face Martin (Humphrey Bogart) gets a face lift, so he is not so easily recognizable to the police, he returns to his old stomping ground, thinking about settling down.  He is still a bad guy, but he is "tired of the things money can buy"--and he wants to find his mother and his old girlfriend and maybe settle down. His mother rejects him and his old girl ain't no nice girl any more.  She's been making her living on the streets. (Best line of the movie is when Bogarts say to his old girlfriend 'Why did you do it, Why didn't you let yourself starve?"  She replies "Why didn't you let your self starve?")   So Babyface, hurt to core, lashes out and plans to kidnap a local rich kid --to make the trip home worthwhile.  In the meantime he share inside info about living a wild life with the local kids on the street.-- (the old Dead End Kids Gang are assembled here!) all of whom already have one foot on the wrong path.

The poit seems to be who would not go wrong trying to grow up on these mean streets? Even good-guy (Joel McCrea), who went to college for 6 years and became an architect, is having trouble getting off this Dead End Street, because he has no connections. When he wins an award for helping to capture Babyface  the girl he's got a crush on tells him its enough money for them to have a year's spree together but when the money runs out she will go back to her rich boyfriend.   And the hard working older sister (Wendy Barries) of one of the young street hooligans, is out on strike from her job, and has been beaten by the police, all so she could earn the a few dollars more that would allow her to move her brother out of this neighborhood. An unequal distribution of wealth, a fear of poverty and an over emphasis on  money are destroying this world according to this movie. And all of that might be true. (Grade B)