Dead End

I knew them only by name for years, seeing them pop up in the TCM schedule occasionally on Saturday mornings.  I had little interest in seeing any of the movies mostly because they sounded pretty awful, but also because movies from the 1930s are so hit or miss.  It's that in between stage where feature films too often felt like larger scale plays as studios dealt with how to make silent movies into sound pictures.  Dubbed the Dead End Kids, this "tough" group of child/teenage actors became huge stars under a couple different names, but if 1937's Dead End is any indication of their stardom, I'm going to continue to steer clear of them.

This is a movie based on a successful stage-based play that has the potential to make the jump from stage to film, but it was a painful movie for me to get through.  There are three different storylines all working against one another -- including the most painful, the Dead End kids -- and never really giving any reason for any one of them to be interesting.  It's a story that follows the goings and happenings on a warm summer day in New York City, a street at a junction where the rich live on one side in their posh, high-rise apartments and the poor in their ratty, decrepit apartments. Oh, the rich and the poor, prepare yourself for a pretentious message on the classes! Eh, maybe not. I don't think this movie could have managed a message if it wanted.

It's a humid, nasty NYC summer day when a man returns to the street he grew up on. He's gone on to other things, earning the nickname Baby Face Martin (Humphrey Bogart). As a gangster/killer out west, Martin's supposedly killed eight people, but he's back now and he wants to see his mother (Marjorie Main) and his old girlfriend, Francie (Claire Trevor). An out of work architect, Dave (Joel McCrea), grew up with Martin and recognizes him, encouraging him to move along before any trouble arises. Then down at the end of the street near the river, a gang of kids and teenagers, the Dead End Kids, harass a doorman to a posh apartment and generally cause mayhem whenever they can because...well, they're idiots.

Let's get the positive (yes, singular) out of the way first because it won't take long.  This is Humphrey Bogart before he was a big star, before he was a household name. In the 1930s, he often played tough guy supporting roles, similar to the ones he would play later but from a leading role.  His talent though is obvious whether it be in a starring role or from a supporting part. It's too bad his part is smaller here, not requiring much of him other than wearing a suit, smoking an occasional cigarette and generally looking tough.  He goes 3-for-3 in that department by the way.  Unfortunately, much of the focus is on the other two plots that do end up crossing paths with Bogie's, but not enough.

Instead, we get lots of interaction with the Dead End Kids, a "tough" street gang of kids/teenagers who like to cause havoc wherever they go. I'm not going to break each character down one by one because they're all interchangeable.  They've got tough street names like Tommy, Spit, T.B. (because he's got tuberculosis...haha that's hilarious), and Milty. A typical conversation goes something like this. "Oh, yeah?!?"...."Yeah!"....."Yeah?!?"...."Well say that again!"...."Oh yeah," and then they push and shove for awhile before running away from a doorman or a cop or an adult.  Listening to these teen actors attempt their awful New York accents is like nails on a chalkboard. Any time they come on screen is nauseating and quickly had me reaching for the fast forward. Awful, awful stuff. How this act appealed to audiences I'll never know.

So on to our intrepid hero, Joel McCrea playing Dave, an out of work architect who now takes odd jobs around town for some cash.  As we meet him, he's painting a sign for a faux-Italian restaurant, and getting a good chuckle out of it at that.  He's currently going out with rich babe, Kay (Wendy Barrie), but also knows that regular girl, Drina (Sylvia Sidney), has a crush on him. Oh, also, Drina's little brother is one of the Dead End Kids....oh no! More drama!  Basically, Dave has nothing going for him, and he has this pretentious air about him that makes him the guardian of this street.  He's the most milquetoast main character/hero I can think of, and because of that, I ended up liking Bogie's killer more than McCrea.  None of this is a criticism of McCrea who I think is a fine actor, but this is not his best part.

Okay, there were a couple more positives to take away, however small they may have been.  Playing the doorman to the swanky rich person apartment is Ward Bond, future member of the John Ford stock company and all around good tough guy actor. He's one of my all-time favorite character actors, and even seeing him for a few scenes here and there made this movie more memorable.  Also, the studio set is pretty cool, claustrophobic and cluttered, making the setting interesting at least if not the goings-on.  A pretty bad movie overall, and one I won't be revisiting anytime soon.

Dead End <---trailer (1937): */****