Scanialara
You won't be disappointed!
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
JLRVancouver
The contrast between rich and poor is the backdrop of William Wyler's excellent social-commentary/crime-drama "Dead End", as luxurious apartment buildings, in which there seems to be non-stop parties, look down (figuratively and literally) on the struggling inhabitants of the east-side slums. The story follows the exploits of group of street kids (The Dead End Kids – the birth of a franchise that, as "The Bowery Boys" survived into the late '50s), a young couple (McCrea and Sidney) who dream of getting out, and a gangster (Bogart) who did make it out but felt the need to return and reconnect with his family and old girlfriend (Clair Trevor). The cast is uniformly excellent, especially Bogart and Marjorie Main, his mother (a long way from the Kettle farm), the script tight, the cinematography imaginative and effective, and the story compelling. Standout moments include Main's confrontation with her son, the odyssey of Wendy Barrie's wealthy socialite character into the tenement to find McCrea, and Bogart's meeting with his ex-girlfriend, now a syphilitic prostitute. The movie is about as harsh and bleak as post-code Hollywood would permit. McCrea's years of college hasn't gotten him out of the slums, Sidney's endless toil and sacrifice for her brother doesn't keep him from reform school, yet Bogart's murderous criminality has made him rich. Ironically, the hope at the end for McCrea and Sidney comes not from their hard work but from the reward that McCrea will get for shooting Bogart. The only one to have 'gotten out' is Wendy Barrie, who as a wealthy man's mistress begs comparison with Claire Trevor's prostitute.
mnorris-97396
I agree with other reviewers about the fabulous performance of Marjorie Main. It has stuck with me for decades. "you're just a dirty dog" I realize that her accent is wrong -- more Okie than Brooklyn (or other NYC neighborhood). But on my fourth or fifth view, I just noticed how much Bogart's speaking pattern resembles Huntz Hall's. (I realize that's kind of the point -- that the kids growing up today are going to follow the path of Babyface Martin of yesterday -- but I urge you to listen to the similarity in the speech patterns. )
utgard14
Brilliant adaptation of a hit Broadway play about life in the slums of New York during the Great Depression. A gangster on the run from the law returns to the neighborhood he grew up in to plot his next move. Add to that a little romance and a gang of street kids getting into trouble and you've got a first-rate Warner Bros. urban drama picture (only this wasn't made by Warners). Humphrey Bogart plays the gangster character 'Baby Face' Martin. In some ways it was a very familiar role to many others he'd played up to this point, but this one was a bit more layered and gave him a chance to flex his acting muscles some. Solid turns from Joel McCrea, Wendy Barrie, Claire Trevor, and Marjorie Main. Allen Jenkins is always fun to watch. Next to Bogart, I'd have to say the standout is the lovely Sylvia Sidney, one of my favorite actresses from this period. She had some of the most expressive eyes in the business.Among other things, the film's notable for being the first screen appearance of the Dead End Kids, who would go on to appear in several WB gangster pictures (in basically the same roles as this) before starring in a few series of their own under different names, my favorite of which was the Bowery Boys. It's interesting to see them here looking and acting much more like roughneck teenagers than later where they were clearly adults behaving like overgrown kids. Directed by William Wyler, this is a "message movie" from a time when those types of movies actually felt earnest and not phony or preachy. Yes it's pretty much a filmed stage play, which was very common in the 1930s, but the great cast, excellent sets, and Gregg Toland's beautiful photography goes a long way to bringing it all to life. Not one you'll want to pass up if you're a fan of the stars or the period.
wes-connors
Samuel Goldwyn's production is introduced: "Every street in New York ends in a river. For a many years, the dirty banks of the East River were lined with the tenements of the poor. Then the rich, discovering that the river traffic was picturesque, moved their houses eastward. And now the terraces of these great apartment houses look down into the windows of the tenement poor." This transatlantic "tale of two cities" made "Dead End" (1935) a Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway stage hit for playwright Sidney Kingsley; and, this adaptation is one of the best stage to film trips taken during the 1930s.First of all, the film introduces the scene-stealing (and much cloned) "Dead End Kids" who, most notably, morphed into "The East Side Kids" and "The Bowery Boys" for two decades of crime drama and comedy. They are, more or less, fairly reflective of the stage show; consequently, they form a finely choreographed ballet of punk antics. The "Dead End Kid" leader is Billy Halop (as Tommy Gordon); others in the gang's classic line-up are: Huntz Hall (as Dippy), Bobby Jordan (as Angel), Leo Gorcey (as Spit), Gabriel Dell (as T.B.), and Bernard Punsly (as Milty).The "ensemble" cast focuses on four main characters. Young Halop, despite his lowly appearance in the credits, is central. He faces two paths in life: will he will succumb to the temptations offered by crime, and become like well-heeled and charismatic Humphrey Bogart (as "Baby Face" Martin), or grow into the poor but morally upstanding Joel McCrea (as Dave Connell)? Helping tie the much-imitated plot threads together is hard-working, but striking Sylvia Sydney (as Drina Gordon); Halop's supportive big sister, she is also suffering from an unrequited love for Mr. McCrea.Halop and Ms. Sydney offer, arguably, the film's most consistently fine performances; for openers, they never appear too "staged" - which is not to suggest that theatrically-styled acting is a distraction, considering this picture. Halop, in his movie debut, is an especially noteworthy stage-to-film actor; his troubled juvenile delinquent character was repeated numerously. When Halop grew out of the role, "Dead End" co-star Jordan (an endearing tyke in this film) successfully filled his shoes. Of course, Sydney is excellent; a marvelous stage and film actress, her work in the latter was underrated for decades.Also making a fine impression is Claire Trevor (as Francey); although her part is no more than a cameo, she received an "Supporting Actress" nomination for artfully suggesting the syphilitic prostitute toned down for movie audiences. "Dead End" received nominations for "Best Picture", "Art Direction" (Richard Day), and "Cinematography" (Gregg Toland). Arguably, Mr. Day's beautiful New York City set would have won, had it not been his third annual award. Additionally, it would have been a nice idea to see Halop receive one of the irregular "juvenile performance" Oscars awarded at the time. And, in hindsight, William Wyler's direction certainly seems slighted.********** Dead End (8/24/37) William Wyler ~ Billy Halop, Sylvia Sydney, Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea
