Dead End

In 1935 Sidney Kingsley’s play Dead End premiered on Broadway. It was a hit, running for two years and launched the Dead End Kids, a group of children who would go on to make many films and short subjects under an assortment of names including The Little Tough Guys, The East Side Kids and The Bowery Boys. Such was their initial success that it didn’t take long for Hollywood to take notice and many of the kids who appeared in the original play were invited out west to appear in a film version of Dead End in 1937. Samuel Goldwyn spearheaded this project, something that, while financially successful, proved too much for Goldwyn when the rambunctious boys lived up to their names and on-screen personas. 

Much of the original story remained the same when adapted to the big screen. Of particular note was the messages of the divide between the rich and poor, made more poignant by the nearly non-existent space dividing them. Wealthy people are forced to walk among the poor as their residences overlook the river on one side and the slums and roach-infested tenements on the other. Early on there is contempt on both sides as the rich look with disdain at the poor and the poor, represented primarily by the Dead End Kids, openly mock the rich. 

The Dead End Kids consist of Tommy Gordon, the leader (Billy Halop); Angel (Bobby Jordon); Dippy (Hunts Hall); Spit (Leo Gorcey); T.B. (Gabriel Dell); and the newest member Miltey (Bernard Punsly) who is initially bullied by the group before finally being allowed to join, proving himself to be fiercely loyal. Also in the picture is Drina (Sylvia Sidney), Tommy’s older sister, who dreams of marrying rich as a means of leaving the slums behind. This dream is also her way of trying to help Tommy avoid a life of crime, turning into a gangster like Hugh “Baby Face” Martin (Humphrey Bogart), a man Tommy looks up to who has just come back to town in an attempt to reconnect with his mother as well as his childhood girlfriend. Martin was raised on these same streets but left, becoming a mobster. 

There is a lot going on in this film, yet it never feels hard to keep track of. We have three main stories running concurrently. The first is that of the Dead End Kids themselves. Early on they taunt one of the rich kids into coming down to the streets. When he does eventually come down they coerce him into a cellar where they beat and rob him. The boy’s father gets involved and ends up getting stabbed by Tommy. This attack is observed by “Baby Face”  Martin who gets the idea to kidnap the rich kid to hold for ransom, a plot that never comes to fruition. 

Martin’s story begins with his arrival in town where he is approached by Dave (Joel McCrea), a frustrated architect who is finding work hard to find during the depression. Dave and Martin grew up together and Dave, recognizing him, warns him to stay away. Martin ignores this wishing to reconnect with his mother and childhood girlfriend. His mother, though wants nothing to do with him and his old flame has become a hooker who is suffering from syphilis. Upset that his visit is a failure, Martin determines that he must do something to make the visit profitable, hence the kidnapping plot.

The third and final story is that of Dave. Dave has been having an affair with a rich man’s mistress, Kay Burton (Wendy Barrie). The two love each other but Kay fears a life of poverty and cannot see herself committing fully to a man who cannot provide her with the life she desires. When Dave comes into some money late in the picture Kay asks him to go away with her but he refuses, realizing that he no longer wants that kind of life,  intent instead on using the money for a much more noble purpose. 

Dead End is a poignant film that is not afraid to point out the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. Neither side is favored in this depiction and neither side comes out unscathed. We see early on the desperate situation the poor are in, struggling to take care of even the most basic needs. We also see that not all the poor are bad people as evidenced by Dave who, while just as bad off as the others, is a good and honest man who isn’t greedy when some good luck finally comes his way. The only real weakness to the film is the setting. The film was primarily filmed on a single set representing one street in New York. While this set is elaborate it still feels like a set and with little taking the action away from it, develops a sense of claustrophobia to the proceedings. 

Humphrey Bogart is in his element here. This is the type of character he was known for by this time with similar portrayals in The Petrified Forest, Three on a Match and others, and would later appear alongside the Dead End Kids in Crime School and Angels With Dirty Faces. What elevates this above films like The Petrified Forest is the nuance, missing from the previous film. Bogart’s “Baby Face” Martin is a well rounded character. We see and understand his motivations and can sympathize with him even when we cannot condone his actions. We feel for him when he gets a dressing down from him mother, a emotionally defeated woman who feels that she no longer has a son. We also see it in the emotions on his face when he encounters his old girl Frances (Claire Trevor). The range of emotions in just one short scene show us that Bogart was more than the roles he had been given to this point. He was an actor in search of a role worthy of his talents.

The biggest stand out here, though, is Billy Halop as Tommy. Tommy has a hard role to portray. He has to be viscous and a bully, yet not lose our sympathies. He has to make us like him, even when he is doing horrendous things. Billy succeeds in this, an amazing portrayal for such a young man (he was fifteen at the time of filming). We also get a good sense of the mischievousness of his nature in real life, something that was shared amongst all the Dead End Kids. There are plenty of stories about how out of control they all were during production and it is no surprise they were let go from their contract with MGM shortly after this film wrapped, being picked up by Warner Brothers for further films. Tommy does many bad things during the course of this film but in the end, when he is faced with fleeing or turning himself in, we believe his sacrifice, something that could have rang hollow and false. This is by far the most nuanced performance of all the Dead End Kids, most of whom come across more like caricatures than real kids.  

Dead End was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, losing to a mostly forgotten gem The Life of Emile Zola. It earns it’s spot on that list by being not only entertaining but poignant, having a lot to say about the different classes of people. By using the plot point of a closed street forcing the rich to have to use the back streets where the poor reside gives us a juxtaposition of the two classes that otherwise wouldn’t ring true. Showing us glimpses of a party among the wealthy that rages on, unaware of gangster violence going on right next door cements the emotional divide between the two groups. The film is bolstered by amazing performances all around, including it’s young stars whose charisma would raise them above their generic characters and carry them on to seven feature films. It is a thought provoking and entertaining look at the class struggles of depression era urban life and shouldn’t be missed.

Academy Award Nominations:

Outstanding Production: Samuel Goldwyn and Merritt Hulbert

Best Supporting Actress: Claire Trevor

Best Art Direction: Richard Day

Best Cinematography: Gregg Toland

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Release Date: August 27, 1937

Running Time: 93 Minutes

Not Rated

Starring: Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie, Claire Trevor, and Allen Jenkins

Directed By: William Wyler