Dead End Reviews

Overall, not a good movie, to me, thought there were elements that I'll mention in a minute. Clunky moralizing social drama; dull and talky. I found the Dead End Kids to be bad actors and just not worth watching. If you happened to be a fan of theirs from other movies, you might see this one totally differently from me.

The good elements were isolated pleasures for me; they couldn't redeem the movie as a whole. But -

Gregg Toland's photography was great. There's some really sweet scenes of light and shadow, and some of his trademark deep shots with action in foreground and background.

The set is really impressive.

Claire Trevor and her one scene were fantastic. Bogie was good in that scene. I thought his performance varied between the early twitchiness seen in a lot of his 30s pictures, and some better work. (Allen Jenkins as his henchman was pretty good. In comedy I think he lays it on too thick; I don't know if I'd seen him as a tough before.)

Sylvia Sidney was good; I dunno if she was great, but it's not a great role, pretty much weepiness all the time. Boy, is she beatiful; that also gets in the way of my evaluation.

Joel McCrea was just OK. I love him in later work, so it's probably partly the apprentice stage of his career. And mostly the crap dialogue; again, it's just a dull role.

I like Wendy Barrie; she didn't have a lot to do, but I enjoyed her brief appearances.

Marjoie Main's expression as Bogart's mother, seeing her son for the first time in years, but repulsed, was amazing. The way it's lit and shot; they all put this scene together really well.

Charles Halton has a scene as kidnapping consultant, seemingly. I don't think I'd seen a hard-bolied attitude from him before; I thought he was awesome.

So, I'd watch parts of this movie again, to see these bits I liked. I'd fast-forward over the kids every time. And probably over the adult actors I usually like, too, when they've got talky message scenes.

This film is more of a stylized melodrama about wealth inequality on the whole, but the entire project is elevated by Humphrey Bogart’s bravura performance. He creates a tragically menacing figure as the character of Baby Face Martin, tragic in that you can see his rough childhood on his now menacing visage. On the run from the law and bitter from the wrongs that society has done to him, he feels a need to harden the boys around his old stomping grounds and becomes the corrupting influence that drives them to crime. All the while, his childhood friend Dave (Joel McCrea) tries to teach them to be kind, forgiving, pillars of the community to help unite the poor and the rich and forge a better life for all—though, Dave realizes, such bitterness is hard to quell.