Dead End (1937)

Policeman: "Well, there ain't no profit in chasing kids."

By William Wyler
With Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea and Humphrey Bogart

I heard about Dead End after watching the movie Angels with Dirty Faces (1938) which also featured the "dead end kids" and, most to my liking, Humphrey Bogart.

In a poor neighborhood of New York, the poor have to cohabit near the fancy buildings that host rich tenants. This proximity isn't going too well and the dead end kids, a gang of young criminals in the making, are always ready to pick a fight. This new generation is observed by two old kids of the neighborhood, Dave a man who went to high school and 6 years of college to become an architect but down on his luck and lives by painting windows while dreaming of living with one of the rich girl from the fancy building. The other grown up from the neighborhood is "Baby Face" Martin earning his nickname for having gone through extensive plastic surgery in order to avoid the police as he is a notorious killer. The two opposites find themselves stuck in a place full of contradictions while witnessing the growth of a new generation that might end on their paths.

The similarities with Angels with Dirty Faces are legion and it really feels like a prototype of it. Where Angels with Dirty Faces involved the quarrel of good and evil, through a priest, Dead End is mostly about rich and poor--both displaying at times good and evil behaviors.

Sadly, where Angels with Dirty Faces had really good behavioral analysis and moral considerations, Dead End seems to end in confusion whether to take the analysis further or not. Much like its title, we seem to hit a wall in terms of reflection past the movie.

The movie has really good sets to recreate the slums of New York and the filming makes a great use of shadows, giving out this very criminal, film noir vibe. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Frank Miller had this movie in mind when he wrote Sin City as its neo-noir genre seems directly inspired by Dead End. 

I found the actresses to be very strong while their characters were the less deep. The dead end kids as an ensemble work well and give out a pretty good sense of what we'd imagine street kids to behave like back in the 30's. Their individual characters are quite shadowed by the group, except for Tommy who appears to personalize the fate of such kids.

I liked: The handling of social issues. Noir filming.

I disliked: There are no memorable lines or thought. Sketchy dialogues at times.

72/100
A pale comparison to Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), we see Humphrey Bogart building his gangster skills once again, en route to the stardom he would achieve.