Cinema Revisited: Dead End (1937)
Directed by William Wyler. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea, Sylvia Sidney, Wendy Barrie, Allen Jenkins, Marjorie Main, Claire Trevor, The Dead End Kids. Released August 27, 1937. Running time: 93 minutes
Joel McCrea is an architect who longs to tear down the slums he lives in and create a decent place, but he can't find any work. Sylvia Sidney works hard, and tries to maintain for herself and her brother, Billy Halop. Halop is the leader of a gang of teen thugs who fight to survive and to claim their turf. Wendy Barrie is a rich girl who came from poverty, loves the McCrea character, but realizes marrying him means leaving her entitled surroundings. And Humphrey Bogart is a noted gangster who had his face fixed and has returned to his old slum neighborhood to reconnect with his roots, now longing for the doldrums of a wife and family after a lifetime of being a gangster -- only to find that his girl, and his mother, are not who they once were.
"Dead End" is Lillian Hellman's screen version of Sidney Kinglsey's play, and one of the finest films of its kind. Bogart was a few years away from the top level stardom that films like "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca" would allow him. He mostly played terrifyingly hard lined mugs during this period, and "Dead End" features that early screen persona at its very best. The scene where he sees his mother for the first time in ten years, after rising to the top as a gangster, and she is now a sickly woman who rejects him with a slap in the face, is one of the best acted, best shot, best lit scenes in all of cinema. The mother is Marjorie Main, who later defined her career as the wonderfully tough Ma Kettle. In this scene she is so frail she can barely speak. When she bursts with angry fervor and slaps her errant son in the face, every viewer feels the sting. Her anguished scream at the end when she sees her son gunned down by police gives the viewer chills.
Another stirring scene occurs between Bogart and Claire Trevor as his old childhood girlfriend that he longs to see again. Expecting her to be the same sweet girl she once was, he is shocked to discover she is now a cheap prostitute battling sexual diseases. This is creatively conveyed through the acting and directing (the production code limited how much they could do or say). Even though she is only on screen for five minutes, Claire Trevor's performance resonates so strongly, she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. Her tough demeanor, almost lasping into the girl she once was, and they her repeating "it's a dream, it's all a dream" is heartbreaking, as is Bogart's reaction once he realizes she isn't who she once was. His disillusionment at what has become of his sentimental past results in a chilling plan to kidnap a child for ransom.
The Dead End Kids got their name for making their collective debut in this movie. The performances of Halop, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabe Dell, and Bernard Punsly laid down the foundation for over 20 years of various groups and gangs from drama to comedy. Their respective performances (each gets a chance in the spotlight), reveal their individual potential.
The film is dotted with small roles essayed by the likes of Ward Bond (as a tough, no-nonsense doorman who represents another level of niggling authority to the slum inhabitants), and Allen Jenkins as Bogart's stern, intimidating henchman.
Director Wyler knows exactly how to frame the action, his succession of shots enhancing the drama, his use of darkness and light adding to the emotion. The acting is filled with subtle nuance, especially from the low key Joel McCrea, who uses his grumbling monotone and economy of movement to convey the disillusionment of his character. When he guns down the gangster and is told of the reward, he responds with skeptical incredulity, "the pay you for it, eh?"
Sylvia Sydney and Wendy Barrie are interesting opposites. The former a tough girl of the slums who has dreams of escaping that she's clung to since childhood, but is realizing they will never come true. The latter is privileged and refined, but is no stranger to poverty. Her love for the Joel McCrea character makes them both feel awkward. When she goes to visit him in his seedy apartment, she realizes her own past is nowhere near the depths of his current status. She wants him to join her world of wealth and privilege. But, as he states, "I don't belong in your world, and you don't belong in mine."
Some films are so well written, so well directed, and so well acted, they continue to resonate over time and generations, despite a few nagging specifics that might be dated, in both production and cultural history. But the underlying theme remains powerful and the film works on countless levels even as late as the 21st century.