The Mayor of Hell (1933)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Archie Mayo
(more)

Writers:

Islin Auster (story)
Edward Chodorov (screenplay)

Release Date:

24 June 1933 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Five members of a teen-age gang, including leader Jimmy Smith, are sent to the State Reformatory, presided...

Plot Keywords:

Nurse | Gangster | Gang | Fire | Political Corruption

Cast

James Cagney	...	Richard 'Patsy' Gargan
Madge Evans	...	Dorothy Griffith
Arthur Byron	...	Judge H.J. Gilbert
Allen Jenkins	...	'Uncle' Mike
Dudley Digges	...	Mr. Thompson
Frankie Darro	...	James 'Jimmy' Smith
Sheila Terry	...	Blonde with Mike
Robert Barrat	...	Fred Smith, Jimmy's Father
Allen 'Farina' Hoskins	...	Joliet 'Smoke' Hemingway (as Farina)
Harold Huber	...	Joe, Gargan Henchman
Dorothy Peterson	...	Mrs. Smith, Jimmy's Mother
G. Pat Collins	...	Brandon, Head Guard (as George Pat Collins)
Edwin Maxwell	...	Louis Johnson
John Marston	...	Hopkins, Children Society's Lawyer
William V. Mong	...	Mr. Walter, the Auditor
Mickey Bennett	...	Butch Kilgore
Sidney Miller	...	Isadore 'Izzy' / 'Schnoz' Horowitz
Hobart Cavanaugh	...	Mr. Gorman, Tommy's Father
George Humbert	...	Mr. Carmonotti, Tony's Father
Raymond Borzage	...	Johnny 'Skinny' Stone
George Offerman Jr.	...	Charles 'Charlie' Burns
Charles E. Cane	...	Tommy 'Stupe' Gorman (as Charles Cane)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Beaudine Anderson	...	Boy (uncredited)
James Donlan	...	Sam, Political Boss (uncredited)
Ben Hendricks Jr.	...	Guard Taking Jimmy to Thompson (uncredited)
Gladden James	...	Car Owner Paying 25 Cents (uncredited)
Wilfred Lucas	...	Bill, a Guard (uncredited)
Larry McGrath	...	Johnston's Assistant (uncredited)
Jack McHugh	...	Boy Prosecutor (uncredited)
Bert Moorhouse	...	Joe's Henchman Playing Cards (uncredited)
Adrian Morris	...	Car Owner Who Won't Pay (uncredited)
Frank O'Connor	...	Policeman in Court (uncredited)
Henry Otho	...	Guard in School Armory (uncredited)
Bob Perry	...	Collector (uncredited)
Hector Sarno	...	Hollis, Injured Proprietor (uncredited)
Andy Shuford	...	Boy Judge (uncredited)
Charles Sullivan	...	Collector (uncredited)
Ben Taggart	...	Sheriff (uncredited)
Fred 'Snowflake' Toones	...	Mr. Hemingway, Smoke's Father (uncredited)
Sailor Vincent	...	Guard (uncredited)
Huey White	...	Joe's Henchman (uncredited)
Charles C. Wilson	...	Wilson, the Kind Guard (uncredited)
Harry Wilson	...	Joe's Henchman (uncredited)
Dorothea Wolbert	...	Mrs. Burns, Charlie's Mother (uncredited)

Directed by
Archie Mayo
Michael Curtiz		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Islin Auster		(story "Reform School")
Edward Chodorov		(screenplay)

Produced by
Edward Chodorov	....	producer (uncredited)
Lucien Hubbard	....	producer (uncredited)

Cinematography by
Barney McGill
Merritt B. Gerstad		(uncredited)

Film Editing by
Jack Killifer

Art Direction by
Esdras Hartley

Costume Design by
Orry-Kelly		(gowns)

Makeup Department
Perc Westmore	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Frank Shaw	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Kenneth Green	....	second camera operator (uncredited)
David Harris	....	second camera operator (uncredited)
Ben White	....	second camera operator (uncredited)
William P. Whitley	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Music Department
Leo F. Forbstein	....	conductor: Vitaphone Orchestra
Bernhard Kaun	....	composer: music cues (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Vitaphone Corporation, The
• Warner Bros. Pictures

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1933) (USA) (theatrical) (as Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.)
• Warner Home Video (2008) (USA) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Vitaphone Orchestra  orchestra

Also Known As:

Reform School (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Italian | Yiddish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #2644-R, 3 September 1936 for re-release) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating)

Company:

Vitaphone Corporation, The

Goofs:

Continuity: When Thompson is brought to trial by the boys in their court for the murder of Johnny, a white handkerchief is visible in the breast pocket of his black suit coat in the medium close-ups. In the long shots, the handkerchief is missing.

Quotes:

Lawyer: Tell us what you know, I said! Never mind what you think!
Mr. Hemingway: Excuse me, boss. I ain't no lawyer. I can't talk without thinkin'.

Movie Connections:

Remade as Crime School (1938)

A Typical Hokey-But-Entertaining Early '30s Cagney Film

This is a typically fast-moving entertaining movie of the early 1930s. When you have James Cagney in the lead, these "pre-Code" films are even better: just fun stuff to watch. Usually, when films are "dated," it's a negative but not so with films from 1930-1934. Yeah, with the slang and the attitudes, dress, hairstyles, etc., they are dated but that's a big part of the fun. These films have an edge to them that almost always are fun to view.

They also have a corniness which is appealing and fascinating. You see people - like the juvenile delinquents pictured in this film and their goofy parents - that you just don't see in any period but this one (early '30s). Early on this movie, the kids go before the judge and you sit and just laugh at these crazy characters that appear in court on behalf of their kids, one after the other. Yes, we get the stereotypical emotional Italian father; the Jewish dad; the Anglo-Saxon mom and a few other moms who all, in dramatic form, plead theirs is "a good boy." Even though things are predictable in some cases, you don't mind because everyone in here is so much fun to watch.

This also teaches you that kids were punks 75 years ago, too, stealing, robbing, mugging, lying - hey, that's the human condition. This movie debunks the theory that "people were nicer back in the old days." No, people have always been rotten or good. The degree was aided by their environment, parents, financial situation and other things. Here, we get a bunch of "Dead End" kids who wind up in Reform School.

The ridiculous and stupidly-liberal storyline has kids acting immediately like angels once they run the show at the reform school; not punished in the slightest for causing a man to fall to his death and setting the institution on fire (the explanation: he was a meanie and deserved it. So much for real justice and reform.); and "Patsy" shooting a guy bit never having to even be questioned by police because he's the good guy! Notice the subtle anti-religious dig in which the only guy seen praying is the evil "warden." That's no coincidence, no accident. That sort of negative-association things has been going on ever since the Hays Code was canned in the late '60s and was seen, as you see hear, in the Pre-Code early '30s.

Dudley Digges, by the way, is outstanding in his "bad guy" role of "Mr. Thomson." I especially his voice was very effective and could picture him playing one of those similarly-evil roles as an institution boss in a Charles Dickens film adaptation. Cagney played his normal role, the take-no-guff tough guy who gets the pretty girl, "Dorothy Griffith," played by Madge Blake. Frankie Darro also was effective as the leader of the boys, "Jimmy Smith." Just the looks on Darro's face alone made his character believable. Some thing he was the real star of the film, but I'll still go with Cagney. The rest of the reform school kids weren't too believable and they were really ethnic stereotypes, but they were all fun to watch.

I thought the most interesting part of the film was the first 20 minutes when we saw how bad these kids were and witnessed the good and bad and stereotypical parents in the court after the kids were arrested. Those scenes are pure 1930s Dead End Kids stuff. They always showed the kids to be bad news at the beginning of the film, but by the time the story was over they all looked acting more like Wally and Beaver Cleaver - hardly rough "delinquents." It's very far-fetched but it works, entertainment-wise.

Overall, a hokey but very entertaining movie, typical of Cagney films and those of the early '30s. Almost all of them rate at least eight stars for their entertainment value.