Free on IMDb
23 out of 35 people found the following review useful: Supporting Players Steal the Picture!, 12 March 2005 Author: (bsmith5552@rogers.com) from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
In "Dead End" the nominal stars are Sylvia Sidney and Joel McCrea but it is the supporting players that steal the picture. Great performances are turned in by the Dead End Kids (Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Bernard Punsley), Humphrey Bogart, Claire Trevor and Marjorie Main. It also benefits greatly from the direction of William Wyler who keeps the story moving and makes the characters interesting."Dead End" was originally produced on the Broadway stage. The Dead End Kids re-enact their Broadway roles. The story takes place on the banks of the East River in New York where posh apartment buildings co-habit the neighborhood with the tenement slums. The plot centers on the activities of the people of the neighborhood one summer's day.Dave Connell (McCrea) is a struggling architect looking for his big break. Drina (Sidney) is a struggling shop clerk who is involved in a labor dispute and hopes one day to be able to leave the neighborhood. Gangster "Baby Face" Martin (Bogart) returns to his childhood haunts hoping to see his mother (Main) and hook up with his old girlfriend Francey (Trevor). Hanging around the wharf are a group of teenage toughs (The Dead End Kids) one of whom, Tommy (Halop) is the brother of Drina.The boys taunt rich kid Philip Griswald (Charles Peck) and lure him down to the street. There he is beaten up by the boys. His father (Minor Watson) is highly influential man who insists on justice for his son. One of the boys, "Spit" squeals on his pal and Tommy is arrested after stabbing Mr. Griswald in the hand.Meanwhile Martin goes to see his mother and is shocked when she slaps him and calls him a murderer. Martin's pal "Hunk" (Allen Jenkins) locates Francey and arranges for her to come meet "Baby Face". Martin is doubly shocked when he learns that his former love has pursued a career on the streets.During an altercation with Dave over the influencing of the boys, Martin stabs him and throws him into the river, leaving him for dead. Martin then hatches a plot to kidnap the rich kid Philip Griswald. But Dave returns, confronts Martin and..............This film is arguably Bogey's best film of the 1930s. Oddly enough, it was made on loan out to Samuel Goldwyn. His expressions of surprise and disgust after meeting with his mother and Francey are a treasure to watch. Trevor's performance, however brief, was moving enough to garner her a best supporting actress Oscar nomination. Marjorie Main also only appears briefly but evokes great sympathy in her role as the tragic Mrs. Martin.The Dead End Kids to a man turn in what are the best performances in the film. They would go on to appear in a series of Warner Bros films in the next two years before moving into several "B" series in the 40s and 50s. Also, look for Ward Bond as the doorman to the rich apartment building and Don "Red" Barry as an abalones doctor.An excellent film.
23 out of 35 people found the following review useful: Well Done --- and a superb cameo, 4 December 2004 Author: felixoscar from New York, USA
Considering all the talent involved, it was hardly surprising to find this a first rate movie. Didn't you want to slap Bogart around ... well, that is actually what compelled me to make this entry. Among the handful of superlative cameo (say 2 to 8 minutes in length)performances I have seen in my 40 plus years of movie-going, Dead End features one of them. Marjorie Main, almost as unlikely a film character (think Ma Kettle!) as one could imagine, turned in what I consider a masterpiece. Read that she repeated her stage role, and wow, that slap, that dialog and that role. Bravo!
11 out of 12 people found the following review useful: The film turned out to be Bogart's most significant film since "The Petrified Forest.", 17 January 2009 Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico
It offers a vivid portrait of people caught up in a continual fight to somehow satisfy themselves despite the oppressive environment that seemed to quiet their every attempt… Joel McCrea is a frustrated architect who dreams of tearing down the slums and Sylvia Sidney portrays a shopgirl struggling for identity and meaning in her life, a life made even more complicated by having to look after her brother (Billy Halop). The boy idolizes the decadent Bogart, an excessive admiration shared by the rest of the Dead End Kids, here recreating their original Broadway roles with noisy good humor… Opposing these idealists is their real threat, Bogart, an assassin named Baby Face Martin… Bogart is impolitely rejected by a mother (Marjorie Main) who hates him and an ex-girl friend (Claire Trevor) who leaves him bitter and disillusioned when he discovers that she has become a hooker…Rebuked by those he had been sentimental enough to want to visit, he rapidly reverts to represent beforehand and plans a kidnapping in order to rescue something from the consumed affair… "Dead End" remains one of Bogart's best films, where the actor proves that he is capable of handling difficult material with considerable skill…
20 out of 31 people found the following review useful: Unique and absorbing, 30 June 2003 Author: marxi from Louisville, Kentucky
It's a dead end street in New York that ends at the river. It's here that a wide assortment of characters from different walks of life come together in a pressure cooker setting. Rich, poor, kindhearted and hardhearted all come together. In Dead End, a young woman and her teenage brother struggle to survive. An architect works for a better life. A gangster comes home to visit his mother. A well kept woman chooses between love and wealth. The rich and the poor get glimpses of one another's lives at the waters edge.This movie draws us into a unique place and time. It gives us intimate portraits into peoples lives. It makes contrasts and it shows similarities between people. It's one of a kind and director William Wyler has given us something special here. Sylvia Sidney, Humphrey Bogart, Marjorie Main, Allen Jenkins, the Dead End Kids and Ward Bond give standout performances. The 1930's atmosphere is palpable. I rate this film 91/100. It's unique and absorbing.
13 out of 19 people found the following review useful: Could Be Made Today, 11 February 2003 Author: Brian Washington (Sargebri@att.net) from Los Angeles, California
This movie is not only a great story, it is a great social commentary on the divisions between rich and poor. The main story concerns the return of a gangster to his old neighborhood, but a couple of side stories concern the gang of kids who seemingly idolize the hood and the rich people who live in a luxury apartment that is next to the slum. This film could be made today because the conditions that are in the film still exist today only they are a hundred times worse because the gap between the rich and the poor in this country have widened even more. This film should be shown more on television
17 out of 27 people found the following review useful: Still powerful, 17 August 2004 Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) from United States
Excellent drama of the New York tenements of 1937 where the rich people live along the same street as the poor people. Movie focuses on two young lovers (Sylvia Sydney, Joel McCrea), killer Baby Face Martin (Humphrey Bogart) and the Dead End Kids (later to become the Bowery Boys). From the incredible opening shot it basically focuses on the kids--it shows the harrowing lives the kids have to live through and how Sydney and McCrea try to keep them good while Bogart teaches them how to rob and kill. Pretty graphic for its day and still strong. Excellent performances by all, especially Bogart, Sydney and Billy Halop (as one of the kids). Also Marjorie Main, Claire Trevor and Ward Bond shine in supporting roles.This had huge censorship problems--it was adapted from a play and was HEAVILY cut (the language was MUCH stronger in the play and when the kids went swimming they weren't wearing bathing suits!) and Warner Bros. had to fight to keep it strong. Aside from a nice, moral ending this is pretty gritty. A must-see and seeing Bogart, Sydney and McCrea so young is amusing.
12 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Oh, Those Kids!, 6 April 2006 Author: LomzaLady from United States
This is a great film about which much has been written, and there are many such thoughtful comments included on this website. I don't really need to add any comments about what a true American classic it is.Instead, I will comment on the character actors, always my favorite part of a Hollywood movie. Once I've seen the picture, and appreciated the stars and understood the plot, I like to watch it for the supporting players --I don't think there were ever any better character actors than those in the Hollywood studio system in the 1930s through 1950s.In this case, I am thinking of the young men who were known as the Dead End Kids. I grew up in New York City with just such kids. They are portraying the real thing, and they do it so well. It's unfortunate that they devolved into those silly characters called the Bowery Boys (still true to life as the neighborhood slackers) in those silly movies made in the 1940s and 1950s. They deserved better, although I suppose it was a living.My particular favorite kid in Dead End is Leo Gorcey. That Spit -- what a little punk. I think he plays the part with just the right mix of teenage bravado, danger and insecurity, and I think he is actually pretty sexy. I could see him playing smooth, urban (not necessarily urbane) villains in other films, but that never happened. Too bad. He would have been very interesting.
12 out of 18 people found the following review useful: Great movie brimming with powerful performances., 23 August 1999 Author: Biscuit-12 from Dallas, TX
I recommend watching "Dead End" and the later "Angels With Dirty Faces" as a double bill. Both are highly enjoyable; and they have a lot of parallel elements. Also, Humphrey Bogart and the future Bowery Boys appear in both films."Dead End" often gets short shrift in comparison, which I think is totally unfair. It is a social drama, sure, which some people will find "preachy," but the points it makes still resonate today. What really makes it stand out, though, are the fine individual performances. Bogart's role is much bigger than the one he plays in "Angels With Dirty Faces," and is extremely intense as a gangster coming home to his mother and his true love. Sylvia Sidney is absolutely luminous in her portrayal of a young woman who would have a promising future if she lived anywhere else, but is a frustrated, trapped animal in the slums of New York. Joel McCrea stands with one foot in each world, having grown up rough in the neighborhood, but without turning gangster, and still able to dream of better things for himself and the people around him. Look also for a couple of brilliant, though brief, appearances--Marjorie Main's chilling delivery as Bogie's exhausted and distraught mother, and Claire Trevor's bittersweet portrayal of his old girlfriend.It's not as heavy as it sounds, though. There is a lot of humor sprinkled throughout, partly because "Dead End" features the first screen appearance of the future Dead End Kids/East Side Kids/Bowery Boys. If you're a fan, it's a lot of fun to watch them here with their rough edges still on, as tough young punks. Billy Halop, Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall are terrific in this, a little grittier than in "Angels With Dirty Faces."
14 out of 22 people found the following review useful: An "End" That Comes In Dead First, 10 July 2006 Author: guidon7 from Gulf Breeze, Florida
I recently watched this film for the first time in many years and I would like to comment in particular on Humphrey Bogart's performance as Baby Face Martin. In the Depression days of the 1930's many citizens admired top criminals who successfully opposed the law (i.e., John Dillinger), in the belief that the law itself was part of the corrupt, elitist system that brought Depression woes upon them and theirs. Martin's character fit this role to a "T" and it shows in his bravery, courage and hatred of the police. A many-faceted character, it also reveals his love for mother and former girlfriend and his gut desire to settle down to a normal lifestyle, abandoning his bloody career. Of course, it is too late for him to turn it around. I believe that although not yet a star, this was Bogart's greatest role, arguably on a par with The Treasure of Sierra Madre. Incidentally, a little known and seldom shown "B" film from the 1940's, the spooky Return of Dr. X, had Bogart as an absolutely chilling "Dr. X", resurrected from the dead. I highly recommend this for Bogie fans. This multi-talented actor could definitely have become a star of horror films had he been so inclined.Allen Jenkins, as his devoted cohort "Hunk" in Dead End, gave a fine performance in probably his only serious role in a long career as a supporting actor in comedy parts. Really a shame. His fight, gun in hand, with Joel McRae in the alley could not have been more realistic, to my way of thinking. The rest of the cast, indeed, was flawless. And how about those Dead End Kids? Although only six years old when the film came out it was reissued frequently and I clearly remember the mothers of that day did all in their power to prevent their children from seeing the film, fearing, perhaps not unrealistically, that they would emulate the "Kids". Wouldn't happen today, now would it? One contributor here thought that Dead End should be remade, citing all the problems of today's youth. I totally disagree. This would only be duplication, ad nauseum, of the same third rate trash -- for the most part -- that never ends in today's films and on the tube. Dead End, however was the forerunner in showing juvenile delinquency and it's connection to -- and likely development into -- serious crime. This last is just another reason to heap praise upon this eminently laudable film. And in closing, I would like to say that while 1937 was not a particularly notable year for the country in general, being in the throes of The Great Depression, as far as the efforts of the film industry went, it was a very, very good year. I for one, am thankful for it.Just recently I finished the 1971 autobiography "Cagney By Cagney". During the filming of "Angels With Dirty Faces" which one might say is a sequel to "Dead End", Cagney ran afoul of the Dead End Kids, in the person of Dead End Kid Leo Gorcey, who was proving uncooperative and insolent. Cagney, in reality a tough guy, gave Gorcey an elbow to the head that ended his behavior. Cagney says further that "in a film with the Dead End Kids" the Kids' took issue with a statement by Bogart and then took off his trousers. Bogart, the consummate gangster in film, was nothing of the sort in real life. The film would have to have been "Dead End" -- the idea obviously emanating from de-trousering the rich kid.
15 out of 25 people found the following review useful: Great visual beauties, direction, acting. A so-and-so story., 7 November 2002 Author: pzanardo (pzanardo@math.unipd.it) from Padova, Italy
The main credit of "Dead End" lies in the stunning visual beauties. The studio reproduction of a New York slum is really magnificent, worth of other major achievements of the same kind, like, say, the set of "Rear Window". A true joy for the eyes. The work of the camera and William Wyler's direction are outstanding, as well. And, of course, the job of the cast is great. Bogart, still in the role of the villain, McCrea and Sylvia Sidney are excellent, and save their rather straightforward characters and lines. In my opinion, the best one is Claire Trevor, in the small part of the lost girl. I normally dislike kids on the screen, but I must concede that here they give great performances, playing the gang of street-boys.The story is conventional, with a noble message, but few and predictable twists. The script is often clumsy and preachy. Luckily enough, the director gives a quick pace to the narration and inserts a number of humoristic touches. There's a main flaw in the plot: I think that, even in the States of the 1930s, a common citizen couldn't freely shoot a gangster.Anyway, I've found in the screen-play an interesting and modern theme, namely the psychological ambiguity of some characters, whom even the all-knowing viewer cannot fully understand. For instance, Claire Trevor is apparently the cliche disgraced girl, the innocent victim of poverty, lack of opportunities, social injustice. To end as a prostitute is her unavoidable doom... But, when her former boy-friend Bogie gives some money to help her, she makes the horribly vulgar request of "twenty more bucks"... with a grimace worth of a hardened prostitute (great stuff by Trevor!). So we see that, after all, perhaps that girl is not so innocent as she pretends to be... And what about Drina's brother, the leader of the street-boys? The audience is perfectly aware that, in spite of his whining, weeping self-apologies (when he's in dire straits), the boy is a REAL criminal. We see that he deliberately harms people, steals, brutally thrashes the rich kid, wants to slash his gang-mate. And he just mocks his affectionate sister and his friend McCrea when, in tears, he cries that he's good, that he didn't intend to harm, and all that. So, are we supposed to feel sympathy for this hideous boy? Interesting ambiguity, which creates a fine artistic effect... perhaps beyond the actual intentions of the writer Lillian Hellman.All in all, we may forgive the defects of the movie. it is worth seeing "Dead End", enjoying the beauty of the set and the work of director and actors.
Add another review
