Prismark10 The art direction and the cinematography in this film is exceptional, you can tell from the opening scenes.William Wyler shows a New York of the depression where the poor live like rats in the slums and the rich are encroaching towards the river with their fancier houses. An early version of gentrification.In Dead End we see the rich and poor, the law abiding and the gangsters all mingling together and trying to survive. Nobody seems to like the cops and the local rascals, the dead end kids are passing the time and making a nuisance of themselves.Humphrey Bogart makes a cameo as a wanted hoodlum who has had plastic surgery and come to see his mother. However I found his scenes to be just ordinary and I expected more from him. The Dead End Kids were just irritating, they all needed to be herded to reform school.The film has sadly aged and the script came across as rather preachy and antiquated.

Leofwine_draca DEAD END is an odd mix of social commentary and crime drama. For the first half of the running time, not much happens apart from the obnoxious Dead End Kids gang getting into various scrapes in their local area. The emphasis is on petty crime and degradation, a comparison between the sheltered lives of the rich and the desperate lives of the poor, and how the gulf between the two can lead to hatred and violence.At the same time as all this is going on, a sub-plot involves a decent hard-working local man, played by western star Joel McCrea, and a hard-bitten gangster type, played by Humphrey Bogart. The two men hate each other on sight and eventually their sub-plot takes over the story, leading to some exciting crime thrills. The Dead End Kids too get drawn into the mix, and the whole thing builds to a thrilling climax. DEAD END is a little unsatisfying to begin with - you just want to see someone give those brats a thrashing - but it picks up a lot and ends on a real high. The emphasis is on realism throughout and the film is all the better for it.

chaswe-28402 A stagey, turgid mess contrasting slum-kid poverty with ill-defined high-rolling crime, though committed off-screen and merely suggested, and classy capitalist riches. Wait a year and watch The Adventures of Robin Hood and his 1938 redistribution of wealth instead. It is difficult to think of any creatures less appealing than those dead-end mini-gangsters. The impression left by this movie is its sense of unreality. The unvarying set scene is crammed with uninteresting incident, often repeated, which fails to advance the plot. Even the manner that McCrea gets chucked into the ditch, and then the misdirected shoot-out with Bogart towards the end both seem flimsy and fake. Bending over backwards to make allowances for the film's vintage, it still amazes me that it has attracted so many positive reviews and currently enjoys such a high rating.Its hour and a half is only redeemed by the presence, naturally, of Humphrey Bogart. Something of a mystery how this short, fairly homely- looking man succeeds in commanding such a strong screen presence. This may have its origins in the way he speaks. Firstly, no matter how rapidly the words leave his mouth, they are always clear and understandable. Secondly, they never sound like lines scripted by someone else: it's as if he had just thought of them himself, and instantaneously come up with them. Added to which is the realism of his facial expressions. But since he only has a supporting role, and gets eliminated by McCrea, he can't really help the story. He does glamorise the bad guy, which isn't what the film is trying to say. Most kids would rather be Bogart than McCrea. The romantic sub-plot adds nothing, and is of minimal interest.

wes-connors Samuel Goldwyn's production is introduced: "Every street in New York ends in a river. For a many years, the dirty banks of the East River were lined with the tenements of the poor. Then the rich, discovering that the river traffic was picturesque, moved their houses eastward. And now the terraces of these great apartment houses look down into the windows of the tenement poor." This transatlantic "tale of two cities" made "Dead End" (1935) a Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway stage hit for playwright Sidney Kingsley; and, this adaptation is one of the best stage to film trips taken during the 1930s.First of all, the film introduces the scene-stealing (and much cloned) "Dead End Kids" who, most notably, morphed into "The East Side Kids" and "The Bowery Boys" for two decades of crime drama and comedy. They are, more or less, fairly reflective of the stage show; consequently, they form a finely choreographed ballet of punk antics. The "Dead End Kid" leader is Billy Halop (as Tommy Gordon); others in the gang's classic line-up are: Huntz Hall (as Dippy), Bobby Jordan (as Angel), Leo Gorcey (as Spit), Gabriel Dell (as T.B.), and Bernard Punsly (as Milty).The "ensemble" cast focuses on four main characters. Young Halop, despite his lowly appearance in the credits, is central. He faces two paths in life: will he will succumb to the temptations offered by crime, and become like well-heeled and charismatic Humphrey Bogart (as "Baby Face" Martin), or grow into the poor but morally upstanding Joel McCrea (as Dave Connell)? Helping tie the much-imitated plot threads together is hard-working, but striking Sylvia Sydney (as Drina Gordon); Halop's supportive big sister, she is also suffering from an unrequited love for Mr. McCrea.Halop and Ms. Sydney offer, arguably, the film's most consistently fine performances; for openers, they never appear too "staged" - which is not to suggest that theatrically-styled acting is a distraction, considering this picture. Halop, in his movie debut, is an especially noteworthy stage-to-film actor; his troubled juvenile delinquent character was repeated numerously. When Halop grew out of the role, "Dead End" co-star Jordan (an endearing tyke in this film) successfully filled his shoes. Of course, Sydney is excellent; a marvelous stage and film actress, her work in the latter was underrated for decades.Also making a fine impression is Claire Trevor (as Francey); although her part is no more than a cameo, she received an "Supporting Actress" nomination for artfully suggesting the syphilitic prostitute toned down for movie audiences. "Dead End" received nominations for "Best Picture", "Art Direction" (Richard Day), and "Cinematography" (Gregg Toland). Arguably, Mr. Day's beautiful New York City set would have won, had it not been his third annual award. Additionally, it would have been a nice idea to see Halop receive one of the irregular "juvenile performance" Oscars awarded at the time. And, in hindsight, William Wyler's direction certainly seems slighted.********** Dead End (8/24/37) William Wyler ~ Billy Halop, Sylvia Sydney, Humphrey Bogart, Joel McCrea