Truly Dreadful Film

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

This movie was nominated for four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Claire Trevor), Best Cinematography (Gregg Toland), and Best Art Direction (Richard Day). Its cast includes: Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie, Claire Trevor, Allen Jenkings, Marjorie Main, and Leo Gorcey (from the Dead End Kids). The movie appears to be an allegory about the tale of two cities (or at least, two socioeconomic groups in NYC that are placed side by side for contrast):Movie's Opening Prologue: "Every street in New York ends in a river. For 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."Since the movie received Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction, it definitely deserves to be restored. The picture quality and sound are definitely sub par for such a movie.

The element that prevented my enjoying this film wholeheartedly was the sound; in 1937 they had yet to perfect the sound department and provide 'natural' sound which includes 'atmos' the normal background noise that you would expect to hear especially in a movie like this where 90% of the action occurs in the street. Though set in the street it was clearly shot in a studio and the mic was in a soundproof booth so that what we hear is 'clean' sound which is, of course, unnatural. Screenwriter Lilian Hellman has 'opened out' the Broadway play as little as possible so that no imagination is required to visualise the story on stage. Probably the stage version of Street Scene was very similar. Wyler retains the theatricality by having the disparate characters come together in an area no larger that a Broadway stage and exaggerate the social divisions. The drawback in this approach is that the characters don't seem quite real and give the impression that they are playing solitaire just out of camera range while waiting for their cue to move to stage centre, say their lines and exit. Having said that there are several fine performances to admire and it remains watchable close on eighty years later.

The Great Depression was a Tragic but Fertile Foundation for Hollywood in the 1930's. This one, adapted for the Screen from a Long Running Stage Play, is one of the Most Powerful indictments of the Failed Capitalist System that Caused the Suffering for so many. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) was the Best at Capturing the Heart and Soul of the Dirt Farmers, and this may be the Best at showing the Scarred Situation in the City's Slums. Not Restrained, or Confined by its limited Sets it is also one of the Best Movies to virtually Film a Play. It was a Thing that Hollywood Rarely Pulled-Off as the two Art-Forms never really meshed that well and both Platforms suffered when it was attempted.This Film is so "Rich" with Layers of Truth and Talent that in its rather Short Running Time, it is nothing less than Captivating. Everything is worth mentioning. The Source Material, the Direction, the Cinematography, the Actors, and the overall Production Design.In this Atmospheric Display of the Human Condition under Immense Degradation, there are many things that are Indelible and not Easily Forgotten. Humphrey Bogart's Pre-Starring Gangster Thug being Slapped Down by His Mother. Joel MccRea's Upper Class Girlfriend entering a Tenement, "I have been poor, but I never saw anything like this."Director William Wyler's insistence on Realism in Defiance of the Producers (Samuel Goldwyn visiting the set…"Why does he make it look so dirty?") The Dead End Kids provide the Humor, not yet Old Enough to really feel the Life Defeating Environment and take Everything pretty much in stride. Claire Trevor's One Scene as Baby Face Martin's Old Girlfriend who is now Repulsive as a Member of the "Oldest Profession".The Movie is one of the Best of the Decade and Reflects the Social Concerns with Timeless Truths. There's Nothing Dated Here and if You Think it is, You are Only Scratching the Surface.

Sadly, I'm not as enthusiastic as other reviewers. I have seen much of Bogart's filmography, from The Petrified Forest to his last (The Harder They Fall), and my collection now includes nearly 30 of his movies. I watched this film with reasonable expectations, being aware that his part there is a support one. After all, Bogart was stealing the show even in his early years, when his contributions were merely secondary.Well I just watched Dead End for the first time yesterday and was left rather cold and even disappointed by it. As appropriately mentioned by others, it's really very (like in 'too much') theatrical, but not in a good way, at least for me. I was not familiar with these "Dead End Boys" and unlike others, I was far from impressed and was in fact irritated by their performance. It's one thing to deal with the overall atavistic overwrought style so typical of so many '30s movies, but it's another to try packing up as many pointless rough exchanges between young street brats as you materially can within an hour and a half. I mean, what is the point of keeping these absurdly annoying "misérables" relentlessly and dumbly insulting either each other or their opulent oppressors? As long as they're yapping their brains out and erase any silence or moment for reflection that might subsist in that blatantly dated movie play (a deliberate choice of words on my part...). Reading about how these young actors, who had been sent over to Hollywood to transpose their NY theatrical act to cinema, caused absolute chaos and sheer havoc offstage, I am almost tempted to think that Wyler, an otherwise very competent and often brilliant director, dealt with this wild bunch as best as he could, but likely experienced serious difficulties while piloting the making of this movie, with mixed results, to say the least. After Dodsworth the year before, what a turnoff! In his career, Wyler succeeded a lot in entertaining his viewers, and I was hoping that this one would be no exception. However...I am able to cope with most typical '30s movies along with their exaggerated declamatory style and machine-gun stance delivery. That's not the point.... I'm afraid that the Dead End play has failed to be adapted to cinema and is in fact a rather grating Frankensteinian creature with too many theatrical parts and functions to be palatable in the cinematographic language. The movie tries too hard to deliver social messages while attempting to narrate a potentially enlivening story and to present characters to whom we should somehow relate, but who end up leaving us indifferent at best (e.g. most of the main adult characters, including Bogart) or worse, extremely annoyed as with many of the Dead End bunch, I'm afraid to say.As for the major characters, there isn't enough space and time left for them to grow on the viewer and to become well-formed entities. I have seldom watched a Bogart as wooden as in this movie, and this has nothing to do with this being a support contribution. Bogart almost always stole the show before he started playing lead parts. No. As I see Dead End, it was in the end a showcase for the Dead End Brats and a list of their socio-political statements, a sort of 90-min allegory of the abysmal gap between rich and poor. Anything but a well-designed movie. There have been countless films dealing with this subject matter, and I'm afraid that Dead End is .... well, quite aptly named, after all. In more ways than one.