What always confuses me in Dick Tracy (1990)

Fair warning: this post contains spoilers about the movie. 

I recently re-watched this movie for maybe the 10th time. I really love watching it; it's one of the coolest looking movies ever. Every scene is made up to look like a comic strip and everything visually about it is incredible. I first saw it when I was 14 years old in the theaters when it came out and was impressed by it so much I probably rented the VHS and DVD copies 2 or 3 more times, and later bought the DVD and then upgraded to blu ray where the picture quality looks fantastic. It's also a good movie to watch near or around New Year's Eve since the big climax of the film takes place on New Year' Eve.

If you've seen the movie you know it contains numerous storylines, including the orphan "The Kid" who wants to be on the police force, Tracy's relationship with his girlfriend, the new crime lord of the city (Al Pacino) and the corrupt district attorney (Dick Van Dyke) - a part that is too small; I think it could have been larger. 

Another subplot involves the rival crime lord "The Blank" - these sequences always confuse me when I think about them. At first, the Blank wants to obtain a percent of Big Boy's profits in exchange for immunity, but then the Blank changes his tune and wants to frame both Tracy and Big Boy. Alot of these details went over my head when I was 14 years old and to this day I still have trouble following The Blank's part of the story as it is told in the movie. 

If you've seen the movie, you know that Madonna/Breathless is revealed to be The Blank. 

But every time I rewatch the movie with that knowledge, the subplot is still puzzling.

This is either brilliance on the part of the screenwriters and director Warren Beatty.....or it's choppy editing that leaves out some details. I don't know which. 

The movie as it plays out gives the viewer the impression that The Blank is a mysterious rival villain who wants control over Big Boy and his criminal empire, when in reality The Blank is Breathless' way of protecting herself.....or maybe becoming a criminal crime kingpin of her own.  In my opinion I think the film should have revealed Madonna to be the Blank much earlier in the film. For example, show a scene of her putting on the mask, and dressing up. I think that would make the film much more interesting and less confusing. The first time we see the Blank, the Blank wants 10 percent of Big Boy's profits. Ok I think I follow the motive there - Breathless hates Big Boy and that is made clear. So why not give Breathless' character some extra weight--make her true identity known to the viewer, but not to Big Boy and Tracy. 

As the movie plays out, The Blank promised that Big Boy would be off the hook as a suspect in anything that would happen to Tracy if BigBoy makes the deal. But he doesn't make the deal. So what was The Blank planning to do with the money? Leave town? And what was Breathless planning to do if she successfully seduced Tracy? Testify and/or let Tracy in on the Blanks's scheme?  

Once Breathless/the Blank is rejected by Tracy, I can see why she wants both of them out of the way. And with the money she's made as the Blank, she could leave town. That would be one way to explain it.  So here's what ends up happening - The Blank frames Big Boy by kidnapping Tracy's girlfriend and placing her in the attic of the club, making it look like he kidnapped her. And she frames Tracy by killing the District Attorney and making it look like Tracy did it, but also making it look like Big Boy framed Tracy. If it worked, she would take the money and run? It's a brilliant scheme, but it was really confusing to pick up on the first watch.

What do you think? Is this how you understand The Blank? 

Goodfellas (1990), and State of Grace (1990)

I recently watched Goodfellas in its entirety (not just bits and pieces) and enjoyed it. When I first tried watching it, I thought it was really boring, but now I find great appeal to it because it shows how an "outsider" like Ray Liotta's character, who is Irish, finds community and respect with the Italian mobsters.  Speaking of mob films, I still haven't seen Martin Scorcese's 2019 movie The Irishman yet; it was nominated for several Oscars a few years ago, but didn't win any.  

State of Grace (also from 1990) also features an Irish-Italian mob theme. I've known about it for years, but never watched it until recently. It's about an Irish cop (Sean Penn) who goes undercover and gets caught up with an Italian mob, who fight against the Irish mob including his friends. It's really suspenseful and makes you wonder how Sean Penn is going to get out of the predicament he's in. Ed Harris and Gary Oldman are in it and they are great as well. I liked the scenes showing New York. One day I want to go there, I keep saying that. 

Seeing The Godfather (1972) for the first time on the big screen

My local AMC theater was showing a 50th anniversary screening of The Godfather; I had never need it, believe it or not - only parts of it. 

First of all -- I wish there were an intermission! Movies that are 3 hours should always have an intermission! It used to be a standard thing in the 1950s and 1960s; what happened in the 70s? Sigh. 

But, the movie was good, and emphasizes "family loyalty" in organized crime family. Al Pacino never wanted to be in the family business, but he is drawn in to protect his father at the hospital. His first murder at the restaurant is very suspenseful and dark. It 'feels like this character is being born' says Deep Focus Lens in the video review (see below). 

I need to see Part II and Part III to fully experience the full Saga. I remember when Part III came out but just wasn't interested in it or Part II enough. What bothers me in the film is the racism of the characters; several uses of racial slurs are used and makes these characters very unsympathetic to me. 

But Al Pacino's character is really the focus of the saga. See Siskel and Ebert's review below in honor of the 25th Anniversary. Siskel says the sequence where Al Pacino hides out in Sicily is something that was never seen in a mob film before. I liked this sequence and I think it is my favorite in the film. 

Vlog review of The Godfather by Deep Focus Lens which covers earlier gangster films and how they compare with this film, as well as how it inspires later Italian gangster films like The Sopranos later on.

The trailer for the 50th anniversary show is really cool.

Siskel and Ebert review (1990s)

Boris Karlov in The Walking Dead (1936)

Not to be confused by "The Walking Dead" TV show.

In this classic horror-gangster film (in glorious black and white), Boris Karlov plays a man recently released from prison.

As soon as he gets out, he is framed by a group of gangsters.

He's then then wrongfully convicted and then executed for murder.

Meanwhile, a zealous scientist (Edmund Gwenn) wants to experiment on the body to see if he could bring him back to life. He must have seen Frankenstein too many times.

Well guess what?

Boris does come back to life, and he slowly regains his memory. Not only that, he also seeks out those who framed him.

One by one, the gangsters are confronted, and get their just desserts.

Available on DVD.

Read a review here at the blog Just a Cineast

Robert Altman's A Wedding (1979)

Robert Altman's A Wedding is a humorous wedding satire where a blue collar girl marries into a wealthy family with mob connections.  The humor is a bit dark at times, especially when the matriarch of the higher-class family (Lilian Gish) passes away in her upstairs room of her mansion while the wedding takes place downstairs. Another scene involves a car crash.

The film is discussed by several members of the cast and crew in the book Robert Altman: The Oral Biography by Mitchell Zuckoff (2009, Random House), In the book, screenwriter John Considene remembers that Altman wanted to make a film about "The American wedding industry".  Considene and Altman created over twenty characters and numerous story arcs, carefully planned in advance.  Co-screenwriter Allan Nichols remembers, "If anything A Wedding was about gossip and how gossip spreads and how gossip hurts, and how gossip helps and how gossip kills and how gossip kills the right guy sometimes."  In the same book, Carol Burnett (who plays the mother of the bride) remembers that Altman said to the actors "Please if you have an idea for a scene, come to me with it. I want to hear it. Some of the best scenes in my movies have come from the actors' ideas". 

Altman pledged all of his profits from the film to the proposed Equal Rights Constitutional Amendment, although the profits from the film were not much.

With Mia Farrow, Peggy Ann Garner, Howard Duff, Mia Farrow, Paul Dooley, Geraldine Chaplin, Dina Merril, Lauren Hutten and Desi Arnaz, Jr.

Cecil B. DeMille's This Day and Age (1933)

The poster for This Day and Age calls it "The FIRST Great Spectacle of Modern Times", which is interesting because nowadays the film is largely forgotten. It wasn't nominated for any Academy Awards at the time either. But I think the film is one that a modern audience would really find compelling.

The film is about a group of civics-minded high-school students who take the law into their own hands when they track down a gangster nightclub owner named Garrett (played by Charles Bickford) after he kills several of their friends and gets away with it.

The students are played by actors I'm not very familiar with such as Richard Cromwell and Judith Allen. At times I got confused as to who's who due to all of the supporting characters that come and go throughout the film.

One character I remember well is the Jewish tailor Herman, who has a shop right across the street from the high school. He is really friendly and knows almost all the kids in the school. It's a shame when the character's shop is bombed and he becomes a target of Garrett's ruthless gang.

Highlights of the film:

There are a number of creative camera shots; one in particular is during a funeral sequence after a casket is lowered into the deep grave. We then see the lowered casket's point-of-view looking up at the diggers who are shoveling the dirt into the grave, and dirt falls right on the camera.

In one risque sequence reminding us of the pre-code era, one of the pretty female students has to pretend to seduce one of the gangsters in order to stall him, and one of the gangster's remarks is "I like my olives green".

I liked seeing the diverse high school; black students are seen with white students on the campus and walking the halls. A black student has an important role in the film when he helps the students kidnap Garrett at a shoe shine.

When Garrett is captured, he's taken to a secret hideout where hundreds of students put him at the center of a kangaroo court. The students lower him into a pit of rats to try to get him to confess to the murders he was responsible for. This is followed by a scene where the throng of students hail him off to the local judge, walking through the streets at night singing song such as "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" and "Glory Glory Hallelujah". This ending seemed to go on a little long.

Overall though, it is a film worth seeing, and I found it thought provoking. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille.

More photos and more info about this film can be found here at the blog Take 39 Steps and Knock

Thief (1981)

Directed by Michael Mann. James Caan plays a diamond thief who wants to pull one last job before he retires for good.

After spending over a decade in jail, the last thing he wants is anything to backfire.

Willie Nelson has a small role as his mentor who is still in jail.

Caan also wants to settle down (with Tuesday Weld) and adopt a baby, but gangster Robert Prosky steps into the picture and assumes to control his life. But not for long...

Filmed in Chicago.

The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967)

Jason Robards as Al Capone, about to slug a couple of mugs

A rare big-budget, big-studio (20th Century Fox) classic directed by Roger Corman, where we learn almost everything we ever wanted to know with the main characters associated with the infamous shootout from 1929, including south side gangster Al Capone (Jason Robards) and his rival, north side gangster Bugs Moran (Ralph Meeker).

To prepare for this movie, I booked a tour on Chicago's Untouchables Tour Bus, a popular attraction in the city. It takes visitors to famous gangster sites, including the site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre (SVDM). According to the guides, the Corman film gets almost all the facts right, right down to the German Shepard dog who was left behind in the garage.

The title card says it all

The SMC Cartage Company storefront is recreated.

I love the sets in the film, and there's some great period music to set the mood. I wonder if Corman ever had the idea to shoot this in black-and-white; I'm sure the studio pushed for color.

An old fashioned motor coach on Clark Street (where the SVDM took place)

Corman does a great job of staging the numerous shootouts in the movie: windows shattering, glass flying everywhere. Just when we think the gunfire is over, there's more. George Segal, his first film after Virginia Woolf, plays one of the Bugs Moran's henchman "Goosey" Peter Gusenberg; you can tell he's having fun with that tommy gun.

Some of the scenes are violent, including the gun-down of Polish gangster Hymie Weiss in his "flower shop", which was just a front for his bootlegging business. . As I learned on the tour bus, Hymie's flower shop was right across the street from the most well-known and one of the oldest Roman Catholic churches in the city: Holy Name Cathedral, which is still an active congregation (photo below)

Sidenote: If you visit Chicago and go to the cathedral today, you can still see a bullet hole from one of the shootouts that took place right outside. (photo below)

Jason Robards is excellent as Capone and is intense as he erupts in a fit of rage after discovering one of his associates was bumped off. In another scene, we see Capone about give gangster Joe Aiello a "Sicilian necktie", which is what someone gets when their necks are sliced open and their tongue is pulled through the neck.

Corman regular Dick Miller and Little Shop of Horrors co-star Jack Nicholson have bit parts as Capone gangsters posing as cops and only appear toward the end of the film during the SVDM sequence. Bruce Dern has a small part as Johnny May, family man who gets messed up in the Moran gang (and is killed in the SVDM).

As each character makes his first appearance, a voice over biography is given by narrator Paul Frees, who is famous for all of his cartoon narrations such as George of the Jungle and many others.

Bugs Moran (Ralph Meeker)
avoids the bloodshed
intended for him

As the day of the SVDM unfolds, our narrator tells us what every one of the victims was doing "on the last morning of his life..." Which is really satisfying and makes us feel like we have gotten a taste of each of these gangster's lives.

The final ten minutes of the movie leading up to the massacre are exciting, even though we know what will happen. We see Bugs Moran go into a cafe for some coffee; while he's in there, the SVDM takes place. Al Capone is not happy that Bugs got away, let me tell you; I'll just say he whips out a baseball bat and starts swinging.

I recommend this film especially if you want to learn more about these gangsters.

If you have time check out this 5-minute video I took from the bus tour; the guide gives a good overview of the entire ordeal, which pretty much is how the movie plays out. Way to go! You can also get a chance to see the neighborhood where the massacre took place.

The SMC Cartage Building was torn down right around the time this movie came out. The old Mayor Daley didn't want Chicago associated with gangsters. But it still is no matter what. Bricks from the building were saved by some collectors; a few bricks can be seen at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

Today the actual site is a parking lot. Across the street, the “look-out” stations where Jack McGurn stayed are still there.

2122 N. Clark Street, Chicago

Nearby buildings give a taste of the era

Check out the gray building below in the 2011 photo and again in the 1929 photo. This was right next door to the SMC Cartage building.

2122 N. Clark St - Source: Google Maps

Here is another review of this movie from Cinemachine

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This post is part of the Roger Corman Blogathon hosted by
Forgotten Classics of Yesteryear

Around the World in 80 Minutes (1931) with Douglas Fairbainks

What it's about
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and a crew of three—photographers Harry Sharp and Chuck Lewis and co-director Victor Fleming—journey around the world and report on various cultural curiosities and the humor they find in everyday life overseas. (From TCM.com)

My Take:
I love this movie! It's narrated by our "tour guide", Mr. Fairbanks himself, who addresses the camera throughout. We travel with him to Japan, China, India, Siam (Thailand today), and India among other countries, mostly in Asia. This film must have been incredible to watch on the big screen in 1931 when there were no TVs: we see some awesome landscape views, mixed in with humorous bits featuring Fairbanks, in a similar fashion to the popular TV travel show Globetrekker. In one scene, Fairbanks pretends like he's being chased by a wild leopard (but it's all trick photography). In another scene, he plays golf on a giant map of the world; when his ball lands on an island, he "jumps" over the ocean so he doesn't "fall into it". Plus he cracks alot of jokes throughout and I found myself laughing hysterically.

The crew travels mostly through Asia, but there is funny gag at the end where they hop on a flying carpet and manage to see other countries and cities in America, giving the illusion they're literally traveling "around the world". At one point the carpet flies over Chicago and there are some bullets fired at it. Har har. There are one or two other Chicago/mobster jokes in the film too (that cracked up our audience)

I don't think this type of full-length travel film was common back in the early 30s. This is a one of a kind film. You can tell that Fairbanks had fun making this film. The total running time is about 80 minutes (hence, Around the world in 80 minutes) A follow-up film might have been cool with Mr. Fairbanks hosting again, perhaps with a trip to Europe, which would have been fun. Highly recommended!

Three On A Match (1932) Early Bogart and Bette Davis

Rupert over at the blog Classic Movies Digest posted about this movie a few months ago, and I finally got around to watching it yesterday. It's so good!



Early performances by none other than Bette Davis and Humphrey Bogart in supporting roles. (In fact, it's Bogart's first gangster role)

A pre-code film (it's part of the DVD collection "Forbidden Hollywood: Volume 2"), it's been called a "hard-core" pre-code due to the number of scenes that feature infidelity, child neglect, drug abuse, kidnapping (a touchy subject - 1932 was the year of the Lindberg kidnapping) and other debauchery (one character is sent to reform school right out of high school).

The capsule below sums it up in a nutshell:



The film really belongs to the wonderful Ann Dvorak and Joan Blondell, and I can't forget to mention how good Warren William is in this as well as a lawyer who has relationships with both of them during the course of the film. Trust me, you just have to see this film. Rupert's review really says it best, so I won't say any more other than it is an unpredictable story.

This film has some fine performances by child actors, including Virginia Davis (1918-2009) who plays Joan Blondell's character as a young girl. She gets into all sorts of mischief at school; in one scene Virginia's character and a group of boys play hooky and go smoking.

Virginia Davis is considered a Disney legend, as she played "Alice" in Walt Disney's early "Alice's Wonderland" short films from the 1920s. She passed away last year at the age of 90.

The biggest scene-stealer in the film is the adorable Buster Phelps who plays Ann Dvorak's son. You'll fall in love with him in this. There's a fun scene on the beach with him playing ball with Joan and Bette, all decked out in cute beach wear (see pic below).

Buster Phelps (1926-1983) appeared in about 3 dozen films during the 1930s and 1940s.

The film is available on DVD and can be seen on TCM from time to time.



Here's another review from A Person In The Dark.  And another post from Four Star Films.

The Bowery (1933) - Starring Jackie Cooper, Wallace Beery, George Raft, and Fay Wray

Just saw this at a revival today and had a good time. This week we also celebrate Jackie Cooper's 87th birthday (born September 15, 1922). Also born on the same day, the late Fay Wray (September 15, 1907, d. 2004) The title of this picture "The Bowery" reminds me of the Bowery Boys, that fun series of movies from the 40s which featured that gang of dudes from the lower east side bowery, pretty much the same neighborhood here. And because George Raft is in it, I mistakingly thought this was a gangster picture. But it's not. Surprisingly, it's a comedy-with-heart, loosely based on some real life events (NY Saloon owner Steve Brodie jumping off the Brooklyn Bridge). This movie could be considered a "sequel" of sorts to "The Champ", which starred Wallace Beery and little Jackie Cooper just two years earlier. In "The Bowery", Beery and Raft are are rivals in the community, in a never-ending battle for being the "King of the Bowery" neighborhood. Each has a "fan club" of sorts within the community. For a time they both are leaders of a fire brigade: in one humorous scene, as a building burns with people trapped inside, the two men (and their fire-fighting crew) get into a street brawl as each team tries to get the building first. This leads to a riot as the unsaved people scream from the building. Rather dark humor, and this scene disturbed some people at the screening, especially since the characters were Chinese (earlier they were referred to as "Chinks" by some of the characters.) Also politically incorrect: Beery gives young Jackie a lecture in "dames" ("Skirts is no good"), but later the big lug is smitten by penniless Fay Wray: he lets her stay in his apartment (also where orphan Jackie is also staying) and hires her as a maid. Needless to say, Jackie throws a fit. In one scene he hits Fay in the butt with his slingshot. Meanwhile George Raft's Steve Brodie character falls in love with her, complicating the rivalry further. There's a great scene on the beach (which should have been longer) with everyone having a good time. There was an intermission at the screening halfway through, and one fellow sitting next to me said how he felt the movie had no plot. Essentially so, since it's really about the egos of both Beery and Raft, and how they compete against each other in the neighborhood. It's all buildup to the big Steve Brodie "jump" scene. By the time it happens, the audience is convinced that Brodie would pull such a stunt. At the end, there's a climatic fight scene between the two men, but ends with both shaking hands, with Jackie Cooper playing mediator. It's a fun movie, lots of cultural references of the time, and it will remind you of some of the issues of that day: some of the racism, street fights, and women's temperance unions (there is a scene of protest outside a saloon).
Now here is what Wikipedia had to say (this write-up prepared me for the derogatory racial terms used by some of the characters):
"The Bowery" is a 1933 historical film about the Lower East Side of Manhattan at the turn of the century. The movie was directed by Raoul Walsh and featured Wallace Beery as saloon owner Chuck Connors, George Raft as Steve Brodie, the first man to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge and live, Jackie Cooper as a pugnacious child, Fay Wray (in the same year as King Kong) as the leading lady, and Pert Kelton (the first "Alice Kramden" on Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners) as a bawdy dance hall singer.
The film is not exactly a festival of political correctness, but it is an absorbing presentation of the views and behaviors common at the time. Modern viewers should know that the movie opens with a close-up of a saloon window featuring a sign saying "Nigger Joe's" in large letters (the name of an actual Bowery bar from the period). At one point, Cooper's character throws a rock through a Chinatown window, knocking over a kerosene lamp and causing a lethal fire that spreads through the block. When Beery's character berates him for carelessly killing so many innocent Chinese people, Cooper's character responds, "They was just Chinks," whereupon Beery immediately softens, saying "Awww..." while affectionately mussing the boy's hair.
New York Times review from 1933---

By MORDAUNT HALL, New York Times
Published: October 5, 1933

Punctuated with the same ribald mirth, brawls, fights, noise and vulgarity that marked that reprehensible but highly successful production, "The Cock-Eyed World," there reached the Rivoli yesterday morning a picture entitled "The Bowery," the story of which owes its origin to a novel written by Michael Simmons and B. Rogow Solomon. In it Wallace Beery as Chuck Connors and George Raft as Steve Brodie are belligerent rivals.

The narrative of this film, which is the first to be produced by Darryl Zanuck since he severed his connection with the Warner Brothers, is set in what the producers choose to refer to as the "Gay Nineties." Nevertheless, Mr. Brodie is presumed to take his leap from the Brooklyn Bridge, which actually was reported to have happened in 1886. Other personalities of the past include John L. Sullivan and the saloon-smashing Carrie Nation.

"The Bowery" was directed by Raoul Walsh, who was responsible for "The Cock-Eyed World." The audience which packed the theatre for the first showing of "The Bowery" was quite enthusiastic over the clashes between Chuck Connors and Steve Brodie and they also evidently enjoyed the episode wherein Carrie Nation and her colleagues use their hatches on the Connors saloon.

There are songs that range from "Tra-ra-ra-boom-de-ay" to "Auid Lang Syne" and the costumes are often clownish conceptions of those of the past. Connors appears to be partial to double-breasted coats with huge pearl buttons, and his rival, Brodie, at one time appears in a dark suit, pearl-gray derby, black shirt, a white necktie with black dots, and, if you please, white gloves. Later, after he has made his dive from the Brooklyn Bridge and money is coming his way, he is given to wearing a black cape with a white-silk lining. In the report in THE NEW YORK TIMES of July 24, 1886, the day after Brodie took the chance, he is referred to as a tall, slim newsboy, who was dressed like a gutter-snipe. All he really got out of his plunge into the East River was $200 and a few days in the Tombs prison.

This film, however, is not one in which the producers are concerned with facts. It is something to entertain the many admirers of Wallace Beery and George Raft, and incidentally those of little Jackie Cooper, who here is known as Swipes, a protégé of Connors's. Swipes is fond of reiterating what he has heard Connors say—that it is a man's world. Fay Wray portrays Lucy Calhoun, a timid young woman who is befriended by Connors. Her presence causes Swipes to pick up his belongings, which include two kittens, and go to live with Brodie.

In the rather cramped quarters of Connors's saloon John L. Sullivan, played by Raoul Walsh's brother, George, knocks out Bloody Butch, the pride of the Bowery, with his first blow. Sullivan is masked when he enters the ring, but as-soon as his opponent is down for the count his face is unmasked and there stands a fighter with a long mustache.

Connors wagers his saloon, evidently against nothing, that Brodie will not take the dive from the Brooklyn Bridge, but, after the latter has accomplished the feat, Carrie Nation and her band of women appear and it matters not to Chuck what they do to the saloon with their hatchets. Apparently Brodie is forced to make his thrilling jump because the dummy he had hoped to use to cheat Chuck is stolen from him just as he is about to go to the Brooklyn Bridge.

Whatever one may say against the coarse interludes in this production, there is no gainsaying that the sight on the span between Manhattan and Brooklyn is really funny. The crowds have come out as they would go to a picnic to view the stunt and many a bet is made on whether Brodie will live or die in the attempt. Several other episodes have been pictured in the same vein.

Mr. Beery acts in his usual robust but nevertheless effective fashion. Mr. Raft is on his mettle as Brodie and Jackie Cooper does well with his part. Fay Wray is attractive as Lucy Calhoun and Elsie Harmer is sufficiently menacing as Carrie Nation.


THE BOWERY, based on the novel by Michael Simmons and B. Rogow Solomon; directed by Raoul Walsh; a Twentieth Century production; released by United Artists. At the Rivoli.
Chuck Connors . . . . . Wallace Beery
Steve Brodie . . . . . George Raft
Swipes . . . . . Jackie Cooper
Lucy Calhoun . . . . . Fay Wray
Slick . . . . . Harold Huber
Googy . . . . . Fletcher Norton
Lumpy Hogan . . . . . John Kelly
Trixie . . . . . Pert Kelton
Jumbo . . . . . Fred Munier
Mr. Rummel . . . . . Oscar Apfel
Mr. Herman . . . . . Herman Bing
John L. Sullivan . . . . . George Walsh
Carrie Nation . . . . . Elsie Harmer
Tammany . . . . . Tammany Young

Read a 1932 article on "Master" Jackie Cooper.

Dead End (1937)

Great cast and performances. Based on the play by Lillian Hellman, who also wrote the screenplay. Takes place in a slum neighborhood in New York. First, we're introduced to a gang of hoodlums. This group of actors appeared again in some other pictures, so they were dubbed, "The Dead End Kids". Silvia Sidney plays the sister of one of them; she's struggling to keep food on the table for herself and the kid. Her political activism and her brother's delinquency causes her endless stress. She vents to her friend Joel McCrea, a former gang member who is now a struggling architect, looking for work and waiting for his big break. In comes Humphrey Bogart, also a former "Dead End" kid, now wanted by the law. His character - Baby Face Martin - has plastic surgery and becomes unrecognizable. He hangs around the neighborhood and tries to reconcile with his mother (played by Marjorie Main) - who wants nothing to do with him - and his ex-girlfriend played by Claire Trevor, now a sick and broke prostitute. Ms. Trevor's one 5-minute scene with Bogart was so powerful and memorable with audiences that she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Feeling completely depressed and rejected, Bogart attempts to kidnap of the neighborhood rich kids for ransom, but is shot down at the end, which provides' the film moral lesson, which McCrea explains to one of the kids - stay off the streets. The Dead End Kids steal this movie with every scene they are in. Silvia Sidney is very powerful and moving as well, and also deserving of a nomination. Bogart is perfect as the gangster. Silvia Sidney gets top billing, though. Bogart had not yet made his mark. Produced by Samuel Goldwyn and directed by William Wyler. Ward Bond plays one of the cops.

Read More about the Dead End Kids from the blog FilmFiles.

Dawn has written a great review of this movie on her blog.