Delayed Reaction: Dead End

[Note: This is part of a project I'm calling "A Century in a Month". The idea is that I'm going to start with a movie from about 100 years ago and pick a series of connected films until I get to the present. The rules I set this time are release years, per IMDB, can't be more than 5 years apart. I can't repeat the same connection although I can reuse the same type of connection. That means if I use "movies directed by Scorsese" to connect two, I can't use Scorsese as a connection again but I can use a director as a linking element again. I'm not really sure why I'm doing this, but it seems like a fun game.]

Connection to A Farewell to Arms: Both Oscar Nominees for Cinematography

 

Premise: A group of slum kids make trouble in a neighborhood in New York where the tenements are getting replaced by rich people building mansions.

 

There’s way more to unpack in this film than I expected. I went into it with the Cinematography link in mind. How does one of the best shot films of 1932 compare to the same for 1937? It definitely seems like the photography is incrementally better. I was much more focused though on other elements. The sound didn’t feel like a complication at all by 1937. They had that system figured out. What blew me away was the Production Design. The film is a pretty obvious stage adaptation. It’s bound to very few locations, so they made up for it with a huge set. When it comes to production design, once I accept that I’m dealing with limited locations, I switch to the Cheers rule. If there’s only going to be one set, it better be a great one.

 

I was mainly aware of this film for Humphrey Bogart, and I was surprised how much he was a supporting character. I couldn’t believe he died and that there was still 30 minutes left when he died. While he’s good as always, the real stars are the Dead End Boys – a Hollywood artifact I knew nothing about. Apparently these kids were taken from the Broadway production of Dead End for the movie. Then different combinations of them went on to make 80+ films together under different group names and studios for a couple decades. The have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It’s strange to me that I’ve never heard of them before this. Granted, it doesn’t seem like they went on to make any classics as a group.

 

This was a very pleasant surprise. It’s the exact result I was hoping for with this stupid game I’m playing this month. I love finding films I’d never have seen without tricking myself with some arbitrary set of rules. It’s a much grimmer movie than I expected. Still a little sappy at points but that was mostly earned. It helps that it all works within the Hays Code morality standards that essentially say “people who break the law are not allowed to have happy endings”. It certainly makes me want to follow up with this filmmaker. In fact, I think I might do exactly that.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend