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Dead End Movie Review

Dead End is a 1937 crime film directed by William Wyler and starring Sylvia Sidney, Humphrey Bogart and Claire Trevor. It’s a solid, but very flawed flick.

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“Nothing for nothing, kid“

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The film portrays the Dead End Kids, a gang of young boys roaming the streets of New York City’s East Side slums. This was very much a timely movie that now serves as a solid, though dated time capsule as it represents NYC and its slums as they really were in the thirties. Having in mind that the attention to detail was so careful and meticulous, the film really has that historic value to it.

I really dislike these Dead End Kids, I find them annoying, and whenever the film concerned itself with them, it turned into this odd children’s type of a crime flick, and a very dated one at  that. ‘Angels with Dirty Faces’ would utilize them much better later on. But other parts of the plot here are pretty good, and in particular the adult characters’ drama was frequently excellent.

Joel McCrea is unfortunately forgettable here in a very small role. This whole movie consists of a plethora of supporting players and no leads. Thus, all are underutilized, which was unfortunate. Humphrey Bogart himself got a couple of scenes, and he was excellent in them. It’s crazy to think that he did not get top billing here, but this was only the start of what would turn out to be an amazing career.

Claire Trevor got an Oscar nomination, and she was great in the scenes that she got, but it’s such a small role. I would have personally gone with Sylvia Sidney who is by far the most interesting character of the bunch, and her performance is the most emotional one.

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Dead End was also nominated for Best Art Direction, and one may even proclaim that it should have won it. Yes, the production design is so great as the sets feel lived in and real, and it’s the highlight aspect of the film for sure. But it did not deserve a Best Picture nod, not at all. This is your typical 30s crime flick that is very solid and competent overall, but messy in pace, not that engaging as a whole, and simply lacking greatness in any of its scenes. It had some great potential, but the messy many characters-approach hurt it in the long run.

Dead End is a solid and competent, but messy and flawed film in pace and the annoying kids’ subplot. Such scenes are the weakest, but the adults’ parts are much better. The film’s highlight is the amazing, meticulous production design, and an excellent, quite moving performance from Sylvia Sidney who should have been nominated instead of Claire Trevor as she’s much more memorable.

My Rating – 3.5