Dead end (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | dead end |
| Original title | Dead end |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1937 |
| length | 93 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | William Wyler |
| script | Lillian Hellman |
| production | Samuel Goldwyn |
| music | Alfred Newman |
| camera | Gregg Toland |
| cut | Daniel Mandell |
| occupation | |
| |
Dead End is an American film from 1937. The film was based on the play Dead End by Sidney Kingsley .
action
The film is set in New York City on the East River . Here rich and poor live side by side. Drina Gordon and her brother Tommy are poor. Tommy is a member of a street gang, and Drina fears that Tommy and the other boys will waste their lives as criminals. But the boys see a career as a gangster as the only way to escape their poor circumstances. Her big hero is the former neighbor boy Baby Face Martin, who is now a notorious gangster and multiple murderer. On the run from the police, Baby Face goes into hiding in his old home and visits his mother and his old friend Francey, who now earns a living as a prostitute. However, old Mrs. Martin wants nothing more to do with her criminal son. Baby Face recognizes his life situation as hopeless, but he is still the hero of the street boys.
Dave Connell also lives in poor conditions on the East River. He, too, dreams of breaking out of this environment. The handsome young man sees his hopes fulfilled through an affair with the wealthy Kay Burton, but feels drawn to Drina Gordon. When Tommy's street gang beats up a rich boy and Baby Face Martin tries to kidnap the boy, Dave witnesses the crime. Dave shoots Baby Face and receives a huge reward from the police. With this money he could now finally begin his escape from the poor district. But Drina Gordon's brother Tommy is innocent on trial for the fight with the boy. Dave sacrifices his money for a lawyer for Tommy, gives up his relationship with Kay Burton and finally decides to live with Drina Gordon.
background
Dead End is the first of seven crime films that revolve around the Dead End Kids . The teenage actors played their roles with Humphrey Bogart in Crime School (1938), with James Cagney in Chicago - Angels with Dirty Faces (1938), with Ronald Reagan in 1939 Hell's Kitchen (1939) and The Angels Wash Their Faces (1939). In these films, the Dead End Kids starred in significant supporting roles, while they starred in the final film in the series On Dress Parade (1939). As early as 1935, the actors of the Dead End Kids stood together on stage at the Broadway premiere of the play Dead End .
Reviews
"Socially critical and historically interesting, atmospherically dense pre-war work by William Wyler."
“Under Wyler's pompous sterile direction, Bogart has to mime an undifferentiated batch of villains. The technically perfect care of the staging only incompletely conceals the inner emptiness of the drama.
Awards
The film received four Academy Award nominations , but came out empty-handed at the 1938 Academy Awards .
Web links
- Impasse in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dead end. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed April 30, 2017 .
- ↑ Time (November 15, 1974)