THE MAYOR OF HELL (1933)

A small gang of street urchins (all with a heart of gold, naturally) idle away their time by skipping school, running a protection racket, vandalizing cars, robbing, stealing, assaulting people (I'm talking punching a old man through a window), etc.  Five of them are caught and sent to a reform school that seems less of a actual school and more of a prison work camp (probably due to the success of the previous years I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG).  The warden of this school hates kids and enjoys punishing them.  Soon though a gangster (James Cagney), who's been appointed Deputy Commissioner of Corrections, visits the school and falls in love with the young nurse and her more liberal views of reform.  Cagney pulls some strings and has himself appointed the head of the reform school.  For the next month, he and the nurse create a virtual Heaven on Earth reform school where there are no guards, the front gates are open and the boys rule themselves and even have their own court system.  But things can't stay perfect forever...

As a I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG-knockoff, THE MAYOR OF HELL is alright, but it lacks the maturity and emotional gut punch of that film.  And most importantly, it lacks Paul Muni's riveting performance.  Also, Muni's character was wrongfully accused and these kid's actually are a bunch of lowlife hoodlum fucks.  That said, they don't deserve to be abused, obviously, but the viewer has less sympathy for them when the first 10 minutes of the film shows them being a miniature crime wave terrorizing their neighborhood.

Comparisons to I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG aside, I liked Cagney's performance, but the story seemed very oversimplified and idealistic.  Also, when the kids first arrive at the camp the nurse made a big deal about how the one sickly kid needed to be placed in a hospital, but then when she and Cagney took over the sickly kid never did go to the hospital and he ended up dying!

Mildly entertaining pre-Code social commentary/gangster film.  It's also rumored that Michael Curtiz did some uncredited directing on this film.

The subtitles are incorrect because she clearly says "Why, you dirty rat."

DEAD END (1937)

Interesting, but dated social commentary piece set in a NYC tenement block located right outside of a luxury apartment building.  Why anybody with enough money to buy a luxury condo would want to have their balcony overlooking a ghetto filled with nonstop screaming and shooting, I have no idea but that's what happens here.  Anyway, down in the Depression-era 'hood you got a bunch of teenage boys who yell and holler 24/7.  These fuckers never shut up.  All day long they talk shit about people and about how their gonna beat the crap out of everybody.  Then you got the sad sack adults who walk around all day like zombies.  One scumbag woman even steals a cookie from a baby!  There's also unemployed Joel McCrea who has the hots for a rich girl and Sylvia Sidney who has the hots for Joel McCrea.  Entering into this heavy drama are hoodlums Humphrey Bogart and Allen Jenkins.  Bogie is wanted for multiple murders, but risks coming out in the open to see his mom and ex-girlfriend.  Things don't go as planned and further drama unfolds in da 'hood.

The story for DEAD END is okay and the acting is passable, but it's all so dated and cliche that there's really no power left in it.  It's an interesting watch, from a historical point of view and/or from the career perspective of the stars (I was really into the scenes between Bogart and Claire Trevor since I knew they would work together again in KEY LARGO), but if you don't have the time to spend you'd be better off watching something like I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG or even GRAND HOTEL.

On a positive note: the Dead End Kids weren't as annoying here as they were in ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, there was a strong supporting cast (including Ward Bond, Marjorie Main, James Burke, Minor Watson, Charles Halton) and the set was very impressive.  Director William Wyler wanted to shoot the film on location in the slums of NYC, but Samuel Goldwyn said no and had set designer Richard Day recreate the waterfront location entirely on a sound stage.  Day ended up receiving a Oscar nomination for his work.