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Following the success of These Three and the film adaptation of Sinclair Lewis’s Dodsworth (written about here and here), both released in 1936, William Wyler brought another popular Broadway play to the screen: Sidney Kingsley’s Dead End. Kingsley’s play tells the story of a group of young boys growing up in poverty in the slums of New York. With no clear-cut path to a decent life, the boys have nothing better to do but to find trouble, resorting to a life of petty theft, gambling and bullying. After seeing the play in its original run, both Wyler and producer Samuel Goldwyn were interested in adapting Kingsley’s work to the screen. The characters’ struggles were relatable for a Depression-era audience, and while it was risky to make a realistic film for an audience desperate for escapism, Wyler had proven that he could make a film that was both serious and entertaining. Goldwyn purchased the film rights and immediately began production. Starring Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea and Humphrey Bogart, Dead End (1937) was a relatively faithful adaptation of Kingsley’s play. When casting the gang of young boys, Samuel Goldwyn wasn’t having much luck, so he decided to bring several of the boys from the original stage production, including Billy Halop and Leo Gorcy, to Hollywood, offering them a contract. This marked the beginning of the famed “Dead End Kids.”
Sylvia Sidney is Drina, a poor, desperate factory worker who is currently on strike, fighting for higher wages and safer working conditions. She is the sole guardian of her younger brother, Tommy (Billy Halop), and struggles to keep him out of trouble. Tommy is the head of a street gang comprised of other young boys from the neighborhood. They live on a dead-end street, stacked with broken down tenement housing, on the banks of the East River. In the midst of the slums are brand new luxury high-rise apartment buildings, where the wealthy have infiltrated in search of a better view of the city and the river. Right outside the walled entrance of the apartment building lies desperation and abject poverty, yet the wealthy residents can’t possibly be bothered with it.
Dave (Joel McCrea), a childhood friend of Drina’s, somehow managed to temporarily escape the slums by getting an education in architecture. But even with his college degree, Dave is unable to find work as he lacks the resources and connections that come with wealth and social status. Dave has big plans, as does Drina, but the reality of their situation prevents them from finding success and happiness. Hugh “Babyface” Martin (Humphrey Bogart) is another product of the dead-end slums. A notorious criminal wanted for murder, Martin, who is semi-disguised by a bit of facial plastic surgery, returns to the neighborhood of his youth to visit his mother (Marjorie Main, reprising her stage performance) and his girlfriend, Francey (Claire Trevor, in an Academy Award-nominated role). Dave immediately recognizes Martin, and warns him not to cause trouble in the neighborhood. Martin’s puffed ego and sentimentality get the best of him when his mother disowns him and he discovers that Francey is a prostitute. Even an opportunistic criminal such as Martin has nothing to gain from this slum. Not to be defeated by his return home, Martin devises a plan to kidnap the son of one of the wealthy apartment dwellers, demanding a high ransom.
For the young members of the street gang, the “Dead End Kids,” they have two examples of men who managed to find a way out. Dave defied the odds and not only finished high school, but graduated from college. Unfortunately, his education, hard work and honesty haven’t really paid off for him, at least at the present moment. He struggles to make ends meet with random odd jobs, hoping for a lucky break with a reputable architectural firm. But without a financial safety net or a well-connected social standing, Dave’s chances are slim. On the other hand, Babyface Martin stuck with his criminal roots, becoming a thief and murderer, and has gotten away with it up to this point. He wears nice custom suits with pockets full of cash. He’s far from respectable and his lifestyle isn’t sustainable. But for those young boys, Martin’s life of crime is far more attractive and attainable.
Out of William Wyler’s long filmography, Dead End is quite possibly his bleakest film (and yes, I’m taking into consideration Jezebel [1938] and The Letter [1940]). While there is a bit of a Hollywood ending, the overall feeling of desperation at the widening gap between the wealthy and the destitute is impossible to ignore, and weighs heavily on the audience. One problem has a possible solution, sure, but what about everything else? The wealthy residents in the luxury apartments are still disconnected from their surroundings. They don’t care what happens to the thousands of poor people who live outside their walls. Wyler forces the audience to face this very harsh reality, and does so without pretension or preachiness–a rare talent that the director carried throughout his long career.
Jill Blake