Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Forumrxes Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Prismark10 The art direction and the cinematography in this film is exceptional, you can tell from the opening scenes.William Wyler shows a New York of the depression where the poor live like rats in the slums and the rich are encroaching towards the river with their fancier houses. An early version of gentrification.In Dead End we see the rich and poor, the law abiding and the gangsters all mingling together and trying to survive. Nobody seems to like the cops and the local rascals, the dead end kids are passing the time and making a nuisance of themselves.Humphrey Bogart makes a cameo as a wanted hoodlum who has had plastic surgery and come to see his mother. However I found his scenes to be just ordinary and I expected more from him. The Dead End Kids were just irritating, they all needed to be herded to reform school.The film has sadly aged and the script came across as rather preachy and antiquated.

Leofwine_draca DEAD END is an odd mix of social commentary and crime drama. For the first half of the running time, not much happens apart from the obnoxious Dead End Kids gang getting into various scrapes in their local area. The emphasis is on petty crime and degradation, a comparison between the sheltered lives of the rich and the desperate lives of the poor, and how the gulf between the two can lead to hatred and violence.At the same time as all this is going on, a sub-plot involves a decent hard-working local man, played by western star Joel McCrea, and a hard-bitten gangster type, played by Humphrey Bogart. The two men hate each other on sight and eventually their sub-plot takes over the story, leading to some exciting crime thrills. The Dead End Kids too get drawn into the mix, and the whole thing builds to a thrilling climax. DEAD END is a little unsatisfying to begin with - you just want to see someone give those brats a thrashing - but it picks up a lot and ends on a real high. The emphasis is on realism throughout and the film is all the better for it.

LeonLouisRicci The Great Depression was a Tragic but Fertile Foundation for Hollywood in the 1930's. This one, adapted for the Screen from a Long Running Stage Play, is one of the Most Powerful indictments of the Failed Capitalist System that Caused the Suffering for so many. The Grapes of Wrath (1940) was the Best at Capturing the Heart and Soul of the Dirt Farmers, and this may be the Best at showing the Scarred Situation in the City's Slums. Not Restrained, or Confined by its limited Sets it is also one of the Best Movies to virtually Film a Play. It was a Thing that Hollywood Rarely Pulled-Off as the two Art-Forms never really meshed that well and both Platforms suffered when it was attempted.This Film is so "Rich" with Layers of Truth and Talent that in its rather Short Running Time, it is nothing less than Captivating. Everything is worth mentioning. The Source Material, the Direction, the Cinematography, the Actors, and the overall Production Design.In this Atmospheric Display of the Human Condition under Immense Degradation, there are many things that are Indelible and not Easily Forgotten. Humphrey Bogart's Pre-Starring Gangster Thug being Slapped Down by His Mother. Joel MccRea's Upper Class Girlfriend entering a Tenement, "I have been poor, but I never saw anything like this."Director William Wyler's insistence on Realism in Defiance of the Producers (Samuel Goldwyn visiting the set…"Why does he make it look so dirty?") The Dead End Kids provide the Humor, not yet Old Enough to really feel the Life Defeating Environment and take Everything pretty much in stride. Claire Trevor's One Scene as Baby Face Martin's Old Girlfriend who is now Repulsive as a Member of the "Oldest Profession".The Movie is one of the Best of the Decade and Reflects the Social Concerns with Timeless Truths. There's Nothing Dated Here and if You Think it is, You are Only Scratching the Surface.

secondtake Dead End (1937)While there is no doubt this is an amazing film it's also a slightly stylized and ultimately stilted one. These East End NYC kids--all white, all supposedly "bad" but in a likable way--are filmed on a suburban Los Angeles movie studio lot. It's convincing enough for the plot, but it feels like a huge stage set, constrained and not quite New York City in its scale, noise, or grime. But then you get used to all this (if you notice it at all) and realize it is, in fact, a play on a stage with some cameras recording it for us. It's not a documentary, but a morality tale, filled with types and stereotypes.And filled with such great acting and visual beauty you can't help but appreciate it.I loved it. I loved it most of all for the kids and for the photography. The two titular stars are superstars in the making--Humphrey Bogart in a somewhat stiff but prescient role as a thug returning to see his mother and ex-girlfriend, and Claire Trevor as a tough big sister looking very young and very unlike the more sophisticated woman she often played. Both had done many films before and are sharp and very strong (especially Trevor), but the kids are the real stars, with physical and emotional energy. This is the first appearance in the movies of the "Dead End Kids."The story is a Depression era classic, with the haves having more and the have-nots having less than ever. There is an un-shown labor strike going on and a poor kid/rich kid conflict. And there is the waning power of the gangster at hand, the Bogart thug who really is a bit lost, not only looking for old contacts from the 1920s but failing to find them, not like he expected. In a way, it's the hardworking Trevor who takes the lead, sticking up for what is right and then sometimes thinking only of survival even if it isn't quite right any more.The point is that the system is broken, money is divided unfairly, the cops are both good guys and bad guys at once, and family comes first. Sound familiar? Yes, and that's partly why the movie works--the story is eternal.But it's also a tiny bit hackneyed, or so it will seem if you have the least bit of cynicism in you. So then you watch and realize you have some of the most amazing technical and artistic talents on the planet converged for this film. The director, William Wyler, is the most highly regarded of the studio mainstays--not for his individualism (there are many directors with more distinction) but for his perfection, his sense of timing and space, and his handling of stories and the actors who tell them. The cinematographer is the one most revered camera guys this whole period, Gregg Toland, and he makes even ordinary scenes astonishing. Not that the scenes are ordinary. There is a huge cast in this small space, and the camera goes way up high at times and then down in the midst of the chaos at others, moving with the flow of action, never tiring. Music? Alfred Newman, another great. So take the slightly contrived style as part of its intention and let it unfold on you for what it is. Quite a special film.