This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"Dead End" was one of the many movies in the 1930s focusing on class issues. Set on a street that extends to the river, it's where rich and poor meet. The plot is every gritty thing that you can imagine (at least as was acceptable in 1937). It's impossible to see how the rich have holder themselves up in a building where they can ignore the hoi polloi, all of whom have to figure out how to fend off danger.The most recognizable cast member of is course Humphrey Bogart. He plays a supporting role, but he's just as tough as in his most famous ones. Aside from the Dead End Kids, another cast member is Sylvia Sidney, known to modern audiences as the grandmother in "Mars Attacks!".But anyway, one can see a similarity to movies like "City of God" here. The movie makes clear that reality is right around the corner, especially when it involves the differences between rich and poor. Even though they filmed it on a set, it looks realistic; I wonder how much longer the New York docks looked like this.In conclusion, I recommend it.

Dead End's story is a very serious-minded drama depicting the antagonistic "culture clash" that prevails on a daily basis between the "haves" and the "have nots".Set in NYC's Lower East Side where the streets of the city all come to a "dead end" halt at the edge of the East River - This tale of troubled lives introduces the viewer to the conflicting attitudes of the punks, the gangsters, and of those who long to rise above the oppressiveness of the slums (but they just can't seem to find a reasonable way out of this stifling jungle).Filmed in stark b&w - This straight-faced, 1937 social commentary was directed by William Wyler (adapted from the screenplay penned by Lillian Hellman).

Sadly, I'm not as enthusiastic as other reviewers. I have seen much of Bogart's filmography, from The Petrified Forest to his last (The Harder They Fall), and my collection now includes nearly 30 of his movies. I watched this film with reasonable expectations, being aware that his part there is a support one. After all, Bogart was stealing the show even in his early years, when his contributions were merely secondary.Well I just watched Dead End for the first time yesterday and was left rather cold and even disappointed by it. As appropriately mentioned by others, it's really very (like in 'too much') theatrical, but not in a good way, at least for me. I was not familiar with these "Dead End Boys" and unlike others, I was far from impressed and was in fact irritated by their performance. It's one thing to deal with the overall atavistic overwrought style so typical of so many '30s movies, but it's another to try packing up as many pointless rough exchanges between young street brats as you materially can within an hour and a half. I mean, what is the point of keeping these absurdly annoying "misérables" relentlessly and dumbly insulting either each other or their opulent oppressors? As long as they're yapping their brains out and erase any silence or moment for reflection that might subsist in that blatantly dated movie play (a deliberate choice of words on my part...). Reading about how these young actors, who had been sent over to Hollywood to transpose their NY theatrical act to cinema, caused absolute chaos and sheer havoc offstage, I am almost tempted to think that Wyler, an otherwise very competent and often brilliant director, dealt with this wild bunch as best as he could, but likely experienced serious difficulties while piloting the making of this movie, with mixed results, to say the least. After Dodsworth the year before, what a turnoff! In his career, Wyler succeeded a lot in entertaining his viewers, and I was hoping that this one would be no exception. However...I am able to cope with most typical '30s movies along with their exaggerated declamatory style and machine-gun stance delivery. That's not the point.... I'm afraid that the Dead End play has failed to be adapted to cinema and is in fact a rather grating Frankensteinian creature with too many theatrical parts and functions to be palatable in the cinematographic language. The movie tries too hard to deliver social messages while attempting to narrate a potentially enlivening story and to present characters to whom we should somehow relate, but who end up leaving us indifferent at best (e.g. most of the main adult characters, including Bogart) or worse, extremely annoyed as with many of the Dead End bunch, I'm afraid to say.As for the major characters, there isn't enough space and time left for them to grow on the viewer and to become well-formed entities. I have seldom watched a Bogart as wooden as in this movie, and this has nothing to do with this being a support contribution. Bogart almost always stole the show before he started playing lead parts. No. As I see Dead End, it was in the end a showcase for the Dead End Brats and a list of their socio-political statements, a sort of 90-min allegory of the abysmal gap between rich and poor. Anything but a well-designed movie. There have been countless films dealing with this subject matter, and I'm afraid that Dead End is .... well, quite aptly named, after all. In more ways than one.

Picture Humphrey Bogart as a small time hood 'Baby Face Martin' hanging out at a dead end neighborhood on New York City's East Side with the Dead End Kids. William Wyler directs this small drama based on a Broadway play. The scenery changes very little. Just a little corner of the world where riverfront slums are smack dab rubbing shoulders with the elite living in luxury hotels. Martin has finally made the "big time" and is showing off in his old haunting ground trying to make an impression on the neighborhood gang of Dead End Kids featuring Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey and Billy Halop. An almost penniless sign painter Joel McCrea, hopes to escape the slums by romancing a wealthy lass played by Wendy Barrie. In this dead end a petty crime can lead to an even bigger punishment. And it seems that poverty lines have limited effects on romancing the wealthy. I just love these old black & white pictures and even more so if there is rain or snow involved. Of course substance sometimes reveal budgets or the lack of...I'm not ashamed to admit being a dreamer and a sucker for movies of this type...great story or not.Other players making appearances: Claire Trevor, Marjorie Main, Ward Bond, Wade Boteler, Charles Peck and Esther Dale.