Absolutely Fantastic

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This is an early noir with Busby Berkeley coming on with many surprises on the way of the typically noir theme of an innocent, having to escape from justice and the law since all the circumstantial evidence is against him and no one believes him. John Garfield was always uncouth and rowdy but managed to make the more splendid characters for their sore trials, forcing them to extreme honesty, not seldom to self-sacrifice to prove themselves right. John Garfield was expert on such characters, especially in Hemingway stories. This is different, though. Here he is hounded by a policeman notorious for his uncompromising pertinacity, who is no one less than Claude Rains, and we know how merciless he can be. John Garfield, however, finds another life in Arizona with the Dead End Kids and a girl and creates an idyllic existence away from the world, - while Claude Rains gets the scent and comes on track.John Garfield's character is not very intelligent, he follows his impulses rather than any careful thought, and his character will keep you constantly worried, for he can't end up in anything but trouble. and his honesty must keep you sticking to him with all your sympathy. How he wins the boys on his side and finally the girl just to one day meet his fate as Claude Rains turns up at the wrong moment is a fascinating thriller all the way with many psychological moments of truth. The grandma finalizes the brilliance,It's a very enjoyable and impressing film with Max Steiner's music adding to it just discreetly enough, but Busby Berkeley's direction takes the prize. The party in the beginning of the film is a triumph for him.

This is really a strange film. John Garfield is a champion boxer who thinks he killed a reporter in a drunken brawl, and is then mistakenly thought to be dead himself. He goes on the run and ends up in Arizona working on a ranch for delinquents ... where he meets the Dead End Kids. Claude Rains, doing a really weird American accent, is a disgraced NYC cop, who's the only one who believes that Garfield is still alive and tries to track him down. Not a bad film ... but a really strange bag of incompatible tones, all directed by Busby Berkeley of all people.

FOLLOWING THE SUCCESS of the Screen Version of DEAD END (1937), the contracts of 'the Dead End Kids' were sold by Samuel Goldwyn to Warner Brothers. Hence Billy Hallop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsly all were working alongside the likes of Cagney, Garfield and Reagan.TO BE SURE, Jack Warner and company would keep them busy. Titles such as CRIME SCHOOL, ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACRS and HELL'S KITCHEN followed. Sandwiched in between was THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL.THE FILM IS a prime example of one of the many remakes that were (and actually still are)such a large portion of the studios' yearly output. In this case, 1933's THE LIFE OF JIMMY DOLAN, which boasted of a cast featuring Douglas Fairbanks, Loretta Young, Edward Arnold and a young Mickey Rooney. Although we have never seen this film, we do know that the storyline is the same as the screenplays are both from original play by Bertram Milhauser and Beulah Marie Dix.LEADING THE CAST in this 1939 version is John Garfield; along with Gloria Dickson, Claude Rains (in a classic case of miscasting), Anne Sheridan and the Dead End Kids. It is interesting that the Kids all have retained their names that were used in that original names from the progenitor of all the Kids' movies, DEAD END.AS FOR THE story, a whirlwind of events move Jack Dorney (Garfield) from the paragon of sophistication, New York, out to the semi-arid, West's agricultural crossroads; which could be in California, New Mexico or Arizona (take your pick). Prizefighting, Loose Women, greed, excessive drinking and arrogance all conspire to knock the boxer off his summit to the depths of being a fugitive from the law.THE CHARACTER OF Detective Phelan (Mr. Claude Rains) has an obsession with catching the suspected murderer, Dorney, that would make him a literary ancestor to Lt. Gerrard (Barry Morse) in 1960's TV THE FUGITIVE.THE FILM ALSO boasts of being Directed by Busby Berkley, in a rare non-musical assignment.

This is a poor excuse for a movie. A film noir done by Busbee Berkeley? Please! First, let's forget about the plot, a truly simple-minded version of a cynical tough guy turned into a saint by the love of a pretty blonde. Yechh. So what turns her from despising him to loving him? Along with a group of other guys, he helps keep a kid from drowning as they all swim in a water tower and try to survive as the water is siphoned off, stranding them. It isn't exactly heroics, but she's suddenly smitten. It's truly painful to watch Claude Rains trying to portray a hard-bitten, tough-talking, noir-type cop. A crooked grimace is his main and rather pathetic acting tool, along with a growling voice. Most of his energy seems to go into trying to hide the intelligence that shines in all his other roles. How he ever got talked into taking this job I'll never understand. Enjoy it, if you can, for a few period details, the old cars and gas pumps, but don't expect a decent film experience. It wasted 1-1/12 hours of my life.