L'école du crime

The Dead End Kids gets into an argument with a junkman called Junkie and Spike hits him over the head. The kids are brought in front of a judge for the assult but they refuse to cooperate. They are all sent to the state reformatory school run by the sadistic warden Morgan for two years. New deputy commissioner Mark Braden (Humphrey Bogart) attends the Kids' case and grows concerned. He checks up on them at the school. After some horrific discoveries, he fires four guards and the discredited doctor. He sets out to reform the reform school. The guard Cooper cozies up to Braden but secretly sows dissention among the boys.

It's the second movie for the Dead End Kids. Their disruptive antics have already caused issues on the lot. Their antics on screen can be quite rough also. The movie starts with Spike almost killing a guy. These are no angels. That is interesting. The whip marks are really brutal. The characters are also oddly naive at times. Some of the Kids are interesting as they continue to rotate in and out from one movie to the next. There is no continuity which does devalue their story. It is an interesting aspect of depression era cinema.

Enjoyed this 1938 film dealing with a young boy named Frankie Warren, (Billy Halop) who is placed in a reform school which is in bad condition and the leadership does not care about the young men and treats them all like hardened criminals. Mark Braden, (Humphrey Bogart) is assigned a Deputy Commissionier of Correction and decides to take off the bars on the reformatory and sets a new policy of giving the young men jobs to keep them busy and educate them for the outside world. Mark Braden meets Frankie Warren's sister named Sue Warren, (Gale Page) and they fall in love with each other after Sue sees how Frankie is improving and has changed his personality towards people and himself. Mark Braden discovers that there is corruption going on in his correction institute and he confronts his chief guard and finds out that Reformatory Superintendent, Morgan are working together stealing funds from the reformatory. All the "Dead End Kids" appear in this film and they give lots of comedy and drama throughout the entire picture. Great 1939 Classic.

Crime School is a mediocre film, but still a good performance by Bogart. One of the Dead End Kids films, it struggles to keep you interested. The Dead End Kids are, well dead. The acting is very poor and the characters and almost annoying with the over done accents and supposed gang behavior. The main problem which contributes to the entire films downfall is the unrealistic dialog and actions. When one of the kids shows up at the pawnshop with a 100 lb cast iron bathtub, you roll your eyes. But when Cy Kendell gets fired from a job he has had for 12 years and he puts up almost no protest you have to reach for remote and try not to stop the tape. Its finer points are the moral and political statements the film makes on reforming child criminals. Sadism versus compassion, hate verses love, good points clouded by comical attempts at portraying tough street kids. Bogart is a great actor and plays the part well, of all the characters in the film his is the most believable and entertaining. Definitely not one of Lew Seiler's best movies. I would not rent it unless you are old enough to connect for nostalgic reasons, but if it shows on TV it is worth muddling through it.

Warner Brothers decided to save a bundle on purchasing new properties for the Dead End Kids. The boys did They Made Me a Criminal a year later which was a remake of The Life of Jimmy Dolan and Crime School is a remake of The Mayor from Hell.

Fellow gangster icon James Cagney starred in The Mayor from Hell which I also reviewed here. Such things as Cagney's motivation and commitment to the reform school and the manner with which the boys take matters into their own hands is pretty grisly. None of that in this kinder, gentler film.

Sleepers has a lot of the same elements in both The Mayor from Hell and Crime School. It's certainly better than Crime School. This was one film whose message was watered down to nothing.

Nevertheless Crime School does have Humphrey Bogart in it and the Dead End Kids are always entertaining.

I wonder what kind of stuff the Dead End Kids would have been turning out had they come along pre-Code?

This movie is a remake of a more entertaining movie called "The Mayor of Hell" in 1933 with James Cagney. The plot is basically the same but it doesn't involve the Dead End Kids (which is good because they can be annoying) but the plot is enhanced in "The Mayor of Hell" because of the absurdity of a gangster getting a favor from a politician by being appointed Deputy Commissioner. Crime Story is a more serious version and could be plausible but that makes it less entertaining. It's sort of weird that a movie could be this close to plot and time, only five years, and attract such a big of a star as Humphrey Bogart. Also that Humphrey Bogart would do this movie up against Jame Cagney so close to the original. In this time frame Bogart and Cagney were doing films together as well.