Je suis un criminel

A mix of comedy and crime that doesn't quite work and is woefully dated. But there is some charm that remains and it is an entertaining, if somewhat forced, blend that may suffer from a bit too much of some things and not enough of others.

The first half of a deadly serious frame up and setup is effective as an innocent man is sent on the lam. Then the films switches tone and locales and the combination of slapstick and over the top acting does not fare as well.

To be kind it is a good effort but the parts don't do the whole justice. There are some exciting scenes and some funny and tender ones, the problem is that they don't always make a satisfying connection.

John Garfield is always a force on screen and delivers, as usual, a knockout performance, but Claude Raines is miscast to the point of distraction. The Dead End Kids do their usual routines and the Director is competent enough, although competent would hardly describe his excellent, eye-popping, ground-breaking musicals.

Known for his wonderfully cinematic dance sequences, Busby Berkeley went for a different genre in this fine 1939 crime drama. A youthful John Garfield plays Johnnie, a tough NYC boxer who scores a big break in the ring. He attends a drunken private party where a news reporter is murdered. The killer himself dies in a flaming auto wreck, but not before he successfully shifts the blame to Johnny. Johnny flees the city and hides out at a small boy's camp out west, populated by everyone's favorite wayward street gang, The Dead End Kids. All seems fine in this hide-out until a NYC detective (Claude Rains) who was on the murder case, happens by. Berkeley keeps the film going at a terrific pace. Berkeley would never settle for a point-and-shoot look to his film. His camera is all over the place, even underwater when the kids take over a water tank. There's all the stock characters of old cinema her e- the nice girl who softens Garfield's heart, the spry old grannie, the tough NYC cops and reporters. Fun movie.

I have never been a big fan of John Garfield but seeing this movie gave me a different opinion. This is a well done remake of one of my all time favorite films "The Life of Jimmy Dolan" (1933) with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. , Loretta Young , a very young Mickey Rooney and a cameo by a guy named John Wayne. That film had one of the best love songs ever "How Deep Is the Ocean" as a background to the love scenes.

Garfield plays his boxer a little more as a looser than did Doug Fairbanks but he is great in the part.

What really drew me to this film was the "ensemble" cast of the Dead End Kids as the tough reform school guys on the farm that Garfield's character helps. The ever superb (and I feel also unrated) Leo Gorcey says it all with his body language and that face as the tough mug with a ice cube for a heart. He is wonderful. As for the rest of the Bowery Boys/Dead End Kids, they are also fabulous. How they play off each other is a lesson in acting.

I would recommend this film but for the classic take on this story see the Fairbanks film. It is outstanding.

John Garfield stars in "They Made Me a Criminal" from 1939, also starring The Dead End Kids, Mae Robson, Claude Rains, Ann Sheridan, Gloria Dickson, Billy Halop, and Ward Bond.

This is a remake of the Douglas Fairbanks film, "The Life of Jimmy Dolan."

Since the Garfield character plays a boxer, Johnnie, it's easy to see why he would be a better fit for the role than Fairbanks was, though Fairbanks was wonderful when he wasn't in the ring.

The film opens with Johnnie winning a big fight and humbly sending love to his mother. Actually he's a big drinker and womanizer, and he doesn't have a mother.

At a party after the fight, he keeps himself busy boozing and making out with his girlfriend, Goldie (Sheridan), before realizing one of the guests at the party is a reporter and can't wait to tell the world about the real Johnnie.

He tries to keep the man from leaving, but he passes out. At that point, his agent hits the man on the head and kills him. When Johnnie regains consciousness, no one clues him in that he didn't do anything. That night, his agent and Goldie are in a bad car accident and die. Now there is no one to help prove his innocence.

Panicked, Johnnie goes on the run with what little money he has - he was cheated out of most of it - and when the money runs out, he lives as a hobo. He ends up on a date farm run by Peggy and Grandma (Dickson and Robson). He also encounters some kids (Dead End Kids) as Peggy and Grandma run a summer camp for them.

At first he's hungry and dehydrated, and passes out as he's trying to leave - Peggy nurses him back to health. He stays on, and softens getting involved with the kids and falling for Peggy.

Phelan, one of the cops in New York (Rains) doesn't believe Johnnie was the male victim in the car. The agent had removed Johnnie's watch while he was unconscious and put it on his own wrist. The wrong wrist, which Rains picks up on. He believes Johnnie is still alive and starts to search for him.

Directed by Busby Berkeley of all people, They Made Me a Criminal is an entertaining film, bolstered by the performances of the cast. Claude Rains was woefully miscast as Phelan - he was forced to do the role or be put under suspension. However, Claude Rains really couldn't do anything bad, it was just an odd part for him.

The best scene is Garfield and the boys going swimming in a water tank, and when the irrigation pumps are turned on, the water level goes lower and lower.

Garfield is in good form here, and so young. Thanks to the blacklist and a weak heart, he only lived 13 more years. In a short time, he left a marvelous legacy.

After winning a championship fight, boxer John Garfield (as Johnnie Bradfield) celebrates with a drinking binge, which leads to the manslaughter of a pushy reporter. Although his manager killed the man, Mr. Garfield is blamed. When the manager dies in a car crash, wearing Garfield's stolen watch, authorities think the boxer is dead. Still a WANTED man, Garfield changes his identity to "Jack Dorney" and moves to an Arizona ranch. There, Garfield meets "The Dead End Kids": Billy Halop (as Tommy), Bobby Jordan (as Angel), Leo Gorcey (as Spit), Huntz Hall (as Dippy), Gabriel Dell (as T.B.), and Bernard Punsly (as Milt).

Garfield bonds with the young "Dead End" lads, who were sent to stay with sweet "Grandma Rafferty" (May Robson) as an alternative to reform school, courtesy of her brother, deceased priest "Father Rafferty". Garfield falls in love with Halop's sister, pretty "Peggy" (Gloria Dickson), who is there to keep any eye on the kids. Of course, Garfield's past comes back to haunt him…

John Garfield and The 'Dead End' Kids make beautiful (Max Steiner) music together, thanks to effective direction and photography, by Busby Berkeley and James Wong Howe. The story is predictably comfortable, with the Warner Brothers support team in fine form. Garfield and the "Dead End" kids are a winning combination; although Garfield made no further movies with the "East Side" gang, the studio had him re-team with both Billy Halop and Bobby Jordan, almost immediately, for "Dust Be My Destiny".

The boxing scenes are nicely staged. But, the most exciting sequence has Garfield and four of the New York "Kids" (Halop, Jordan, Hall, and Punsly) climbing into a giant water tank for a swim - which unexpectedly puts their lives in danger. Other, more brief, highlights include floozy Ann Sheridan (as Goldie), boozy Barbara Pepper (as Budgie), and young Ronald Sinclair (as Douglas) losing at strip poker.

******** They Made Me a Criminal (1/21/39) Busby Berkeley ~ John Garfield, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Claude Rains