The Angels Wash Their Faces

A sequel to Angels With Dirty Faces in name only, The Angels Wash Their Faces suffers somewhat from the usual shenanigans of the Dead End Kids. As a matter of fact, with the presence of the Dead End Kids and Ann Sheridan this should have been treated as an actual sequel to Angels With Dirty Faces, at least for continuity's sake.

Speaking of Ann Sheridan, she is the one true shining light of this movie. To paraphrase a cliché, Ann Sheridan could read from a phone book for two hours and I would buy the DVD!

Another virtue of this movie is the chemistry between Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan. Unfortunately , this aspect of the film is kept too far in the background. For a better example of the Sheridan-Reagan duo I would recommend Juke Girl or Kings Row.

Angels Wash Their Faces, The (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Dead End Kids star in this Warner crime drama, which has the boys trying to clear one of their pals of arson and murder charges. If you've seen one of these dramas then you've pretty much seen them all but this one here has a rather strange, stupid yet original twist at the end. The first half of the film is pretty boring as we sit through the typical story of a troubled kid trying to do good but getting into more trouble. Most of this is deadly dull and boring because we have seen it in previous films but then the twist takes place. In the middle of the movie one of the boys is elected Mayor and of course he appoints his pals into other positions throughout the city. This is how they go about getting their friend cleared but the screenplay is so far fetched that I couldn't help but break down laughing. All of this laughter made the second half of the film fast paced, loose and fun. The Dead End Kids are their typical self but Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan add nice support. Bonita Granville, from Warner's Nancy Drew series, also joins the boys and is an added touch. I'm not sure what it is about her but I've found her very charming and sweet in the five films of her's I've seen.

This 1939 film tried to capitalize on the much better Michael Curtiz's film "Angels with Dirty Faces". As directed by Ray Enright, the only interesting thing is how tamed these kids were in comparison with what's going on with the youth in America's inner cities today.

The film is only worth seeing because of the presence of Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan, who showed they were well paired together. The Dead End kids have larger parts as the plot concentrates on them rather than in the older folks.

In a way it's curious how arson was used in the same way some scrupulous landlords did in later years right here in New York. It was the quickest way to turn a property around never considering the social problems it created. In today's climate with so many guns around there is a new reality. The young kids of the story seemed mere pranksters rather than criminals. How times change!

The film begins with a bunch of kids in reform school and focuses on a kid named 'Gabe', who has apparently worked hard to earn his parole. Gabe and his sister move to a new neighborhood to make a fresh start and soon Gabe meets up with the Dead End Kids. The Kids in this film are little punks, but they are much less antisocial than they'd been in other previous films and down deep, they are well-meaning punks. However, in this neighborhood there are also some criminals who are perpetrating insurance fraud through arson and see Gabe as a convenient scapegoat--after all, he'd been to reform school and no one would believe he was innocent once he was framed. So, when Gabe is about ready to be sent back to "The Big House", it's up to the rest of the gang to save him and expose the real crooks.

The "Dead End Kids" appeared in several Warner Brothers films in the late 1930s and the films were generally very good (particularly ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES). However, after the boys' contracts expired, they went on to Monogram Studios and the films, to put it charitably, were very weak and formulaic--with Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey being pretty much the whole show and the group being renamed "The Bowery Boys". Because ANGELS WASH THEIR FACES had the excellent writing and production values AND Hall and Gorcey were not constantly mugging for the camera, it's a pretty good film--and almost earns a score of 7 (it's REAL close). In fact, while this isn't a great film aesthetically, it's sure a lot of fun to watch, so I will give it a 7! Sure, it was a tad hokey-particularly towards the end when the kids take the law into their own hands and Reagan ignores the Bill of Rights--but it was also quite entertaining. The Dead End Kids are doing their best performances and Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan provided excellent support. Sure, this part of the film was illogical and impossible but somehow it was still funny and rather charming--so if you can suspend disbelief, it works well.

Although Ronald Reagan and Ann Sheridan are the romantic leads here, the film really belongs to the Dead End Kids. Angels Wash Their Faces is NOT a sequel to Angels With Dirty Faces, it doesn't come close to that classic. Still it's an enjoyable film.

The Dead End Kids are joined by Frankie Thomas and Bonita Granville who Warner Brothers had been using in their Nancy Drew series. In those films Granville was the lead and poor Thomas was her earnest boyfriend who she got involved in all of her cases. Here Thomas is the lead and Granville his romantic interest and would you believe, Leo Gorcey's sister. That's nothing, in one of the Bowery Boy features Gorcey got a young Ava Gardner as his sister.

There's been a rash of fires in the neighborhood, somebody's got a nice little arson racket going. The crooks try to pin this on Frankie Thomas who's a new kid moved into the neighborhood with his sister Ann Sheridan. Ronald Reagan as the Assistant District Attorney reluctantly prosecutes.

What happens then is Dead End Kid leader Billy Halop gets himself elected boy mayor of the city and uses the power of office quite creatively to help Thomas and find the arsonists. Some arcane laws which are still on the books turn out to be of real value.

Best in the cast is Frankie Thomas who's quite appealing as the kid in trouble and Bernard Nedell as the slick crook who gets quite a comeuppance from the Dead End Kids.

Fans of the Kids will like this one.