Hell's House

Jimmy Mason is an orphan living with his aunt and uncle. He is taken with their cocky boarder Matt Kelly (Pat O'Brien) who claims to have political connections but is only a petty bootlegger. Peggy Gardner (Bette Davis) is Matt's girlfriend. When Jimmy gets arrested, he is sure to be rescued by his well connected friend Matt. He refuses to turn in Matt and gets sent to reformatory school for three years instead. It's a rough place and his new friend is dying.

The most compelling part of the movie is Jimmy waiting for Matt while he's in court. The rest is a functional story for the boy although he's a little too clueless even at the end. His character needs to get smarter. Bette Davis is a supporting actress in this one. It's very early in her career. I would like Matt to be younger and his turn is a little too happy ending.

"Hell's House" (Capital Films, 1932), directed by Howard Higgins, is a low-budget drama that might have been a much better reform school drama had it been produced at the Warner Brothers studio, in spite of pre-Warner Brothers contract players of Pat O'Brien and Bette Davis in supporting roles that give this the Warner Brothers feel. The central character to the story happens to be played by Junior Durkin (famous for his role as Huck Finn in Paramount's Mark Twain classics, "Tom Sawyer" (1930) and "Huckleberry Finn" (1931), both starring Jackie Coogan). But for today's viewers who may possibly find this movie in a local video store, Bette Davis is the one who brings added interest in a somewhat small role.

The story opens at a farm where Jimmy Mason (Junior Durkin) helps his widowed mother (Mary Alden) with the chores. The pleasant day turns out tragically when Mrs. Mason is suddenly struck and killed by a passing automobile. Left alone, Jimmy decides to come to the city and live with his Uncle Henry (Charley Grapewin) and Aunt Emma (Emma Dunn), landlords of an apartment building. There he meets one of their tenants, Matt Kelly (Pat O'Brien), who befriends the boy, and later introduces him to his girlfriend, Peggy (Bette Davis), a tough babe with a good heart, who takes an instant liking to this young teen. Jimmy, however, is quite naive and doesn't realize that Kelly is a smooth-talking, small-town operator and racketeer. Jimmy is soon offered a job by Kelly answering the telephone at his bootlegging headquarters. After showing him what to do and say, Kelly leaves Jimmy alone to tend to business. As Kelly slowly drives away, he looks at his rear view mirror to find the police barging in the place and arresting Jimmy. While in juvenile court, Jimmy believes that Kelly will come and speak on his behalf, and be released (no such luck). He refuses to identify Kelly as the man who hired him to the judge (Wallis Clark). Because of this, Jimmy is sentenced to three years in a state reformatory. While there, Jimmy becomes the victim of a cruelly-operated institution.

The supporting cast includes Junior Coughlan as Shorty, a reform school boy with a heart ailment who befriends Jimmy; Morgan Wallace as Frank Gebhardt, a crusading publisher wanting to improve reform school conditions; and James Marcus as the superintendent. While the opening credits presented on TV or video today give Davis and O'Brien star billing over Junior Durkin, the current opening credits are actually taken from reissue prints that capitalized on the stardom of both Davis and O'Brien, and is not the original opening credits as presented to 1932 audiences, hence the misspelling of Durkin's surname spelled Dirkin.

Although a reform school drama like this had been produced numerous times by other studios throughout the 1930s, "Hell's House," is really nothing new, in fact, a trifle slow at 70 minutes, handicapped by low-budget production values. Acting is good and reform school situations are grimly handled. However it's still interesting to see mainly because of the supporting actors of O'Brien and Davis, both of whom would become major film stars in later years, especially at Warner Brothers. (**1/2)

The worthwhile story material in this crime drama helps to make up for its weaknesses in other areas. In approaching the subject of juvenile crime, it doesn't present anything revolutionary or ground-breaking, but it does call attention to a few issues that are worth considering, such as the ways that young persons become involved in crime, and the priorities of the justice system in dealing with young offenders. The movie is also of some interest in having Bette Davis in one of her earliest screen roles.

Junior Durkin plays a young man who in all innocence becomes involved with a charismatic bootlegger during the days of prohibition. Jimmy (Durkin's character) is arrested for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and is sent to reform school, where things get worse. Some of the plot developments are not all that logical or plausible, but the story works in calling attention to the way that the young offenders are often treated simply as annoyances to be minimized, with insufficient attention given to constructive development.

Pat O'Brien is effective as the bootlegger, and Davis, though cast as a stock character, has a few good moments as his tough-minded girlfriend. The rest of the supporting cast, which features Charley Grapewin and Junior Coghlan, is solid, and the story moves at a good pace. Overall, it's a little above average for its time and genre, and it contains some ideas worth thinking about.

Jimmy idolizes bootlegger Matt, and when he refuses to implicate his friend, he is sent to reform school. He befriends Shorty, a boy with a heart condition, and escapes to let the world know about the brutal conditions.

Mordaunt Hall observed, "The attempt to pillory reform schools is hardly adult in its attack, but it has a few moderately interesting interludes. The direction of this film is old-fashioned. Pat O'Brien gives a forced performance. Young Durkin's playing is sincere and likewise that of Bette Davis as Peggy."

The biggest problem with this film is how poorly the physical film itself has held up. The Library of Congress has done a great job cleaning it, but it remains a bit of a mess, particularly in the first act. Hopefully some day a better print will be found. The story itself is decent, and tells another angle on the whole gangster theme: what of those who are not gangsters but keep their mouths shut on their behalf?

Really liked the idea for the story for 'Hells House'. It sounded quite touching and relatable. It also had Bette Davis, reason enough to see anything she was in regardless of the film's overall quality, in a small early role. The title does grab the attention and do appreciate early film, so there were enough reasons to make me want to see 'Hells House'. Regardless of the lukewarm reviews here and that it didn't look particularly great production-values wise.

'Hells House' has its moments and good things, and is overall quite watchable. It is though not much more than a curiosity piece, my curio reason being me wanting to see all the films not seen yet starring or featuring Davis. For me, the film could have a lot more with its relatively under-explored potential and more induced mixed feelings within me. It is namely to be seen for Davis but execution-wise it doesn't have much of everything else going for it.

Davis' screen time is far too small and her character is stock, she is above her material, but she brings a lot of dignity to what she has. Actually thought that in general the acting was above average, not mind-blowing but not amateur-hour, definitely one of 'Hells House's' better aspects. Great to see Pat O'Brien and Charley Grapewin here and giving likeable performances, Junior Durkin tries too hard at times and Jimmy was to me a problematic character in a way but he and Frank Coghlan's performances are deeply felt.

Their chemistry is also tenderly done, generally thought the character interaction was beautifully done in 'Hells House' and didn't get too cloying or overdone.

For all those good things though, too much is done wrong. The production values are far from great, excepting the effective use of shadow it looks very primitive. The sound likewise. The dialogue tends to be too corny and doesn't flow particularly well.

As said, Jimmy's character is problematic. Too naive in an unrealistic way. The story is charming and touching enough, but can be a little too slow in the early parts and can be contrived.

Overall, watchable curio but there are far better representations of Davis around. 5/10