Reform School

Always strange to see (and review) a film of great cultural and historical relevance with little to no cinematic or dramatic interest. In other words, congrats to the powers that be behind this 1939 work (the Popkins, presumably) for bucking both racial and gender stereotypes and financing and making a movie where the African American characters wear suits and dresses rather than porters caps and aprons and where the main character is a working woman who gives the orders rather than receives them. But oh ye gods the acting and writing are horrendous! One only has to compare a great actress like Louise Beavers' performance in "Imitation of Life" to the stiff, mechanical reform school head she portrays here with her line readings of dull dialogue in the most awkward, amateur manner to see that for African Americans in Hollywood this film is a first, very welcome, but tentative step forward. Give it a C plus (mostly for groundbreaking reasons).

This is a well-meaning and impressive low-budget film of historical importance. The first half shows the deplorable state of the penal system in the United States in the 1930s. Then the second half of the movie tries to show how conditions could be improved. But the sad thing about watching the film today is that the first half is TRUE. It was true in 1939 and it's still true now, in 2022. (If anything, they downplayed how awful things really were, and are.) The second half, however, is FALSE. No significant reforms were ever made. The system is just as bad today as it was then, or even worse. :(

How do you change bad behavior? Bad boys reap the consequences of their actions by spending time in a typical reform school, where beatings are a normal part of life. What if it could be done another way? What would a shift in leadership look like and would it work? Enter Mother Barton, a smart and successful woman who takes over and instills a new kind of guidance. It's a very simple story of how brutality never changed anyone, only thru trust and love. People will see themselves in the best light if you dare to. It also so happens this is with an all black cast. Humanity is a story as old as time.

Louise Beavers is a social worker who takes over a reform school and institutes reforms to prepare the boys for a life after.

It's certainly a well meaning race film, and it's a pleasure to see Miss Beavers in a lead role. There is also some money spent on set decoration, rendering this quite watchable. Unfortunately, Miss Beavers has some trouble with long expository sections, and many of the older performers -- although not the youngsters -- sound like they are reading it off a card without warning.

William Hyer's camerawork is quite striking, particularly in the group shots, but one-time editor Bart M. Rauw shows people walking up to doors like this is a 1934 B western and he has to stretch things out to bring it up to feature length.

This is a difficult movie to rate. It was a joy and an exciting move to see because it was shown on 10/5/2022 for the first time as a lost movie. Watching it was like being first to discover a historic fact.

As an entertainment movie in general, there are pluses and minuses.

Pluses = The photography is sharp and camera movement is professional enough not to be a distraction. The story is clear and stays on track at all times.

Minuses = The reform school "kids" are in their 20s and 30s. The actors are short as 15 and 16-year-olds would be, but they are old. Worse, there is special footage of kids working in a real reform school kitchen and laundry room where all the kids are real kids, and then when the movie comes back to the actors, the difference in age is very distracting. Also a minus is the relaxed direction and loose editing. This is not the zenith of 1939 film art.

This was enjoyable to watch, but maybe most of the charm is that of seeing a lost movie.

One other note... When people speak slowly, and specially when people speak quickly, most of the time words blur and blend together as spoken. But in Reform School, the actors tend to speak with a slight separation between every word, which makes this movie extremely easy to understand for foreign people trying to learn English.

Beginners having trouble catching English by ear will have an easier time with Reform School than watching many other English movies.