Hell's Kitchen

Crime boss Buck Caesar gets a suspended sentence. Supported by his nephew and lawyer Jim Donahue (Ronald Reagan), he decides to go legit. His criminal minions are not so supportive. Jim suggests contributing to a reform school for boys. Unbeknownst to them, the place is a cruel place run by Krispan. He fires caring teacher Beth Avery which happens to be seen by Buck and Jim. Buck is taking over. He intends to reform the reform school.

It's the "Dead End" kids. It's their third movie. The subject matter is still serious with some moments of humor. It has the stiff acting of Ronald Reagan. He's the quintessential square jaw actor. Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall are still only two of the boys. It's good standard Dead End Kids.

The first of two films in which Ronald Reagan was featured with the Dead End Kids was Hell's Kitchen where after one stint of time in reform school in Crime School, the boys are back in the juvenile joint. The adult players take a distinct back seat to the boys in both these films.

Crime School was an out and out remake of the James Cagney classic The Mayor Of Hell and this one also has aspects of those films in it as well. We've got a self righteous warden of the school in Grant Mitchell who's once again skimming off the tops and treating the kids like dirt. His infamous cooler is an old meat locker where he locks the kids in to 'cool' them off. When one of them dies, it all hits the fan.

Challenging him for control of the institution is paroled racketeer, Stanley Fields who is playing his role like a cut rate Wallace Beery. Ronald Reagan is his nephew and Margaret Lindsay is the secretary of the school under Mitchell and who is ready to quit when Caesar arrives on the scene.

Jack Warner must have really been in a bind here because he even acknowledges a hit film from another studio. One of the reforms that Fields wants to bring in is a kind of self governing institution by the kids like Father Flanagan's Boys Town. In fact I'm sure that's why this film was made, to cash in on the success of Boys Town.

No Oscar winning performances here though like Spencer Tracy's. Still it's entertaining enough.

The fact that this is a remake of a 1933 film and a reworking of a film made in 1938 is not that unusual for Warner Brothers. Often they remade films only a year or two or three later. Other studios often did the same but Warner seemed to do it a lot.

In spite of this being a remake, and I usually hate remakes, I found I enjoyed this every bit as much as the other two films--perhaps a little more. This is because instead of the tough guys Cagney or Bogart playing the lead, this one had Stanley Fields who brought an entirely different element. He was much larger and scarier looking but also had a comedic edge to him--sort of like a big criminal teddy bear!! The only part that didn't work for me was the whole hockey team angle--that was weird and the street kids seemed practically like champion skaters almost immediately! Still, this is an enjoyable Warner film and another chance to see the early (and best) incarnation of the Dead End Kids--a group that morphed and changed a lot over the years as the East Side Kids and the Bowery Boys (which were almost like a parody of the Dead End Kids). Well worth seeing.

Hell's Kitchen (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Dead End Kids star in this remake of The Mayor of Hell and Crime School. This time out (again) a gangster (Stanley Fields) gets out of going to prison but he must do good in the community so he gets involved with a reform school where he soon learns that the owner is abusing the boys. If you've seen either of the previous versions then you won't be shocked by anything that happens here but Fields is good enough to raise the material to a watchable level. There's several failed attempts at humor, which brings the film down some but the drama is pretty strong throughout. Ronald Reagan plays Fields lawyer.

Once again RONALD REAGAN is involved with The Dead End Kids, only this time the romantic interest is supplied by MARGARET LINDSAY rather than ANN SHERIDAN. Otherwise, the plot here resembles the studio's other Dead End Kids entry, ANGELS WASH THEIR FACES produced the same year, in that the Kids put the bad man on trial and eventually put him out of business.

GRANT WITHERS is the corrupt principal of a reform school who uses dirty tactics to keep his kids in line, even to the point of punishing a sick kid who fails to survive solitary confinement. It's up to Ronald Reagan, on the good side of the law with Margaret Lindsay, to urge the boys not to take vigilante justice.

Warner Bros. apparently intended this to be a showcase, not for Reagan or Lindsay, but The Dead End Kids who get all the prominence in the script. It's all got a familiar ring, but is directed in brisk style by Lewis Seiler and is lively enough to hold the interest.

Nevertheless, it never rises above the ordinary and the overall impression is that of a formula crime melodrama, the kind that Warners churned out pretty frequently in the late '30s and early '40s.