Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
There is a stunning opening shot in William Wyler's "Dead End" where we see the poor tenements below the skyline of massive buildings in the background and, as the camera pans to ground level, there is a street filled with garbage and local folks trying to make a living (a milkman is spotted) living in crowded quarters. The camera then tracks to the left to see part of the East River and an opulent looking building where the wealthy live. That dividing line is crucial to understanding William Wyler's film, part melodrama, part reality and part mob movie.
There is a group of kids called the Dead End Kids who do nothing but stir trouble (they roast potatoes over a drum fire). They harass the wealthy people in that tall ornate building left and right, in the most harmless ways imaginable (and with the deepest New York accents you can imagine). One incident unfortunately involves the stabbing of a judge's brother, right in the man's hand. Then there is that rich kid who gets robbed by the hooligans of his watch and clothes.The Dead End Kid involved in the stabbing, Tommy (Billy Halop), lives with his big sister, Drina (Sylvia Sidney), who wants to move out to a better neighborhood. She has her eye on her childhood friend, a struggling architect, Dave (Joel McCrea), who has his eye on a glamorous looking blonde, Kay (Wendy Barrie). She lives in the expensive high-rise and when she comes to visit Dave at his apartment, she sees cockroach-infested garbage cans. Yuck!
Meanwhile, a high-end mobster who had a little plastic surgery done, Hugh "Baby Face" Martin (Humphrey Bogart), has returned to the neighborhood with his partner Hunk and hopes to see the girl he almost married two decades earlier. Baby Face wears silk suits so he hardly has an issue with the wealthy moving in close to the picaresque East River. He also has no issue with the rowdy street urchins because he used to be one himself.
"Dead End" is suffused with imagery of only one corner of that dead end street next to the East River (the origins of this screenplay are stagebound). Still, during the sequence of Kay going up the tenement stairs or a chase that involves relentless shootouts, we see dark, confined spaces such as fire escapes and rooftops that give this film a special noir look (this is where you can see cinematographer Greg Toland, pre-"Citizen Kane," really at work). Interestingly, there is no visual comparison with the marble-looking high rise apartments and we never see how swanky those accommodations are.
"Dead End" is well-crafted by director Wyler (along with Toland's help) and there are some strong, emotional moments that can pierce and cut through the facade of its singular location. Bogart's mobster has a scene with his mother whom he has not seen in years - her feelings of betrayal of having raised a murderer echo deeply and it hurts Baby Face to his core. I also love Drina's insistence to the police that her brother be released in her care, or how she pines for Dave and such moments feel honest and earned. "Dead End" evokes the world of the poor and the rich and how they will never coalesce. There will always be a dividing line.
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