DEAD END (1937) MEAN STREETS, Depression era-style

DEAD END is about class, poverty and dead-ended lives and loves on New York’s East Side. Gangster "Baby Face" Martin (Humphrey Bogart), whose freshly plasticized face looks nothing like a baby's, returns to his concrete roots to see his mother (Marjorie Main, in a dramatic role a far cry from the comedic one that later made her famous – Ma Kettle). At first she doesn’t recognize him, but when she does she curses his birth and banishes him from her tenement building and her life. Crushed by the rejection, Martin seeks out his childhood sweetheart (Claire Trevor), whom he discovers is now a streetwalker. Oh, and later the cops shoot him dead. All in all, not what you’d call a great visit. A great film, though, directed by William Wyler and, co-starring in one of its several subplots, good guy and gal Joel McCrea and Sylvia Sydney - plus, lending welcome bits of comic relief, a gang in their film debut, the Dead End Kids (later called the Bowery Boys). One of the great flicks of the '30s, full of truths for all time. (Trivia note: DEAD END was adapted by Lillian Hellman from a Broadway play. Wyler originally intended to film it on location on the streets of NYC, but producer Sam Goldwyn insisted that a set be built in the studio - and it turned out to be one of the most convincing and elaborate ones in film history.)