FOLLOWING THE SUCCESS of the Screen Version of DEAD END (1937), the contracts of 'the Dead End Kids' were sold by Samuel Goldwyn to Warner Brothers. Hence Billy Hallop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsly all were working alongside the likes of Cagney, Garfield and Reagan.TO BE SURE, Jack Warner and company would keep them busy. Titles such as CRIME SCHOOL, ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACRS and HELL'S KITCHEN followed. Sandwiched in between was THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL.THE FILM IS a prime example of one of the many remakes that were (and actually still are)such a large portion of the studios' yearly output. In this case, 1933's THE LIFE OF JIMMY DOLAN, which boasted of a cast featuring Douglas Fairbanks, Loretta Young, Edward Arnold and a young Mickey Rooney. Although we have never seen this film, we do know that the storyline is the same as the screenplays are both from original play by Bertram Milhauser and Beulah Marie Dix.LEADING THE CAST in this 1939 version is John Garfield; along with Gloria Dickson, Claude Rains (in a classic case of miscasting), Anne Sheridan and the Dead End Kids. It is interesting that the Kids all have retained their names that were used in that original names from the progenitor of all the Kids' movies, DEAD END.AS FOR THE story, a whirlwind of events move Jack Dorney (Garfield) from the paragon of sophistication, New York, out to the semi-arid, West's agricultural crossroads; which could be in California, New Mexico or Arizona (take your pick). Prizefighting, Loose Women, greed, excessive drinking and arrogance all conspire to knock the boxer off his summit to the depths of being a fugitive from the law.THE CHARACTER OF Detective Phelan (Mr. Claude Rains) has an obsession with catching the suspected murderer, Dorney, that would make him a literary ancestor to Lt. Gerrard (Barry Morse) in 1960's TV THE FUGITIVE.THE FILM ALSO boasts of being Directed by Busby Berkley, in a rare non-musical assignment.

This was John Garfield's second film following hard on the heels of his debut in Four Daughters (in which Claude Rains was much better cast as a father than he is here as Javert with an American accent). Inexplicably Ann Sheridan, a natural foil for Garfield and an actress who revelled in low-key dialog ("you couldn't even afford the headlights" was her come- back to the diner who observed 'some chassis' in They Drive By Night) and would certainly have matched Garfield crack for crack, is written out in the second reel leaving Gloria Dickson - a fine actress but no match for Sheridan in trading dialog - as the love interest. The plot's a tad predictable but this was 1939 and audiences were more than happy with a mixture of cliché and sentiment provided it was pacey and punchy and this delivers on both counts.

John Garfield...The "Dead End" Kids...Claude Rains...and a wrong-man-fingered theme. Not likely ingredients for director Busby Berkeley, the master of the gaudy musical showstopper. Still, this Warner Bros. remake of 1933's "The Life Of Jimmy Dolan" is satisfying on a minor scale, despite the feeling these disparate talents could have certainly come up with something more intriguing than your average "B" programmer. Prize-fighter takes the fall when his weaselly manager accidentally kills a reporter; hiding out on a date farm in Arizona, one doesn't have wait too long before the good guy tips his hand (to a morgue worker playing amateur detective!). There are interesting asides (Garfield and the Kids finding trouble while swimming in a water tank), dumb/funny ones (the Kids bilking a twelve-year-old cadet out of his clothes and movie camera), as well as excruciating scenes (all of which involve Rains' detective with his meathead boss back in New York). The romance subplot between Garfield and rancher Gloria Dickson just squeaks by, and Garfield's wise-guy cadence is tiresome to listen to (probably because it's so artificial). However, the film looks handsome enough, is given a lively pace, and the general overacting is agreeable within this context--the slim plot being so preconceived, all we have left to respond to are the characters. **1/2 from ****

The early films of the Dead End Kids (before they were re-christened "the Bowery Boys") were all very entertaining and well-produced films from Warner Brothers. Despite their being rather formulaic, they still had excellent writing, acting and hold up well over time. Do NOT confuse these with the cheap Bowery Boys films from Monogram Pictures--despite the presence of Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey, these films were several notches below the earlier films in regard to quality.The film begins with tough-guy John Garfield winning the lightweight boxing championship. Unfortunately, shortly after this he's on a drunken binge and is blamed for a murder he really didn't commit. The problem is that he was so loaded that he wasn't sure he didn't kill the man, so he runs away and lives the life of a hobo. Eventually, he meets up with feisty May Robson and the Dead End Kids--as well as a lady you just know will become his girlfriend given time.Where the rest of the film goes was not all that surprising, but because of the quality of the film, it doesn't seem to matter. Garfield and the Kids are at their best and this is a film sure to please all but the pickiest of viewers.