Product Details

• Actors: James Cagney, Mickey Bennett, Raymond Borzage, Arthur Byron, Robert H. Barrat
• Format: Black & White, DVD, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: March 25, 2008
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00114XLRS
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,024 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Mayor of Hell" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Five members of a teen-age gang including leader Jimmy Smith are sent to the State Reformatory presided over by the melodramatically callous Thompson. Soon Patsy Gargan a former gangster appointed Deputy Commissioner as a political favor arrives complete with hip flask and blonde. Gargan falls for activist nurse Dorothy and inspired by her takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. But Thompson to conceal his years of graft needs a quick way to discredit Gargan.Running Time: 90 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CLASSICS UPC: 883929002719 Manufacturer No: 1000035745

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Dudley Digges & Frankie Darro spar & it's a delight to watch", February 27, 2011

By 

J. Lovins "Mr. Jim" (Missouri-USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mayor of Hell (DVD)

Warner Bros. Pictures presents "THE MAYOR OF HELL" (1933) (90 min/B&W) (Fully Restored/Dolby Digitally Remastered) -- Starring James Cagney, Madge Evans, Arthur Byron, Allen Jenkins, Dudley Digges & Frankie Darro

Directed by Archie Mayo

The villain of the piece is Dudley Digges who is a grafting chiseler and a sanctimonious hypocrite to boot. Although Cagney is fine in the lead role as is Madge Evans the school nurse, the acting honors go to Dudley Digges. Hard to believe that the same man could portray the drunken, but kindly, one legged ship's surgeon in Mutiny on the Bounty. But Digges is a fine player and a joy to watch in every film he's in.

There was Frankie Darro before the "Dead End Kids", he epitomized angry desperate youth during those early depression years. Here he comes across with his usual hot-headed intensity, enough to make up for a nonthreatening small size. Notice Darro acts a lot like a younger version of Cagney, which is no accident since the story line depends on Cagney seeing a lot of himself among the brutalized boys of the reform school. Darro plays Jimmy Smith, the leader of a street gang sent to a reform school for petty crimes. The courtroom scene where he is sentenced, tries to define the characters of these boys by explaining the cause of their delinquent ways, Smith is no good because his dad is no good and so on. Frankie Darro, who got into all kinds of on screen trouble during a brief tenure as Warners' favorite Rotten Street Kid, is a scene stealer -- and a hate-filled stare that could wither steel. No other kid actor during that era could touch him.

THE MAYOR of HELL is fast paced with tight direction and is still entertaining after all these years

BIOS:
1. Archie Mayo
Date of Birth: 29 January 1891 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 4 December 1968 - Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

2. James Cagney [aka: James Francis Cagney]
Date of Birth: 17 July 1899 - New York City, New York
Date of Death: 30 March 1986 - Stanfordville, New York

3. Frankie Darro [aka: Frank Johnson]
Date of Birth: 22 December 1917 - Chicago, Illinois
Date of Death: 25 December 1976 - Huntington Beach, California

4. Dudley Digges
Date of Birth: 9 June 1879 - Dublin, Ireland
Date of Death: 24 October 1947 - New York City, New York

Mr. Jim's Ratings:
Quality of Picture & Sound: 4 Stars
Performance: 4 Stars
Story & Screenplay: 4 Stars
Overall: 4 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]

Total Time: 90 min on DVD ~ Warner Bros. Pictures ~ (03/25/2008)

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Warner's pre code social drama, April 26, 2008

By 

Douglas M - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Mayor of Hell (DVD)

Warner Brothers were famous for their social dramas and this time it is reform schools. Released in 1933, "The Mayor of Hell", is a forceful pre-code melodrama which exposes the cruelty and neglect doled out to the inmates of a reformatory, teenagers who invariably return to society as hardened criminals due to the inhuman treatment they receive. The film is really a starring vehicle for the magnetic Frankie Darro as the hoodlum who fights the system but James Cagney officially stars as a gangster politically appointed as governer of the reform school. Cagney clearly gives the film box office appeal but the balance of the drama is awkward as his part was obviously built up. MGM's Madge Evans plays a crusading nurse and although she is competent, she lacks the realism that Joan Blondell, for example, might have brought to the part. The film builds to an exciting though predictable climax and Dudley Digges is a very convincing villian.

The print of the DVD is excellent and there are some entertaining extras, the best being a good commentary which particularly highlights the censorship issues which plagued the film. "Warner's Night at the Movies" is included but unusually, both the short film and the cartoon are dreary. This is probably the least interesting film included in the Warner's Gangster Set Volume 3.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Typical Cagney, July 8, 2008

By 

Linda Yurek (Elk Grove Village, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Mayor of Hell (DVD)

The only reason I got this movie was we caught the beginning on AMC and had to leave before it was over. I am basically collecting his musicals. After watching it from beginning to end I have to say I am not sorry I got it. It is a good story and shows how you can turn kids around by treating them with respect. It also shows how someone can really screw up their life by making the wrong choices. It's worth seeing.