Customer Reviews

They Made Me a Criminal (1939)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is the fourth Dead End Kids film. (Dead End [1937], Crime School [1938], Angels With Dirty Faces [1938]). A boxer (John Garfield) has a little party after his fight. In an apartment, Johnnie trys to swing a punch at a nosy reporter, but he is so drunk he misses and ends up passed out in a chair. Another man hits the reporter over the head with a whiskey bottle. The reporter McGee ends up dead. Later, they decide to make Johnnie take the fall. Johnnie is innocently drunk-sleep. The bad man and woman try to make their getaway, but with the police catching them, they go off the road and instantly die. They think it is Johnnie who is dead. But one detective is on the hunt. Johnnie runs away and he comes across a farm where the delinquent Dead End Kids (Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsly) have been sent to work. There he meets the boys who are trying to reform. Also a woman at the date farm, Peggy (Gloria Dickson), softens his heart too. Meanwhile a detective (Claude Rains) is close on the trail.
This is a good film for Billy Halop, who practically steals the film. Great acting from Halop. Good performances by May Robson who played the Grandma on the farm. Filmed at Palm Desert, California. Great ending. Get a hankercheif. On this DVD version, Alpha Video only offers an "index" which is a chapter selection. Very good print of film.
John Garfield & Leo Gorcey also appear together in Out Of The Fog (1941).
John Garfield & Billy Halop also appear in Dust be My Destiny (1939).

John Garfield & Claude Rains also appear in Four Daughters (1938), Four Wives (1939), Juarez [VHS] (1939), Daughters Courageous (1939), Saturday's Children (1940).

John Garfield & Ann Sheridan also appear in Thank Your Lucky Stars (1943).

The next films are:

Hell's Kitchen (1939)
The Angels Wash Their Faces (1939)
On Dress Parade (1939

Billy Halop, Huntz Hall, Bernard Punsly, Gabriel Dell as "Dead End Kids" joined up with the "Little Tough Guys" (1938-43) for Universal Pictures.

Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan went on to be "East Side Kids"(1940-45) for Monogram Pictures and were later joined by Huntz Hall and Gabriel Dell.

Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabriel Dell then became The Bowery Boys (1946-58).

John Garfield also appeared with Leo Gorcey (and Bernard Gorcey) in "Out of the Fog" (1941).

They Made Me A Crimminal is not remembered as a classic drama, but the film still provides predictable entertainment sixty-one years after its theatrical release. Busby Berkeley's direction is excellent as the sequences involving the car crash, Garfield's train ride, and the water tower appear realistic. The fight scenes in the ring are a bit histrionic, but at least Berkeley used enough extras to create a boxing arena type atmosphere- John Avildsen (Rocky) are you reading this? The film contains a credible cast with John Garfield in the lead as Johnny a prize fighter on the run. Gloria Dickson as Peggy gives a Sylvia Sydney type performance as a reformer intent on reabilitating juvenille deliquents. Huntz Hall, Leo Gorcey, Gabriel Dell, and the rest of the Dead End Kids are the NYC teens who idolize tough Johnny, but respect Peggy. Cluade Rains plays a newspaperman who wants to rip the veil of deceit from Johnny's persona. Ann Sheridan receives top billing over Gloria Dickson and for no good reason. Sheridan's role as Goldie is brief and totally unconvincing as a drunken floozie riding the coat tails of Johnny's ring success. For those that enjoy happy endings with morality values, this 90 minute film will not disappoint you.

avoid this 'so-called remastered' dvd-r. i found it to be totally unwatchable, the audio is out of sync, and the picture was filled with lines. how this could be released is beyond belief. i love this movie and was hoping for an improvement on what is currently available. stick with the alpha version, it is alot better and cheaper too.

Very good 1939 film where John Garfield plays another boxer who becomes a victim when everyone thinks he has committed a murder. Trouble is that the killer and Garfield's girl, Ann Sheridan, in a brief but good performance, get killed while trying to elude the police.
This is a great remastered copy and give A2ZCDs alot of credit for bringing back this film in tip top shape.

Future superstar, John Garfield, is cast as a boxer on the lam from a (false) murder rap.
Claude Raines is miscast as the detective who pursues him.
Garfield winds up at a farm where the ever-popular Dead End Kids are too.
There's plenty of action, drama and intrigue as Garfield gets involved with the farm's gorgeous owner and the Dead End Kids, who come to idolize him.

One of the original six DEAD END KIDS films, this "The Fugitive"-style story involves a world-class boxer(John Garfield) who is thought to be dead (but he's not) and also a murderer (but he's not). On the lam with a new identity and little money he hobos his way to an Arizona date farm where the Dead End Kids are on rehabilitation off of New York's East Side and being taken care of by a gorgeous farmer (Gloria Dickson). Garfield is a bad influence on the kids but somehow he is where he belongs. When a boxing promoter offers $500 a round for anyone who can stay in the ring with his champion, Garfield can't resist coming out of hiding to go for the prize. There is an investigation sub-plot (with Claude Rains doing what Tommy Lee Jones did in "The Fugitive") but here it is totally useless and just doesn't work. The ending is even more useless. Regardless, there is much to like due to great direction (Busby wasn't very good at telling the story but boy did he know where to put the cameras and how to fill up the screen), great acting (John Garfield brings compassion to a dislikable character, the reliable Dead End Kids are in top form, and Gloria Dickson is very appealing).

"They Made me a Criminal" is a fairly typical A- melodrama released by Warner Brothers in 1939. Warners were experts at offering gutsy entertainments and this one is no exception. There are no aspirations to high art, just a good time for the audience. This one has a few unusual features:

- John Garfield, near the beginning of his film career, stars and easily commands the screen in his role as a prizefighter on the lam. His part maybe cliched but Garfield has range and he is both tender & tough and very appealing;
- Gloria Dickson is the most unusual heroine. The role again is cliched but Dickson has a sarcastic and direct quality which pairs with Garfield perfectly.
- Busby Berklely directed the film and manages some interesting camera angles and close ups which lift the film above the norm.
- Anne Sheridan has a small role which she plays rather poorly but she was on the up at Warners and gets 3rd billing.
- Claude Rains is miscast as a tough cop. He enacts the movements and mannerisms for the part but his cultured accent betrays him. He is entertaining simply because watching him talk the slang out of the side of his mouth made me laugh, it is so ludicrous.
- there is an harrowing scene in a water tank which is superbly photographed and edited to creat real tension.

On the downside, the plot has a lot of holes, the ending is unconvincing and the Dead End Kids, well, they are the same as always - awful really for this viewer.

The DVD contains no extras and the print is OK.

This film co-stars the Dead-End-Kids with Billy Halop later known as the East-Side-Kids, and later the Bowery-Boys.

Filmed on location. This would be a good movie without the Dead-End-Kids, because of the good script. The boys make it even better. The boys bring some humor; a little suspense; and some drama.

A man is accidentally murdered in New York. The murderer frames a champion, lightweight fighter named Johnny who had too much to drink. Johnny runs from the law. Johnny's running brings him to a ranch in Arizona where the delinquent gang of boys from New York has been sent to be reformed by an elderly lady and Billy's sister in lieu of going to jail. A detective who has been demoted for a mistake long ago is trying to revive his career by trying to track-down Johnny. Johnny is a liar and a cheat, and needs reforming more than the boys. Billy's sister goes to work on him.

This is not a gangster movie as the film's title implies. This story has a lot of charm.

I cannot speak about the quality of the DVD picture, because I saw this on Youtube, browse, movies, categories, classics, page-2.

I recommend: "The East Side Kids Three Volume Collection", which contains 15 movies, including this one. More under the "comment" button.

John Garfield, Claude Rains, and Ann Sheridan PLUS the Bowery boys?
I never tire of this film. Old fashioned movie with a happy ending!

They Made Me A Criminal, 1939 film

The story begins with boxers fighting in a ring. Johnny Bradfield helps his defeated opponent. "Thanks Mom." Phelan, who made one mistake, looks at how people stand. "One grand guy." [Does his image match the reality? Show business, like politics, depends on illusions.] There is a squabble with a reporter. "He's dead!" Doc blames Johnny for the death. Then a tire blows out on a speeding car, there is a fiery crash. Mistaken identification? Johnny's lawyer advises him to "stay dead" and change his appearance. Detective Phelan noticed a difference in the wristwatch and wants to investigate this case. "Its my fee." Jack Dorney travels across country. He arrives at a date farm in Arizona. Grandma wants him to work.

The "Dead End Kids" look him over. "You gotta take a dare." [Peer pressure?] The boys practice boxing, a very popular sport then. Jack doesn't want his picture taken. Dirty tricks again? [Knowledge for self-protection?] Swimming in that water tank can create a problem when the water runs out. But they discover a way out when they cooperate. Peggy isn't fooled by the lies and she learns the truth. Jack sees a poster about a reward for fighting a touring boxer. Can he earn the money so they can open a gas station and save the farm from foreclosure?

Phelan sees the picture and wants to investigate. The Kids find a new boy and teach him about gambling! [Believable for a boy who attends military school?] But Jack sees Phelan at the arena and wants to quit. They don't believe his story. Jack has a change of heart. Rutchek looks over his opponents. Rutchek shows his skills, but Jack keeps going until the 5th round. He fought a good fight and wins the $2,000 needed to save the farm. Jack tells Peggy a story. She doesn't believe him. Will Phelan take Jack back to New York? "So long, Dorney!" [You just knew there would be a happy ending.]

This story tests the utilitarian philosophy that people should only act for self-interest. Does total selfishness really work in society? Isn't cooperation needed for mutual self-interest? The story about saving a small ranch from foreclosure was repeated in many of the western movies of that era, often done with the help of a stranger.