Dead End

On a dead end block in New York, next to the river, a gang of boys gather and their antics are known all over the neighborhood.  Overlooking their usual hangout is a new apartment complex full of rich people.  The main entrance to their building is under construction, so all the residence must pass by the boys as they come and go.  This gives the boys fuel and something to laugh at.  When notorious gangster ‘Baby Face’ Martin (Humphrey Bogart) returns to the block, his childhood home, he observes the boys and gives them a few of his old tricks.

Martin’s old friend, Dave (Joel McCrea) sees that he’s just a bad influence on the boys, the neighborhood doesn’t need to produce anymore gangsters.  Dave is an intelligent man, went to college and studied architecture, but he can’t find any work.  So he stays around his home, helping out the good people in the neighborhood and tries to make the block look nice now that they’ve got rich neighbors.

The boys take their antics too far when they beat up a rich boy from the new building.  They trick him into being accepted by them, we don’t see the beating, but the kid who was so nicely dressed runs back home with his clothes in shreds, his pocket watch stolen and one boy wearing his nice white suit coat like a joke.  The rich boy’s father won’t have any of it and grabs one boy, Tommy (Billy Halop) by the arm, nearly breaking it.  In an effort to get his arm free, Tommy pulls a pocket knife and slices the father’s hand.  Well that’s too much for the father, so he calls an officer, who wants to find Tommy and take him away to reform school, the same fate that led Martin to life as an outlaw.

Humphrey Bogart is always such a joy to watch, and Dead End proves no different.  For a wanted man, Martin is pretty smart; before he decided to visit back home he had some sort of surgery on his face so he couldn’t be recognized, but no matter what he’s tried, he can’t change his fingerprints.  He returns home to see his mother and hopefully get back together with his childhood sweetheart.  When neither prospect go over well he concocts a plan to make his visit a little fruitful.

Problem is, Dave has taken it upon himself to watch over the neighborhood and is willing to take justice into his own hands, even against his old boyhood pal.

This is a wonderful precautionary tale mixing city boyhood antics in with a gangster twist.  I found myself getting very involved with the story as well with the characters.  I would recommend this for all ages, since the boys biggest bad word is “bologna” and there isn’t much violence until the climax.  Anyone who enjoys Bogart, McCrea or stories of inner city kids would enjoy this film.

“The famous ‘Baby Face’ Martin used to live on this block. He wasn’t such a bad kid either at first. He was smart and brave and decent… at first.”

The More the Merrier

With the over-crowding in Washington D.C., Connie (Jean Arthur) decides to rent out one of her spare rooms in her apartment.  Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn), a well to-do millionaire can’t find a room anywhere, so he pushes to the front of the line for Connie’s apartment and convinces her to let him stay.  He sees that she’s lonely and in need of a good, clean-cut young man, but she brushes his ideas off.  Mr. Dingle conforms to her hilariously elaborate morning schedule and meets Joe Carter (Joel McCrea), a good, clean-cut young man looking for a room.  Mr. Dingle takes the liberty of offering him half of his room, with the idea of playing match maker for Connie, only to find out she already has a suitor.

From the very beginning, this film does comedy well.  The narrator speaks of pleasant, leisurely living while images of people rushing around and being stuffed into taxis are shown.  It goes on describing how hospitable and welcoming Washington is, “eagerly throwing wide her doors” only to show numerous No Vacancy signs and Mr. Dingle unable to find an apartment.

The real comedy, and best scene in my opinion, is Mr. Dingle’s first morning with Connie.  They’re up, precisely at seven, and Mr. Dingle is running around with an alarm clock in one hand and Connie’s schedule in the other.  He gets locked out in his pajamas, accidently takes the coffee into the bathroom and can’t find his pants after he makes the bed.  He later calls the morning schedule, “the steeplechase in the morning.”  The level of slapstick comedy rivals The Three Stooges at times and left me rolling on the floor.

Sadly, the rest of the film just isn’t that enjoyable.  There are a few fun moments, like Mr. Dingle trying to hide Joe from Connie and a bar scene where we see how the statistic of eight girls to one guy can make a pack of women seem like hungry lions in heels.  Throughout the film, the fun helium balloon starts to loose pressure and sag to the ground where we know the charming boy will get the girl and Mr. Dingle was right all along.

Though Jean Arthur was nominated for best actress, it was only Charles Coburn who brought home an Oscar.  His role as Mr. Dingle is just wonderful.  He’s a heartfelt, romantic match maker and lives by the motto he constantly shouts: “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”  Best of all, he’s capable of pulling off a high level of physical comedy while keeping his character’s high class dignity and intelligence.  Even when he’s caught his suspenders on a door knob and flings his pants out the window, we don’t think he’s a dope, just in too much of a hurry.

“I tell you what. We’ll try it out for a week. End of the week comes, if you’re not happy, we’ll flip a coin to see who moves out.”

Foreign Correspondent

Europe is on the brink of war and all the usual reporters can get out of politicians are tired and dry ways to say nothing, so armature Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea) is appointed to become a foreign correspondent in Europe for a New York newspaper.  Fresh, naive and constantly losing his hats, Jones interviews Van Meer, a leader of a peace movement, but he doesn’t seem to talk about anything more important than feeding the birds.  He also meets a colleague of Van Meer, Mr. Fisher, and falls for his lovely daughter, Carol.  Later in Amsterdam, Jones witnesses Van Meer’s assassination and boldly tracks down the assassin to discover a whole conspiracy.

This is the first of four films by, Alfred Hitchcock (my personal favorite director of all time) to be nominated for best picture.  Now, a majority of Hitchcock’s films follow at least one of two basic formats: man being followed or psychological creep out.  He got nominated for both in 1940, quite a feat.  Rebecca (where I promise to gush more about the master of suspense) is the psychological creep out and Foreign Correspondent is the man being followed.

It seems that Jones is one of Hitchcock’s men who knew too much.  The plot is wonderfully smart, with all the twists and turns, but at times it’s as complicated as being caught in a hedge maze.  Once you’re able to step back and recall the map does it all fit together.  The great thing about getting turned around so much is the surprises around every corner, including a scene that seems like practice for the end of Vertigo, complete with nuns.

My favorite scene was where Jones is inside a working windmill on the outskirts of Amsterdam.  I won’t give away any discovered plot, but I will say that the way Hitchcock uses the cramped vertical space and moving gears to create his trademark tension is beautiful.  And even though I was yelling for Jones to cop out and ride the rotating windmill blade out the window (like we’ve seen in so many other films) Hitchcock is more creative than that, and won’t let the viewer off that easy.

There’s also a surprising amount of action and daring special effects, especially near the end.  Once again, I don’t want to spoil the fun.  Let’s just say, it doesn’t go down in flames and won’t hang you out to dry.

This is a good movie, one of Hitchcock’s better man-being-followed thrillers.  Though, I judge how much I love a Hitchcock film by how much I yell at the characters.  You know, “Don’t go in there you idiot, it’s full of birds!”  Unfortunately, I wasn’t hoarse or angry by the end, but still found it enjoyable and worthy of the Hitchcock stamp of approval.  If you have to choose between Foreign Correspondent and Rebecca, remember, there’s a good reason why Rebecca won Best Picture.

“I think the world has been run long enough by well-meaning professionals. We might give the amateurs a chance now.”