BEST FILMS OF 1937
by Mike Lorefice

Dead End
William Wyler

A shocking film if only because something from Hollywood actually finds subtle ways to criticize the huge role Hollywood plays in turning out piss poor human beings. This socially conscious drama about the poor's lack of opportunity was adopted from Sidney Kingsley's Broadway success and Pulitzer Prize winner. William Wyler's adaptation is extremely clever, providing the look and silliness of Hollywood while somehow managing to portray legitimate real world strife. That may not have been his initial or even actual intention, but I feel it's what wound up coming across. As usual the director wanted to shoot in real locations but the cheap and artistically disinterested producer (in this case Samuel Goldwyn) insisted on another back lot barbecue. He at least provided Richard Day to do the sets (only to complain he made the slums too dirty!), which were quite intricate with all kinds of levels, sharp angles, and nooks and crannies for Gregg Toland to exploit in as many exceptional ways as he could think of. Of particular note is the nighttime action sequence where Joel McCrea & Humphrey Bogart have their confrontation, which displays the German expressionist influence that didn't become popular in Hollywood until the 40's with Toland's work on Citizen Kane and the film noir movement. The film tells three interweaved stories, The Dead End Kids in the film debut, Bogart as the returning criminal, and McCrea choosing his own kind, Sylvia Sidney, over the bleach bland interloper. Perhaps it's best to look at it this way. Wanted criminal Bogart returns to his old slum, the NY City tenements, after "reform" school and jail expecting to find his mother and angelic old girlfriend as they were. Ironically but not surprisingly his character, on the run from the law and sporting a newly butchered face to avoid recognition (of course since he didn't really have surgery he looks like Bogey rather than Leatherface, an Asian, or a chick), is about the only one who has escaped. While Bogart was gone McCrea spent his time becoming an architect, but can only occasionally land a non-architectural job that pays about as much as Bogart's shirt costs. Sidney is trying to raise her teenage brother (Billy Halop) on her own, scrambling for their next meal more than ever now that she's on strike for a few dollars more. Hollywood films almost never portrayed strikers, and if they did it would be in an extremely negative light since money almost always sides with money, but Sidney is the hero and is even billed higher than the men. Growing up with no role models and no job prospects, kids see stealing as the only way to have the things they've been told (by all forms of media) they need. Bogart & McCrea represent the recently grown up generation of Dead End Kids, and about the only possibilities for the younger generation. Of the two, Bogart, a prime example of the romanticized gangster Hollywood was cashing in on during the era most everyone else was suffering from the Great Depression, of course becomes the kids' role model. He's the only one who attained the "America Dream", and despite the obvious holes what they see in him is someone who started out with what they have - nothing - and now has expensive things and does what he wants. The punk kids are quite funny, especially when mocking the one well to do family in the neighborhood, which represents how physically close the rich and poor lived in NY City despite the huge gaps in every other aspect of their life. Despite Wyler's efforts the film is far more entertaining than realistic, partially because of the Hays office which among other meddling obscured the key revelation a whore had syphilis to the point I didn't know what awfulness I was supposed to be seeing (she's looks no more whorrific than the other generic bores they always claim are superbabes). At least Dead End gets the basics right and gives you an accurate perspective of the people Hollywood makes a living ignoring, which was quite an accomplishment. It's also had a few positive lasting effects, pretty much ending the romantic gangster era in favor of films that at least superficially looked at what lead people down the criminal path and introducing the hopeless youth genre with the first of 80 films involving Dead End Kids though not surprisingly the social realism of Dead End soon gave way to skid row comedy. [11/10/05] ***1/2

Grand Illusion
Jean Renoir

****

Full Movie Review

Kid Galahad
Michael Curtiz

***

Pepe Le Moko
Julien Duvivier

***

Spanish Earth
Joris Ivens

Ivens was a great auteur who largely worked in the documentary genre because he believed in causes and could do more for their urgent needs there than by making pure fiction. This documentary on the Spanish Civil War looks like neorealism and doesn't bother with interviews; Ivens would find the images that fit his point of view and comment on them himself. In a sense he made his documentaries like people who have something to say make their features. More concerned with the message than the authenticity, he sometimes reenacted or even staged events to either get them on film at all or to make them come across in a more moving way. Ivens was also at odds with the "documentary" school of his day for his propensity to follow the subjects, utilize close-ups, and incorporate Soviet style montage editing, all unacceptable in the stagnant newsreel world of standing steady at a respectable distance and waiting for the action to come to you. Regardless of your definition of documentary, there's a truth that comes from the heart of Ivens work that is undeniable. Even if various problems such as budgetary limitations, political ideologies, and the reasons his work got funded might be said to interfere with the credibility, Ivens captured the humanity of these people in a way that few others did. Spanish Earth looks quite creaky, it was his first film in the US and typically underfunded, but there are several impressive images as Ivens could also do avant garde and certainly was not afraid to experiment. Ivens captures many images that would make great stills, and I suppose that's not surprising considering his father owned a photographic shop and Ivens was poised to succeed him there. Spanish Earth was designed to get Americans to give money to the left for ambulances, and the war footage is quite startling for the time as this was before news crews were regularly amidst the fighting and bringing it home for our mealtime pleasure. The harsh battle footage is nicely balanced by following a soldier who isn't fighting at the moment but rather working on irrigation to reclaim land that has been laid waste by enemy bombing. Land and water represent good much more than the soldier, who for the most part is glorified by association to them. Ernest Hemingway wrote the commentary, and delivered it after key collaborators such as Lillian Hellman and Dorothy Parker found Orson Welles voice too smooth for the material. Certainly Hemingway's influence is apparent with the concise to the point narration. [2/8/06] ***

Stella Dallas
King Vidor

***

You Only Live Once
Fritz Lang

***