Too much of everything

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

I agree with other reviewers about the fabulous performance of Marjorie Main. It has stuck with me for decades. "you're just a dirty dog" I realize that her accent is wrong -- more Okie than Brooklyn (or other NYC neighborhood). But on my fourth or fifth view, I just noticed how much Bogart's speaking pattern resembles Huntz Hall's. (I realize that's kind of the point -- that the kids growing up today are going to follow the path of Babyface Martin of yesterday -- but I urge you to listen to the similarity in the speech patterns. )

The element that prevented my enjoying this film wholeheartedly was the sound; in 1937 they had yet to perfect the sound department and provide 'natural' sound which includes 'atmos' the normal background noise that you would expect to hear especially in a movie like this where 90% of the action occurs in the street. Though set in the street it was clearly shot in a studio and the mic was in a soundproof booth so that what we hear is 'clean' sound which is, of course, unnatural. Screenwriter Lilian Hellman has 'opened out' the Broadway play as little as possible so that no imagination is required to visualise the story on stage. Probably the stage version of Street Scene was very similar. Wyler retains the theatricality by having the disparate characters come together in an area no larger that a Broadway stage and exaggerate the social divisions. The drawback in this approach is that the characters don't seem quite real and give the impression that they are playing solitaire just out of camera range while waiting for their cue to move to stage centre, say their lines and exit. Having said that there are several fine performances to admire and it remains watchable close on eighty years later.

A stagey, turgid mess contrasting slum-kid poverty with ill-defined high-rolling crime, though committed off-screen and merely suggested, and classy capitalist riches. Wait a year and watch The Adventures of Robin Hood and his 1938 redistribution of wealth instead. It is difficult to think of any creatures less appealing than those dead-end mini-gangsters. The impression left by this movie is its sense of unreality. The unvarying set scene is crammed with uninteresting incident, often repeated, which fails to advance the plot. Even the manner that McCrea gets chucked into the ditch, and then the misdirected shoot-out with Bogart towards the end both seem flimsy and fake. Bending over backwards to make allowances for the film's vintage, it still amazes me that it has attracted so many positive reviews and currently enjoys such a high rating.Its hour and a half is only redeemed by the presence, naturally, of Humphrey Bogart. Something of a mystery how this short, fairly homely- looking man succeeds in commanding such a strong screen presence. This may have its origins in the way he speaks. Firstly, no matter how rapidly the words leave his mouth, they are always clear and understandable. Secondly, they never sound like lines scripted by someone else: it's as if he had just thought of them himself, and instantaneously come up with them. Added to which is the realism of his facial expressions. But since he only has a supporting role, and gets eliminated by McCrea, he can't really help the story. He does glamorise the bad guy, which isn't what the film is trying to say. Most kids would rather be Bogart than McCrea. The romantic sub-plot adds nothing, and is of minimal interest.

One day, I accompanied a friend who wanted to show it planned to buy a house because he wanted my opinion about it. Convinced that the observation must go beyond housing to consider the environment, I took tremendous surprise when, in the midst of this humble neighborhood of steep streets and cracked, with wet and poorly constructed housing, and with difficult access for any vehicle on a plateau emerged, terribly conspicuous, an imposing mansion, flashy and full of comforts. It was not hard to imagine what kind of person could occur to such an idea, but the scenery was more bizarre and distasteful. Seeing the movie by William Wyler "DEAD END", I find that it was not unusual that I witnessed that day. We, then, in the New York of the 30s (20th century), where some rich, attracted by the picturesque landscape of the river with its monumental bridges, opted to build their luxurious homes in the midst of extreme poverty and contrast housing. Of course, integration does not exist. They guard their homes with armed guards, demanding the constant presence of the authorities and look with complete indifference to those who are not like them. The poor, meanwhile, are accustomed to learning their disdain and even to mock it. And occasionally, someone charged, somehow, the stingy attitude with which they treat their fellow men. It is found here a bunch of mischievous boys who skirts the crime, and between them and the sudden presence of "Baby Face" Martin, the new gangster appeared in the neighborhood, things will have a strong significance throughout a whole day.With an uplifting script, written by Lillian Hellman (second of four collaborations that would occur between them) based on a play by Sidney Kingsley, director William Wyler lucidly recreates that atmosphere of balance and full of contrasts where the most ominous is bright, perhaps the gradual discovery of his own life, is taking the tanning Martin. Humphrey Bogart makes a secondary role effectively protagonist and his character is of greater significance and penetration throughout the film.Joel McCrea, as the man who beat her mischievous teens to become a professional candle for peace in the neighborhood, weighs much less at the deep nuances with which he recreates silk dress gangster who now finds that "flourished" at the expense of the dearest. Attention is also drawn to the gang, represented by a group of young actors who first became known in theatrical representation, which caused such an impact with this film, which began to be called the "Dead End Kids", and as a group appear more then six films with notable success.If you want to witness the deplorable social contradictions that still face in our society, this is the kind of movie you can not miss.