Crime Street presents They Made Me a Criminal (1939)

Director - Busby Berkeley

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Plot
Commentary
Cast and Production Credits

The Plot

Johnny Bradfield (John Garfield) is a prize-fighter boxing his way to the top. His reputation is the boy next door, but his real life outside the ring is far from that image. A reporter gets the lowdown on the real Johnny, whose life outside the ring is all booze and dames. After an argument, the fighter's manager beats the reporter to death. The manager panics, frames Johnny and takes off with Johnny's wallet and watch. His escape is short lived; he is killed in an explosive auto accident, with the watch and the wallet leading the police to be convinced that is Johnny in the burning wreck. So now the fighter is considered both a murderer and dead.

Johnny then assumes a new identity (Jack Dorney) and hitch-hikes out west. He ends up on a ranch set up to rehabilitate teens from the city. At first he tries to take advantage of the young men, but it is he who is actually rehabilitated.

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Commentary

The Great Depression on Film

Instead of creating diversions from the Great Depression, Warner Brothers made it their signature to use as basic background for numerous movies. Although they didn't deal directly with the politics, in film after film they drove into the emotional heart of the era.

They Made Me a Criminal is one of the last of the social dramas that the studio made before World War II began, and it's a good one. Directed by movie musical visionary Busby Berkeley, the film moves seamlessly from the dark urban streets and alleys to the bright light of the western desert.

The film starred film greats John Garfield, Claude Rains and the Dead End Kids.

John Garfield

John Garfield was the real thing, a tough kid off the streets of New York. A well trained stage actor, he became one of the most popular and respected of actors in movies.

After studying with Russian actress Maria Ouspenskaya he moved on to the groundbreaking and highly influential Group Theater. A precursor to the method actor, he starred in some of the best and toughest films of the 30s and 40s including Body and Soul, Fallen Sparrow, The Postman Always Rings Twice and Force of Evil.

He was the first choice of Irene Selznick for Stanley Kowalski in the original stage production of Streetcar Named Desire. He refused to commit to a long run and the went to Marlon Brando.

Hunted and haunted by the House on Un-American Activities for his support of leftist causes and politics, Mr Garfield died of a heart-attack at the too early age of 39.

Busby Berkeley

Busby Berkeley was known for his way over-the-top choreography in movie musicals (42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1937) of the 1930s and later the Esther Williams swimming films. They Made Me a Criminal is one of his very few non-musical efforts. It's worth a look if only for his direction of the fight scenes in comparison to his mastery of dance on film, beyond that, it's a worthy film.

Trivia Pursuit – No End for The Dead End Kids

They began as the Dead End Kids, originating out of Sidney Kingsley Broadway social drama Dead End. They evolved into the lower budget East Side Kids in a mix of drama and comedy that became more and more lightweight. Their final evolution came as the comedic, and very low budget, Bowery Boys (48 films) focusing on original Dead Enders Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall. It all adds up one of the longest running series of films in history extending from 1937 until 1958.

-- Ed Schneider - Alameda TV

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Cast

Production Credits

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For more on...

John Garfield
The Group Theater
Warner Brothers and Social Issues Films

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