Film Review
This is one of a number of films that Warner
Brothers - the most socially conscious of the Hollywood studios -
produced during the 1930s to spread awareness of the social
ills that were blighting the American landscape at the time. The
Great Depression is featured in several of their films, but rarely as
starkly as in
Wild Boys of the Road,
which shows the impact of the
economic crisis on those who were perhaps hit the hardest -
dispossessed juveniles who, because of their age, had even less chance
of getting paid work than adults.
Whilst the film now appears over-sentimentalised and politically
naïve - especially when compared with other 1930s Hollywood social
dramas such as Mervyn LeRoy's
I
Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) and John Ford's
The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - it
still has a great deal of charm and warmth, with several scenes
delivering
a huge emotional impact. Some parts of the film are astonishingly
bleak, and yet there are also
moments of pure farce where you just cannot help
laughing out loud.
Admittedly, the performances are unsophisticated by
today's standards, mainly because the cast was
largely made up of non-professional or very inexperienced actors.
Despite this, it is hard not to fall for the charms of the lead
performers, especially Frankie Darro, who acts like James
Cagney's understudy and whose acrobatic skills are put to great use.
The film was directed by William Wellman, one of the most important and
creative filmmakers working in Hollywood in the 1930s. He is
perhaps best known for the seminal gangster film
The Public Enemy
(1931), which examined the social cost of alcohol prohibition.
When it was first released,
Wild
Boys of the Road was generally
ill-received by the critics and public alike. It succeeded in
raising awareness of an important social issue, but it failed to
identify causes or venture possible solutions. Today,
the film is judged far more favourably, since it
provides a powerful testimony of one of the bleakest periods in American history.
It is an engaging
film, although its impact is diminished by a horribly contrived happy ending.
© James Travers 2008
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Next William A. Wellman film:
Magic Town (1947)
Film Synopsis
Eddie Smith and Tommy Gordon are two adolescent boys, from comfortable
middle-class homes, who are about to leave school. When their
fathers both lose their jobs, Eddie and Tommy decide to set off and
look for work in another town, hoping to raise money for their
families. On a train bound for Chicago, they meet another
stray teenager, Sally, who is planning to stay with her
aunt. When Sally's aunt is arrested for prostitution, the
three friends are soon back on the road and they end up joining a gang
of juveniles who are in their situation. The gang settles in
Ohio, where they form a small community, scavenging for food in the
surrounding area. When the locals complain to the police, the
authorities move in and set about driving them away...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.