They Made Me a Criminal (1939)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

This is really a strange film. John Garfield is a champion boxer who thinks he killed a reporter in a drunken brawl, and is then mistakenly thought to be dead himself. He goes on the run and ends up in Arizona working on a ranch for delinquents ... where he meets the Dead End Kids. Claude Rains, doing a really weird American accent, is a disgraced NYC cop, who's the only one who believes that Garfield is still alive and tries to track him down. Not a bad film ... but a really strange bag of incompatible tones, all directed by Busby Berkeley of all people.

FOLLOWING THE SUCCESS of the Screen Version of DEAD END (1937), the contracts of 'the Dead End Kids' were sold by Samuel Goldwyn to Warner Brothers. Hence Billy Hallop, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bobby Jordan and Bernard Punsly all were working alongside the likes of Cagney, Garfield and Reagan.TO BE SURE, Jack Warner and company would keep them busy. Titles such as CRIME SCHOOL, ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACRS and HELL'S KITCHEN followed. Sandwiched in between was THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL.THE FILM IS a prime example of one of the many remakes that were (and actually still are)such a large portion of the studios' yearly output. In this case, 1933's THE LIFE OF JIMMY DOLAN, which boasted of a cast featuring Douglas Fairbanks, Loretta Young, Edward Arnold and a young Mickey Rooney. Although we have never seen this film, we do know that the storyline is the same as the screenplays are both from original play by Bertram Milhauser and Beulah Marie Dix.LEADING THE CAST in this 1939 version is John Garfield; along with Gloria Dickson, Claude Rains (in a classic case of miscasting), Anne Sheridan and the Dead End Kids. It is interesting that the Kids all have retained their names that were used in that original names from the progenitor of all the Kids' movies, DEAD END.AS FOR THE story, a whirlwind of events move Jack Dorney (Garfield) from the paragon of sophistication, New York, out to the semi-arid, West's agricultural crossroads; which could be in California, New Mexico or Arizona (take your pick). Prizefighting, Loose Women, greed, excessive drinking and arrogance all conspire to knock the boxer off his summit to the depths of being a fugitive from the law.THE CHARACTER OF Detective Phelan (Mr. Claude Rains) has an obsession with catching the suspected murderer, Dorney, that would make him a literary ancestor to Lt. Gerrard (Barry Morse) in 1960's TV THE FUGITIVE.THE FILM ALSO boasts of being Directed by Busby Berkley, in a rare non-musical assignment.

This movie started out for me on the upside. John Garfield was such an attractive actor at this stage in his career, and the part he played here showed promise -- a shady boxer who had an undeservedly positive reputation. Then, instead of living with his mother (as he projects to the public), he is carousing with a sleazy girlfriend (a young Ann Sheridan), punches someone, and accidentally kills him. Sheridan and the boxer's doctor speed away out of fear, crash their car, and are burned to death, and the police assume Garfield burned up in the car (due to circumstantial evidence). Garfield realizes he can be accused of murder, so he heads west on little money and ends up in a date grove. Okay up till that point...but who is working in the date grove but the Dead End Kids...really??? The Dead End Kids working in a date grove in Arizona? Hisses and boos.Garfield is taken in by the funny mix of people living here -- May Robson is great as the mother figure, Gloria Dickson excellent as the romantic interest (too bad she had such a short life and career due to burning alive in a house fire), Claude Rains in a remarkably offbeat performance as a police investigator, and Ward Bond as a fight promoter.Ironically, to avoid being caught by Claude Rains, Garfield tries to get out of a public fight by saying the doctor turned down his participation due to a "bad ticker"...exactly what killed Garfield 13 years later at the age of 39.I'd give it a "7" without the Dead End Kids.

After winning a championship fight, boxer John Garfield (as Johnnie Bradfield) celebrates with a drinking binge, which leads to the manslaughter of a pushy reporter. Although his manager killed the man, Mr. Garfield is blamed. When the manager dies in a car crash, wearing Garfield's stolen watch, authorities think the boxer is dead. Still a WANTED man, Garfield changes his identity to "Jack Dorney" and moves to an Arizona ranch. There, Garfield meets "The Dead End Kids": Billy Halop (as Tommy), Bobby Jordan (as Angel), Leo Gorcey (as Spit), Huntz Hall (as Dippy), Gabriel Dell (as T.B.), and Bernard Punsly (as Milt).Garfield bonds with the young "Dead End" lads, who were sent to stay with sweet "Grandma Rafferty" (May Robson) as an alternative to reform school, courtesy of her brother, deceased priest "Father Rafferty". Garfield falls in love with Halop's sister, pretty "Peggy" (Gloria Dickson), who is there to keep any eye on the kids. Of course, Garfield's past comes back to haunt him… John Garfield and The 'Dead End' Kids make beautiful (Max Steiner) music together, thanks to effective direction and photography, by Busby Berkeley and James Wong Howe. The story is predictably comfortable, with the Warner Brothers support team in fine form. Garfield and the "Dead End" kids are a winning combination; although Garfield made no further movies with the "East Side" gang, the studio had him re-team with both Billy Halop and Bobby Jordan, almost immediately, for "Dust Be My Destiny".The boxing scenes are nicely staged. But, the most exciting sequence has Garfield and four of the New York "Kids" (Halop, Jordan, Hall, and Punsly) climbing into a giant water tank for a swim - which unexpectedly puts their lives in danger. Other, more brief, highlights include floozy Ann Sheridan (as Goldie), boozy Barbara Pepper (as Budgie), and young Ronald Sinclair (as Douglas) losing at strip poker.******** They Made Me a Criminal (1/21/39) Busby Berkeley ~ John Garfield, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Claude Rains