Hell's Kitchen

1939
Approved
1h 21m

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

427

YOUR RATING

Ronald Reagan, Frankie Burke, Gabriel Dell, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Margaret Lindsay, Larry Nunn, Bernard Punsly, and The Dead End Kids in Hell's Kitchen (1939)

A group of tough city kids have 'graduated' from reform school and are assigned to a "Boy's Town" type of inmate self-government city shelter, run by Hiram Krispan, a crooked superintendent, assisted by Buck, an ex-racketeer on probation. Buck enjoys trying to straighten out the kids and joins with them and social workers Beth Avery and Jim Donahue, in getting Krispan removed from his job.

Play trailer2:21

1 Video

5 Photos

Action Adventure Crime Drama Romance

Group of former reform school kids assigned to corrupt-run shelter. They ally with social workers to oust crooked superintendent and ex-racketeer trying to reform them. Focuses on inmate sel... Read allGroup of former reform school kids assigned to corrupt-run shelter. They ally with social workers to oust crooked superintendent and ex-racketeer trying to reform them. Focuses on inmate self-governance dynamics and exposing corruption.Group of former reform school kids assigned to corrupt-run shelter. They ally with social workers to oust crooked superintendent and ex-racketeer trying to reform them. Focuses on inmate self-governance dynamics and exposing corruption.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.5/10

427

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Videos1

Trailer 2:21

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Photos5

Storyline

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Trivia
As a result of a PTA complaint, this was the last gangster angle picture made by The Dead End Kids.

Goofs
At 11:50 min Tony (Billy Halop) is rustled out of the back of the shelter's car from under a dusty tarp, his clothes dusty and his hair disheveled; seconds later outside the car his clothes and hair are neat.

Quotes
Bingo: You can slap me around all you want, but Joey here can't be missing any meals, can't you see he's sick?
Hiram Krispan: If Joey weren't a bad boy he'd get better quicker.

Connections
Featured in Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film (2008)

Soundtracks
Auld Lang Syne
(1788) (uncredited)
Traditional
Lyrics by Robert Burns
Sung a cappella by Stanley Fields and the boys
Played during the end credits

User reviews12

Review

Featured review

5/10

Warner crime melodrama is similar to "Angels Wash Their Faces"...

Once again RONALD REAGAN is involved with The Dead End Kids, only this time the romantic interest is supplied by MARGARET LINDSAY rather than ANN SHERIDAN. Otherwise, the plot here resembles the studio's other Dead End Kids entry, ANGELS WASH THEIR FACES produced the same year, in that the Kids put the bad man on trial and eventually put him out of business.

GRANT WITHERS is the corrupt principal of a reform school who uses dirty tactics to keep his kids in line, even to the point of punishing a sick kid who fails to survive solitary confinement. It's up to Ronald Reagan, on the good side of the law with Margaret Lindsay, to urge the boys not to take vigilante justice.

Warner Bros. apparently intended this to be a showcase, not for Reagan or Lindsay, but The Dead End Kids who get all the prominence in the script. It's all got a familiar ring, but is directed in brisk style by Lewis Seiler and is lively enough to hold the interest.

Nevertheless, it never rises above the ordinary and the overall impression is that of a formula crime melodrama, the kind that Warners churned out pretty frequently in the late '30s and early '40s.