It's hard to understand what made a director like Frank Borzage attach himself to this project. There's no female lead, no love interest at all, just a gang of boys in Germany determined to hold onto a piece of property and waging war against each other to hold onto a vacant lot.
It's supposed to symbolize what's wrong with men playing at war games much the way these boys are affected by WWI's deadly consequences.
The boys are natural actors for the most part with FRANKIE DARRO standing out in an unusual role for him. The only female in the cast is LOIS Wilson as the mother of the weakest boy who succumbs to illness after ill treatment by the rival gang--but who desperately wants to be a part of the good guys gang. Played by GEORGE P.BREAKSTON, he too does a convincing job.
Given the spare use of sets for most of the scenes, it looks more like a B-film than an A-film from Columbia. Certainly it's a low-budget entry and made no big impression on film history since it's rarely ever seen these days and remains largely unknown among Frank Borzage's works.
I found it rather manipulative in the way it played with emotional scenes and not all of the character motivations seemed genuine.
It's supposed to symbolize what's wrong with men playing at war games much the way these boys are affected by WWI's deadly consequences.
The boys are natural actors for the most part with FRANKIE DARRO standing out in an unusual role for him. The only female in the cast is LOIS Wilson as the mother of the weakest boy who succumbs to illness after ill treatment by the rival gang--but who desperately wants to be a part of the good guys gang. Played by GEORGE P.BREAKSTON, he too does a convincing job.
Given the spare use of sets for most of the scenes, it looks more like a B-film than an A-film from Columbia. Certainly it's a low-budget entry and made no big impression on film history since it's rarely ever seen these days and remains largely unknown among Frank Borzage's works.
I found it rather manipulative in the way it played with emotional scenes and not all of the character motivations seemed genuine.