This is an interesting picture from the early 1930s by William Wellman, known already at that time for pictures centering around male companionship under pressure. This one takes Frankie Darro and Edwin Phillips, then adds pert Dorothy Coonan to the mix, on a road adventure that fitfully represents the dark side of the teenage hobo life, and then crashes to an unconvincing closing.
The film takes enough time to show us that Darro and Phillips were "ordinary kids" (albeit Darro has a bit of a fixation on Jimmy Cagney) of small town America, throw into a life on the road through no fault of their own. It's wonderful the way that all 3 of the principals are constantly trying to act tougher than the quiet moments of the film reveal them to be in their true selves. The film shows how police and railroad officials persecute the traveling kids, including a really excellent set piece scene where cops break up a hobo camp with high powered water hoses.
Wellman keeps things moving at the exact right pace, the whole thing feels just real enough to be convincing, but not excruciatingly "realist." It only lets us down at the ending, a conclusion so ill-fitted to its picture that it's quite easy to believe this ending was forced on Wellman by WB executives more concerned with glamorizing FDR's NRA than with depicting true misery in America. With a more convincing ending, this could have been a total classic for all times.
The film takes enough time to show us that Darro and Phillips were "ordinary kids" (albeit Darro has a bit of a fixation on Jimmy Cagney) of small town America, throw into a life on the road through no fault of their own. It's wonderful the way that all 3 of the principals are constantly trying to act tougher than the quiet moments of the film reveal them to be in their true selves. The film shows how police and railroad officials persecute the traveling kids, including a really excellent set piece scene where cops break up a hobo camp with high powered water hoses.
Wellman keeps things moving at the exact right pace, the whole thing feels just real enough to be convincing, but not excruciatingly "realist." It only lets us down at the ending, a conclusion so ill-fitted to its picture that it's quite easy to believe this ending was forced on Wellman by WB executives more concerned with glamorizing FDR's NRA than with depicting true misery in America. With a more convincing ending, this could have been a total classic for all times.