Marvelous William Wellman treatment of the depression and its effects on a young segment of society. Actors Frankie Darro and Edwin Phillips work together with a chemistry that is palpable. While the film is dramatic, it is no more dramatic than actual events themselves -- millions of young men did leave home searching for employment and many millions more lost everything they had because unemployment led to default on their homes or inability to pay their rent. President Hoover had just ordered the National Guard to shoot at and kill the unemployed soldiers from world war I that had camped across from the White House and wouldn't go home without their pay or a job.
The times were drastic and life-threatening. This movie fits right in, although the ending is too optimistic if looked as occurring in a single moment. The new President, Roosevelt, put these boys and young men to work again, working at needed public works projects, but his programs would have been too late for the boys in this film.
This is an altogether film great.
Review of Wild Boys of the Road
