OK, so this is definitely not the cheeriest of stories but Bogart and Joel McCrea are on good form throughout this gritty drama of hardship and depravity on the East Side of New York. "Baby Face Martin" - who, to be fair, maybe benefits a bit optimistically from the moniker - returns to his childhood home to reunite with his mother and childhood sweetheart. His mother wants nothing to do with him and his ex "Francie" (Claire Trevor) turned to prostitution and hasn't long to go before syphilis does for her. Meantime his friend, aspiring/struggling architect "Dave" (McCrae) is juggling his romantic interests between sweet but rather dreary "Drina" and "Kay" (Wendy Barrie) who already has a rich boyfriend. All of this misery is made all the more poignant by the fact that this ghetto is overlooked by the apartments of the wealthy that have relocated to new properties that overlook the adjacent East river. When Bogart decides that he wants to re-assert himself in the community by organising a high-profile kidnapping, he and his erstwhile friend find themselves on opposite sides of the plot! The crime drama is there, but it is comparatively weak compared with the pretty blatant social commentary from Lillian Hellman's screenplay that draws attention, unashamedly, to the stark contrast between the standards of living (and dying) of those just yards apart.

Overall, not a good movie, to me, thought there were elements I liked enough to hang onto a copy. Clunky moralizing social drama; dull and speechy. I found the Dead End Kids to be bad actors and just not worth watching. If you happened to be a fan of theirs from other movies, you might see this one totally differently from me.

The good elements were isolated pleasures for me; they couldn't redeem the movie as a whole. But -

Gregg Toland's photography was great. There's some really sweet scenes of light and shadow, and some of his trademark deep shots with action in foreground and background.

The set is really impressive.

Claire Trevor and her one scene were fantastic. Bogie was good in that scene. I thought his performance varied between the early twitchiness seen in a lot of his 30s pictures, and some better work. (Allen Jenkins as his henchman was pretty good. In comedy I think he lays it on too thick; I don't know if I'd seen him as a tough before.)

Sylvia Sidney was good; I dunno if she was great, but it's not a great role, pretty much weepiness all the time. Boy, is she beatiful; that also gets in the way of my evaluation.

Joel McCrea was just OK. I love him in later work, so it's probably partly the apprentice stage of his career. And mostly the crap dialogue; again, it's just a dull role.

I like Wendy Barrie; she didn't have a lot to do, but I enjoyed her brief appearances.

Marjoie Main's expression as Bogart's mother, seeing her son for the first time in years, but repulsed, was amazing. The way it's lit and shot; they all put this scene together really well.

Charles Halton has a scene as kidnapping consultant, seemingly. I don't think I'd seen a hard-bolied attitude from him before; I thought he was awesome.

So, I'd watch parts of this movie again, to see these bits I liked. I'd fast-forward over the kids every time. And probably over the adult actors who I usually like, too, when they've got speechy message scenes.