Wild Boys of the Road (1933)

In the depths of the Depression, two teenage boys strike out on their own in order to help their struggling parents and find life on the road tougher than expected.

Director:

William A. Wellman

Writers:

Earl Baldwin (screenplay), Daniel Ahern (story)

Stars:

Frankie Darro, Edwin Phillips, Rochelle Hudson

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Frankie Darro	...	Eddie
Edwin Phillips	...	Tommy
Rochelle Hudson	...	Grace
Dorothy Coonan Wellman	...	Sally (as Dorothy Coonan)
Sterling Holloway	...	Ollie
Arthur Hohl	...	Dr. Heckel
Ann Hovey	...	Lola
Minna Gombell	...	Aunt Carrie
Grant Mitchell	...	Mr. James Smith
Claire McDowell	...	Mrs. Smith
Robert Barrat	...	Judge R.H. White
Willard Robertson	...	Captain of Detectives
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
James Cagney	...	Himself (archive footage)
Guy Kibbee	...	Himself (archive footage)

Storyline

At the bottom of the depression, Tom's mother has been out of work for months when Ed's father loses his job. Not to burden their parents, the two high school sophomore's decide to hop the freights and look for work. Wherever they go, there are many other kids just like them, so Tom, Ed and now Sally stick together. They camp in places like 'Sewer City' as long as they can until the local authorities run them off. They travel all over the mid west and when they get to New York, Ed thinks that they may finally find work.

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Plot Keywords:

teenage boy | hunger | prosthetic limb | prothesis | junkyard | 

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Taglines:

Girls living like boys! Boys living like savages!

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Genres:

Adventure | Drama

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 1933 (USA)

Also Known As:

Az utca vad kölykei

Filming Locations:

Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

First National Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

68 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Reportedly both John Ford and William Wyler were interested in the project before it was assigned to Wellman.

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Goofs

Sally pandhandles by tap dancing to "42nd Street" in expensive (for her) tap shoes.

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Quotes

Edward 'Eddie' Smith: [Discovering that Sally is a girl] He's a she!

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Connections

Featured in Wanderlust (2006)

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Soundtracks

"Pettin' in the Park"
(uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren
Played when Eddie rolls the car back

User Reviews

Kids Also Suffer

Mention the Great Depression and most folks draw a blank or nod off. After all, who wants to be reminded of soup kitchens, dour old men, and dust bowls. Seventy years later and it's a closed book, forgotten and unlamented. Now and again, however, that dusty book needs re-opening. Because, in spite of the best efforts of the best of us, the past is not alway past. This edgy little Warner Bros. production provides a brief picture of the youth of that day, a harrowing story of survival amidst economic collapse.

The movie wouldn't work so well without the contrast the first half-hour provides. Darro and friends are typical middle-class teens, fun-loving and care-free. It's a world of proms, necking parties, and harmless pranks. Then without warning things change. Why they change is never really explained which is the way it should be. For most kids knew nothing of stock markets and dis-investment. They only knew that suddenly Dad doesn't go to work anymore and mom cries a lot, bills pile up, and no one gets a job, anywhere. Middle-class privilege plunges into no-income poverty, and Darro and his buddy do like millions of others. They hop a freight, hoping the next town, the next state, the next someplace, will give them a chance to make a living. What they get instead are private armies, battalions of cops, and a forest of billy clubs. They're driven on to the next jurisdiction and the next welcoming committee. Nobody wants the footloose unemployed adding to their own local problems. Maybe the attitude's not charitable, but it makes practical sense.

The battles atop freight cars and in hobo jungles are expertly filmed and dynamically staged, a stark panorama of social desperation. These scenes make up the movie's centerpiece. If anything they're mildly presented compared to the actual blood-letting that surrounded the desperate and up-rooted. Union organizing was especially bloody and bitterly fought-- an explosive topic Hollywood has only timidly touched on over the years. Nonetheless, the nail-biting episode on the train track stands-in for at least some of the actual pain and suffering caused by those crisis years.

Darro may be small, but he's energetic, something of a younger Cagney. His determined spirit to keep going no matter what is convincing, and helps drive the others on. I expect it also had that effect on audiences of the day. I like the way director Wellman suggests the kids can set up their own constructive community, if given half-a-chance. Some reviewers complain about the final scene with the understanding judge. Yes, it is pretty contrived, but it wasn't unrealistic given the package of New Deal reforms then in the works. If those measures didn't exactly solve the economic crisis (only WWII did that), they at least offered hope that the problems would no longer be kicked down the road to the next jurisdiction.

Wild Boys may not be the most honest or best movie on those tumultuous years. Still, it does furnish a provocative and entertaining glimpse. In any event, some books should not remain closed. After all, who knows when the unfortunate history of that era may again repeat itself.