IMDb > Hell's Kitchen (1939)

Hell's Kitchen (1939) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
6.7/10   135 votes
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Up 9% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Writers:
Crane Wilbur (story)
Crane Wilbur (screenplay) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Hell's Kitchen on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
8 July 1939 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama more
Tagline:
Chain-gang labor...'concentration camps'...a thing of the past! more
Plot:
A paroled convict's efforts to improve conditions at a boys' reform school alarm the school's corrupt warden... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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User Comments:
Cashing In On Boys Town more (5 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
The Dead End Kids ... Group Actors
Billy Halop ... Tony Marco
Bobby Jordan ... Joel 'Joey' Richards
Leo Gorcey ... Gyp Haller

Ronald Reagan ... Jim Donohue
Huntz Hall ... Bingo
Gabriel Dell ... Ace
Bernard Punsly ... Patrick Henry 'Ouch' Rosenbloom (as Bernard Punsley)
Margaret Lindsay ... Beth Avery
Stanley Fields ... Buck Caesar

Frankie Burke ... Soap
Grant Mitchell ... Hiram Krispan
Frederic Tozere ... Mike Garvey (as Fred Tozere)
Arthur Loft ... Elmer Krispan
Vera Lewis ... Sarah Krispan
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
81 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono
Certification:
Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:H | USA:Approved (PCA #5082)
Company:
Warner Bros. Pictures more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
As a result of a PTA complaint, this was the last gangster angle picture made by The Dead End Kids. more
Quotes:
Beth Avery: Oh Jim! Krispan killed Joey Richards last night!
Jim Donohue: Killed him?
Beth Avery: He kept him in the cool room for 9 hours!
more
Movie Connections:
References Boys Town (1938) more
Soundtrack:
Auld Lang Syne more

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User Comments

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful.
Cashing In On Boys Town, 5 March 2009
5/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

The first of two films in which Ronald Reagan was featured with the Dead End Kids was Hell's Kitchen where after one stint of time in reform school in Crime School, the boys are back in the juvenile joint. The adult players take a distinct back seat to the boys in both these films.

Crime School was an out and out remake of the James Cagney classic The Mayor Of Hell and this one also has aspects of those films in it as well. We've got a self righteous warden of the school in Grant Mitchell who's once again skimming off the tops and treating the kids like dirt. His infamous cooler is an old meat locker where he locks the kids in to 'cool' them off. When one of them dies, it all hits the fan.

Challenging him for control of the institution is paroled racketeer, Stanley Fields who is playing his role like a cut rate Wallace Beery. Ronald Reagan is his nephew and Margaret Lindsay is the secretary of the school under Mitchell and who is ready to quit when Caesar arrives on the scene.

Jack Warner must have really been in a bind here because he even acknowledges a hit film from another studio. One of the reforms that Fields wants to bring in is a kind of self governing institution by the kids like Father Flanagan's Boys Town. In fact I'm sure that's why this film was made, to cash in on the success of Boys Town.

No Oscar winning performances here though like Spencer Tracy's. Still it's entertaining enough.

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