Wild Boys of the Road

"Wild Boys of the Road" released by First National/Warner Brothers Pictures in 1933, is a harrowing story of a group of teens who hit the road in Depression-ridden America. It is 1933, and the whole country is mired in poverty, with millions losing their jobs. There was no social safety net just yet -- no unemployment insurance, no food stamps, etc. When you lost your job, you had nothing. Actors Frankie Darro and Edwin Phillips shine in this story of two teens who are forced to hit the road when both their families lose their jobs. They feel with one less mouth to feed, their families will be better off. Both of them hop the railroad cars, seemingly to nowhere, and soon are joined by many others doing the same thing. There is a charming girl (Dorothy Coonan) disguising herself as a boy. She is tough because she has to be to survive. Soon they are joined by hundreds of others. They live in squalid camps, fight the police, and scrounge daily just to feed themselves. All of the actors are good ones, and the living conditions are not prettied up. This is where Warner Brothers as a studio showed realism where other studios felt most Americans just wanted glamor to escape their troubles. The ending of the film is a bit unrealistic, as a sympathetic judge decides not to incarcerate the teens after they ran from the police and racked up charges (not likely!). But, this is still a gem of a film, and it never really seemed to get the recognition it deserved. William A. Wellman, the master director, gave us this and many other wonderful films.

`Wild Boys of the Road' is another fine example of the spare storytelling prevalent in the 1930's-- before egos, the demise of double features and the birth of multiplexes conspired to inflate movie running times to over two hours. Wearing its heart on its sleeve at times, Wellman nevertheless creates a story in true Warner Bros fashion--grim reality washed down with a dose of social commentary. One wonders if the rosy ending was considered necessary because of the age of the protagonists involved. Downbeat endings were certainly in evidence during that time from Warners: as the denouement of `Public Enemy' will bear witness. As the young tramps ride the rails, Wellman infuses the scenes with such energy and dynamism as to render them almost euphoric, despite the somber subject matter. As a veteran flyer from World War I, he seemed especially adept at combining humans we care about with dangerous, hurtling machines. And pre-code shocks abound-in addition to the implied rape and dismemberment, it seems apparent that young Sally's aunt, in Chicago, has established a business of dubious respectability in her own home, just before the kids fly the coop to avoid a police raid. Striking location photography.

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.

Wild Boys of the Road (1933)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

William A. Wellman directs this Depression era drama about two boys (Frankie Darro, Edwin Phillips) who run away from home and jump on the railroad route in hopes of finding a job so that they can help their families back home. Once again there must have been something inside of Wellman because there's a lot of passion in this film aimed at the poor who must do what they can to try and survive. This is a very hard hitting film that looks at this kids in a very serious light and it makes for a terrific little gem that deserves more attention than it's gotten within film history. Both Darro and Phillips are terrific in their roles and the chemistry they offer is great. Wellman's future wife, Dorothy Coonan, is also very good in her role as the boys buddy. The first twenty-minutes of the film shows the boys as normal teenagers but then we see their parents lose their jobs and thus forcing them to hit the road. This set up really sells the rest of the film and it also helps us see the suffering they're going to go through for the rest of the film. Wellman does a great job with the tender side of the story as well as a couple great fight sequences where they boys attack some railroad police as well as a rapist. Darro has a bit of Cagney in him and his performance here seems to have had a major influence on what we'd eventually see from The Dead End Kids.

Forget the Kleenex, bring the Bounty paper towels to experience William Wellman's depression masterpiece. This huge emotional epiphany packs a wallop.

Frankie Darro and Edwin Phillips portray the juvenile leads Eddie and Tommy, with Darro's performance effective and appealing. Their characters indulge in the usual teenage shenanigans until the depression overtakes their parents. As times toughen, and Eddie's father can't find work, Eddie decides to sell his jalopy to help out. This sets up the first of many splendid scenes, as Eddie's tough-guy veneer drops just long enough to share raw emotions with his father (Grant Mitchell). Zero cringe factor here, Wellman excels at emotions between men and it's never maudlin.

Hitting the (rail)road to find work, Eddie and Tommy encounter Sally, an adorable, nose-scrintching Dorothy Coonan dressed as a man. And the three set off across the country, with high ideals and optimism clashing with depression realities. Brutal and raw, this is a journey you, too, must take. A page of America's history told so expertly as to make you laugh and cry simultaneously.

Ms. Coonan (Sally) quit films after "Wild Boys" to marry director "Wild" Bill Wellman, and remain his his wife until his death in 1975. My highest recommendation.