There is an old saying that states that you can never go home again, attributed to novelist Thomas Wolfe.  On the surface, this seems like an absurd idea.  For example, though I live in Florida and plan to for the rest of my life, I still refer to Chicago as home.  Whenever I return there, I always think of it as a homecoming.  Its streets, including the suburbs in which I was born, are as familiar as any in the Sunshine State.  What that adapted quote is doing is questioning what makes a “home.”  Is it simply the environs that are known to us, as in a physical place?  Or is it something esoteric, like a state of mind?  It is the latter of these ideas to which Wolfe is speaking.  The problem is that when we leave and are away from that locale, when we reminisce upon it, we are remembering something that will never be again.  It does not matter the length of time you spend away.  You can go shopping for a few hours and return to the rooms in which you inhabit and there is more dust than when you left, or the sun is shining through the windows at a different angle.  This same detail can be applied to a neighborhood over a longer period of time.  The streets may all be fixed in their courses, but people move out and others settle in their place.  Trees grow or die.  I will halt the philosophical track there as I think you have my point.  As you will see, this applies to today’s film, Dead End (1937).

As the opening lines proclaim, every street in Manhattan has a Dead End into the river.  On the Lower East Side, where the thoroughfare terminates into the East River, stands a tenement neighborhood in the process of transformation.  As the wealthy learn the benefits of having a home with a view of the waterway, they begin invading this district, putting up an elegant apartment building that also overlooks its far shabbier surroundings.  It is in this distinct area that all our events take place.  The first of its denizens that we meet is a local gang of boys led by Tommy Gordon (Billy Halop).  They spend pretty much all their time hanging out by the water and watching the well-to-do come in and out of their august abode.  This is a constant headache for the doorman (Ward Bond), who is forever chasing them away.  Tommy lives in a far humbler building next door with his sister, Drina Gordon (Sylvia Sidney).  Things are difficult for these siblings, but more so than usual because the workforce at the factory where she is employed is currently on strike.  Tommy’s behavior is another source of consternation for her as she tries to do her best to care for him.  Her brother is not the only target of her affections.  She also likes an old friend from the neighborhood, Dave Connell (Joel McCrea), an out-of-work architect who is finding odd jobs in the area to make a living.  Dave, however, has his eyes on Kay Burton (Wendy Barrie), a social climber who is engaged to a rich man because she does not want to be poor.  While he waits down on the street for her to come out, he encounters Hugh “Baby Face” Martin (Humphrey Bogart) and an associate, Hunk (Allen Jenkins).  Baby Face and Dave had grown up together in these tenements, and been in the same kind of group of ruffians we have already met.  While Dave had reformed his ways, reform school only made Baby Face into a more hardened criminal, having to flee the city.  Now the apparent gangster has come back, first to see his mother, Mrs. Martin (Marjorie Main), and to look up his old girlfriend Francey (Claire Trevor), people he has not seen in years.  Dave is suspicious of Baby Face’s presence, though they share about the old days.  Once their tête-à-tête is completed, Kay finally comes to Dave.  They talk about the good times they had the previous night, and how much more fun she has with him than the man she could marry.  What is stopping them from being together is Dave’s poverty.  He says that he might be getting an architect position, and she says she will seek him out the following day to learn of the outcome.  It is on that day that the problems occur.  For organization’s sake, I will cover them thematically.  In the high-rise lives Philip Griswald (Charles Peck), the son of Judge Griswald (Minor Watson).  Tommy’s bunch lure Philip into an abandon room across the street and jump him, tearing the well-off boy’s clothes and stealing his watch.  Unfortunately, Tommy is seized by Mr. Griswald, and before he can be arrested, stabs the man in the hand with a pen knife.  Mr. Griswald wants Tommy arrested, much to Drina’s horror. Dave suspects Baby Face as having taught the kid some bad habits, and insists that the criminal leaves.  Baby Face, though, is dealing with his own problems.  Mrs. Martin wants nothing to do with him.  And when he finally catches up with Francey, he wants nothing to do with her since she seems to have turned to prostitution since he left.  As such, he is not in the mood for Dave’s badgering when they once more run into each other.  Dave says he is going to the police to alert them to Baby Face’s presence, but the criminal throws a knife into Dave’s back as he is walking away, and then Baby Face and Hunk push their victim into the river.  Dave survives and springs on Baby Face and Hunk in an alleyway.  Baby Face tries to escape while Dave tangles with Hunk, but Dave manages to knock out Hunk and give chase.  With gunshots ringing out and people beginning to mill around in curiosity over the raucous, Dave finally shoots Baby Face, who is then finished off by the police.  Dave earns a reward for this, which is Kay believes is enough for them to have a year together.  The events of the past couple of days, though, have shown Dave that he wants something more substantial, which means Drina.  He thus uses his reward money to help Tommy, who has turned himself in, to hopefully stay out of reform school, and this is where the movie ends.

If it was not apparent in my synopsis of Dead End, I will more clearly spell it out here as to why I talked about why we cannot go home.  The main person who symbolizes this attitude is Baby Face.  He returns to this neighborhood expecting things to be as he left them.  Instead, his best friend has moved on, his mother is ashamed of him, and his girlfriend has become something he despises.  God calls on us to let go of our pasts, to understand that what you once had will never be the same.  The Jews of the Bible, despite Jesus fulfilling the prophecies surrounding the coming of the Messiah, did not see Him for the Savior.  Instead, they were looking for that which measured up to what was familiar to them instead of seeing God’s hand at work.  It is a common human flaw found throughout Scripture.  Additionally, we need to let go of what we expect of the future.  This is a problem for Dave and Drina.  With Dave, it is his plans to be with Kay.  In Drina’s case, it is her worry for Tommy in what will happen to her brother at reform school.  Our worries for these situations, like our characters, is not without merit.  It shows that we care.  At the same time, we have to come to the realization that these events are in God’s hands.  They realize this to a degree when Dave states his belief in the fact that everything will be alright.  Drina, though, responds by declaring that she is tired of this status quo.  It reminds me of something to which my spiritual director is often bringing to my attention: my need to focus on doing God’s will in the here and now instead of fretting over whether I am meeting His expectations for my long-term future.  He even drew me pictures that I hung on my wall as a visual aid for keeping these ideas in my heart and in my head.  When Dave and Drina finally realize this lesson themselves at the end, they appear much happier.

Thus, there are some solid lessons to be gleaned from Dead End, which is always good for this Catholic reviewer to remember.  Another great thing about this film is the set.  I am guessing this has probably been adapted to a stage play at some point as everything takes place in this rough quarter of a Lower East Side block.  It looks great, and if nothing else, makes this one worth watching.