They Made Me a Criminal *** (1939, John Garfield, Claude Rains, May Robson, Gloria Dickson, The Dead End Kids) – Classic Movie Review 7859

Warner Bros put their big star John Garfield in the 1939 drama They Made Me a Criminal, a remake of 1933’s The Life of Jimmy Dolan, as Johnnie, a boxer on the run from the law who ends up at a desert ranch where Grandma (May Robson) and Peggy (Gloria Dickson) are trying to reform New York’s Dead End Kids (Billy Halop, Bobby Jordan, Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Bernard Punsley). Johnnie (Garfield) falls for Peggy (Dickson) and boxes to raise cash for her ranch.

Why did Warner Bros put musicals director Busby Berkeley on the case? Perhaps because he is able to do an unshowy, thoroughly professional job. Garfield makes only a moderate impression this time in a pleasantly sentimental slice of Americana. Claude Rains is a welcome presence as Monty Phelan, the detective on the case.

Sig Herzig’s screenplay is based on Bertram Millhauser’s and Beulah Marie Dix’s novel and play Sucker.

Also in the cast are Ann Sheridan, Robert Gleckler, John Ridgely, Barbara Pepper, William B Davidson, Ward Bond, Robert Strange, Louis Jean Heydt, Frank Riggi, Cliff Clark, Raymond Brown, Jack Austin, Irving Bacon, Clem Beavans, Richard Bond, Nat Carr, Eddy Chandler, Hal Craig, Tom Dugan, Sam Hayes, Leyland Hodgson, Stuart Holmes, Arthur Housman, Al Lloyd, Frank Mayo, Sam McDaniel, Frank Meredith, Bob Perry, Bert Roach, Cliff Saum, John Sheehan, Ronald Sinclair, Elliott Sullivan, Dorothy Varden and Jack Wise.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7859

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