Warner's pre code social drama | The Mayor of Hell

Mixing a bit of organized crime with some reform school melodrama. | The Mayor of Hell | James Cagney, Madge Evans

DVDs:


	• The Mayor of Hell James Cagney, Madge Evans Warner Home Video, 2008 average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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Typical Cagney

The only reason I got this movie was we caught the beginning on AMC and had to leave before it was over. I am basically collecting his musicals. After watching it from beginning to end I have to say I am not sorry I got it. It is a good story and shows how you can turn kids around by treating them with respect. It also shows how someone can really screw up their life by making the wrong choices. It's worth seeing.

Warner's pre code social drama

Warner Brothers were famous for their social dramas and this time it is reform schools. Released in 1933, "The Mayor of Hell", is a forceful pre-code melodrama which exposes the cruelty and neglect doled out to the inmates of a reformatory, teenagers who invariably return to society as hardened criminals due to the inhuman treatment they receive.

The film is really a starring vehicle for the magnetic Frankie Darro as the hoodlum who fights the system but James Cagney officially stars as a gangster politically appointed as governer of the reform school. Cagney clearly gives the film box office appeal but the balance of the drama is awkward as his part was obviously built up. MGM's Madge Evans plays a crusading nurse and although she is excellent, she lacks the realism that Joan Blondell, for example, would have brought to the part. The film builds to an exciting and predictable climax and Dudley Digges is a very convincing villian.

The print of the DVD is excellent and there are some entertaining extras, the best being a good commentary which particularly highlights the censorship issues which plagued the film. Warner's night at the movies is included but unusually, both the short film and the cartoon are dreary.

The is probably the least interesting film included in the Warner's Gangster Set Volume 3.

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Mixing a bit of organized crime with some reform school melodrama.

A nice surprise here, as "The Mayor of Hell" is a pre-Code noir-ish film starring the always entertaining Cagney.

It's got a little bit of organized crime mixed with a little bit of reform school melodrama, and it totally works!

The DVD comes from a decent print, and it was easy to get involved in this little seen gem.

The plot ambles along briskly, and the performances are universally fine considering the era. Cagney lights up the screen as usual, but the school kids shine brightly as well. So much so that you don't miss the "big movie star" when he not on the screen.

This is a terrific way to spend an hour and a half on a lazy afternoon...

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Five members of a teen-age gang, including leader Jimmy Smith, are sent to the State Reformatory, presided over by the melodramatically callous Thompson. Soon, Patsy Gargan, a former gangster appointed Deputy Commissioner as a political favor, arrives complete with hip flask and blonde. Gargan falls for activist nurse Dorothy and, inspired by her, takes over the administration to run the place on radical principles. But Thompson, to conceal his years of graft, needs a quick way to discredit Gargan.