They made me a Criminal (1939)
They made me a Criminal (1939)
„They made me a Criminal“ is a 1939 film noir directed by Busby Berkeley. The screenplay by Sig Herzig is based on the 1933 play „Sucker“ by Bertram Millhauser and Beulah Marie Dix.
A a deadly and cynical prize fighter, Johnnie Bradfield, is a southpaw who has just slugged his way to the world championship when, during a drunken brawl in his apartment, his manager, Doc Ward, accidentally kills Charlie Magee, a newspaper reporter, and fixes the evidence so it appears that Johnnie did it. Doc then makes his getaway, but dies in a car accident while wearing Johnnie’s watch.
The next morning, Johnnie awakens in a strange place and reads a newspaper article informing him that he has perished in a car wreck after murdering a reporter. On the advice of a shady lawyer, and being falsely accused of murder, the champion boxer changes his identity, disappears and is presumed dead.
Johnnie now becomes an outcast. Detective Monty Phelan believes that Johnnie is still alive and hasn’t given up on searching for him. The only witnesses who could have exonerated him were his manager and girlfriend, both of whom have died in an automobile accident.
Johnnie lands in Arizona, hiding out on Grandma Rafferty’s farm in Arizona. Grandma runs a date ranch with the help of Peggy, and some juvenile delinquents, the Dead End Kids, who are under Peggy’s guardianship. The Kids have been sent from New York by a kindly priest who wants to rehabilitate the boys.
At the ranch, the regeneration of the boxer begins as Peggy helps him to fight his inborn tendency to believe that everyone is a sucker and the world has it in for him.
Johnnie, using the fake name of Jack Dorney, takes Peggy’s brother, Tommy under his wing and encourages him to go in business for himself by buying a gas pump for the farm.
Johnnie’s salvation comes when he helps the kids raise money by returning to the boxing ring. Johnnie enters a local fight match against an up-and-coming boxer, to win some money so that he can help his friends open up a filling station.
Meanwhile, New York detective Phelan cleverly picks up Johnnie’s trail and tracks him to ringside where he is fighting a heavyweight. Johnnie sees Phelan arriving at the fight and decides not to fight, disappointing the kids and Peggy. However his determination to help the kids overcomes him and he decides to fight. He tries to hide who he really is by not using his trademark stance in the ring, but not being a good right handed fighter, he is on the verge of losing. Because of this, Johnnie reveals who he really is. As Johnnie slugs his heart out for his friends, the detective begins to reflect and realizes that the fighter has been punished enough, as Johnnie is defeated in the fifth round. Johnnie surrenders to Phelan assuming he will be arrested, but the detective allows him to remain in Arizona instead, and returns to New York without his prisoner.
A 1939 American Black & White crime-drama film directed by Busby Berkeley, produced by Benjamin Glazer and Hal B. Wallis, screenplay by Sig Herzig, based on Bertram Millhauser & Beulah Marie Dix’s play „Sucker“ (1933), cinematography by James Wong Howe, starring John Garfield, Claude Rains, Ann Sheridan, May Robson, Gloria Dickson, and Billy Halop.
Claude Rains at first turned down the part, feeling he would be miscast and would look ridiculous as a tough New York City cop. Only after being threatened by the studio with suspension did he reluctantly accept it.
John Garfield and Claude Rains co-starred in six movies. Garfield died from a heart attack 13 years after this film was released, at age 39.
Director Busby Berkeley first made a name for himself with musical spectaculars like „Gold Diggers of 1933“ (1933) and „42nd Street“ (1933). He persuaded Warner Brothers executives to let him do a dramatic picture, and they assigned him this. He didn’t shed his musical association entirely. The film contains an „in-joke“ when „Dippy“ (Huntz Hall) operates the controls of a makeshift shower, singing „By a Waterfall,“ a song from Berkeley’s hit „Footlight Parade“ (1933).
The film is a remake of „The Life of Jimmy Dolan“ (1933).
Bertram Millhauser and Beulah Marie Dix, who wrote the source novel, also turned the story into a play titled „Sucker.“ The play opened Off-Broadway in New York City in 1933. The word „sucker“ is used twenty times in the film.
The fourth of seven movies featuring The Dead End Kids. In the original film, „The Life of Jimmy Dolan“ (1933), the kids are played by Mickey Rooney and several cast members of the our „Our Gang“ comedy shorts, much younger.
This film also contains the first malapropism of the Dead End Kids/East Side Kids/Bowery Boys series when Jordan says „Regenerate, ya dope“ when Hall used the word degenerate. Malapropisms became a staple of these films, with Gorcey using them on a regular basis throughout the series. Alien Castle wrote a black comedy utilizing malapropism, „Desire & Hell at Sunset Motel,“ produced by Donald P. Borchers (watch it for free here:...
Cast:
- John Garfield – Johnnie Bradfield
- The Dead End Kids – The Reform Kids
- Claude Rains – Detective Monty Phelan
- Ann Sheridan – Goldie West
- May Robson – Grandma Rafferty
- Gloria Dickson – Peggy
- Billy Halop – Tommy
- Bobby Jordan – Angel
- Leo Gorcey – Spit
- Huntz Hall – Dippy
- Gabriel Dell – T.B.
- Bernard Punsly – Milt
- Robert Gleckler – Doc Ward
- John Ridgely – Charlie Magee
- Barbara Pepper – Budgie Massey
- William B. Davidson – Chief Insp. Ennis
- Ward Bond – Lenihan
- Robert Strange – Malvin
- Louis Jean Heydt – Smith
- Frank Riggi – Gaspar Rutchek
- Cliff Clark – Manager
- Dick Wessel – Collucci
- Raymond Brown – Sheriff
- Sam Hayes – Fight Announcer
„Zum Verbrecher verurteilt“ ist ein Film noir aus dem Jahr 1939 unter der Regie von Busby Berkeley. Das Drehbuch von Sig Herzig basiert auf dem Theaterstück "Sucker" von Bertram Millhauser und Beulah Marie Dix aus dem Jahr 1933.
Der tödliche und zynische Preisboxer Johnnie Bradfield ist ein Linkshänder, der sich gerade den Weltmeistertitel erkämpft hat, als sein Manager Doc Ward bei einer Schlägerei in seiner Wohnung versehentlich den Zeitungsreporter Charlie Magee tötet und die Beweise so manipuliert, dass es aussieht, als habe Johnnie es getan. Doc macht sich daraufhin aus dem Staub, stirbt aber bei einem Autounfall, während er Johnnies Uhr trägt.
