Jimmy keeps his trap shut and gets trapped...for three years in Reform School. A poor man’s version of the frenetic energy of THE MAYOR OF HELL, this one is merely competent in execution with solid yet mundane performances. Howard Higgin’s direction shows workmanlike ability in stringing together scenes with typical editing patterns; nothing showy or flashy in this film. It’s chugs along for its 72-minute run time and makes its point. It wants to be a tearjerker message movie but doesn’t quite have the quality that allows us to completely immerse ourselves emotionally with the story. There’s also one unfortunate racial epithet early in the film which is best left unstated.
In the very first few minutes we are introduced to the 14-year-old protagonist Jimmy as he playfully taunts his mother. A few moments later she is killed by a hit and run driver (who gets away) and she dies in his arms. Welcome to the world of depression era cinema! He goes to live with his aunt in the city and befriends Matt Kelly (Pat O’Brien), a fast-talking conman who hires him to answer phones...not questions. Jimmy takes the rap for his bootlegging acquaintance and is sentenced to three years in Reform School. Yikes! Once there, his pal Shorty, whose life expectancy is even shorter due to a heart condition, dies in solitary confinement for trying to mail a secret letter for Jimmy. The conditions of the school are terrible (I wonder if Jimmy ever learned to spell it?) and the kids are forced to labor in making and stacking bricks, day after day. The punishments are cruel and the food rotten. Jimmy eventually escapes and begs Matt and his gal Peggy (a beautiful Bette Davis) to help save his buddy but it’s too late. They meet with a newspaper Editor in Chief to give them the story but the police snatch Jimmy: he’ll be sent back, the story quashed, unless Matt reveals he’s the bootlegger who hired Jimmy in the first place. A bit of suspense but Matt does the right thing, he’ll do his time, and all cry happily.
Junior Dirkin plays Jimmy with such an earnest and dumbly innocent personality that it’s easy to like him but tough to take him seriously. Jimmy’s homoerotic relationship with Shorty is very interesting as his literally broken-hearted (or heartbroken) pal calls him Big Boy, which becomes the very last line of the film. And Pat O’Brien proves he may actually be able to challenge Glenda Farrell for words-per-second! Not a bad film, one that is merely KO.
Final Grade: (C)