Crime School (Warner Bros.) (1938)

STRAND THEATRE TO SHOW ‘CRIME SCHOOL’ SMASHING DRAMA OF TOMORROW’S KILLERS Humphrey Bogart and ‘Dead End’ Kids Head Cast of New Warner Bros. Movie N line with their policy of pre senting the best in screen entertainment the Strand Theatre announces that they have booked ‘Crime School,’ a forthright drama which sets forth the problem of reforming bad boys into useful citizens. It will have its (name of city) premiere on Friday. Mismanaged _ reformatories rather than the slums from which their inmates come are the real breeding beds of crime, according to Lew Seiler, noted Hollywood motion picture director whose early years as a youngster on New York’s East Side, where later he also taught in public schools, entitle him to speak with authority. “Boys form gangs in the tenements,” said Seiler, “because they have nothing else to do, and also because they are healthy young human animals. Their minds are active, and have to find outlets. So they get into mischief. “That’s true, however, of boys in all walks of society. It’s the natural thing for youngsters. They have no _ inhibitions, they are scornful of conventions. It’s a stage through which all boys pass Short kKealism in the enactment of a scene for “Crime School” at Warner Bros. studio, in which boys in a reformatory Were apparently manhandled by guards during a riot, proved too much for the mother of one of the boys, and she fainted. Bernard Punsley, one of the New York youngsters playing toughies in Warner’s “Crime School,” in answering the question regarding possible famous ancestors in a studio questionnaire, wrote “Great-granduncle came over on the Cauliflower.” Gale Page, lovely brunette starlet who makes her movie bow in “Crime School” has one of those new nighties that gleam in the dark. The darker it is the more plainly visible is the nightgown because it is a photographic print. The six “Dead End” boys supporting Humphrey Bogart in Warners’ “Crime School,” now at the Strand Theatre, want it known they aren’t anywhere nearly as tough as their accustomed roles. All are ambitious for acting careers and have been playing since infancy on the dramatic stage. PRODUCTION STAFF Director Lewis Seiler Screenplay by Crane Wilbur and Vincent Sherman Story by Crane Wilbur Photography by Arthur Todd, A.S.C. Film Editor Terry Morse Dialogue Director Vincent Sherman Music by Art Director Sound by.......... Francis J. Scheid Gowns by.......N’ Was McKensie as they grow to manhood and its responsibilities. “Boys of middle class and wellto-do parentage, however, are safeguarded throughout the growing-up stage. Their physical energies find outlet in play of the kind that is denied to youths with no money behind them. They attend suburban schools with plenty of play space. They live where the country is accessible for outdoor activities. They attend camps in the summer. “But all these outlets are denied to slum boys,” Seiler added. “They have only the streets. They are bound to get into more mischief than other boys, and then they are arrested and sent to re form school. But all to often the reform schools don’t reform. Politically controlled, they treat the boys as criminals, and so criminals they become.” It is out of such background material that the Warner Bros. motion picture, “Crime School,” directed by Seiler, was fashioned. Humphrey Bogart plays the role of the investigator, and the six Stix Gabriel Dell and Leo Gorcey, eldest of the six “Dead End” boys, lorded it over their associates the morning when. shooting began at Warner Bros. studio on “Crime School.” For both were now “over 18” and would not have to attend studio school between takes. Gale Page, who makes her screen debut in “Crime School,” avers that several months before Warners tested her and gave her a contract, three different Chicago Gypsies reading her fortune in tea leaves told her it was going to happen. She was then starring on the “Today’s Children” hour over NBC out of Chicago. Billy Halop, one of the six boy actors supporting Humphrey Bogart in Warner Bros. “Crime School,” at the Strand Theatre, treasures a piebald pony given him by Madison Square Garden when he sang there as a guest star at a rodeo last year. When he came to Hollywood, the pony made the transcontinental trip with him. THEY HEAD THE CAST OF “CRIME SCHOOL” — Gale Page and Humphrey Bogart provide the romance, and Billy Halop, Bernard Punsley, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell, Leo Gorcey and Bobby Jordan provide plenty of action in “Crime School,” coming Friday to the Strand Theatre. New York boy actors who became famous for their acting in the stage and screen versions of “Dead End,” the Pulitzer Prize play, comprise the youngsters of the gang. Mat 102—15c RUTHLESS HEADMASTER of movie “Crime School” is Humphrey Bogart. The six kids who had leading roles in “Crime School” nearly became five when Bobby Jordan picked a corner of a motion picture set to take a nap during the lunch hour. The set represented a boiler room and Bobby crawled in behind one of the boilers. When Bobby, did not show on the set after lunch, a search was launched and he was found unconscious from smoke fumes. He was revived and able to work. STORY SYNOPSIS (not for publication): Six boys from a slum district, accused of petty thievery, are sent toa reform school of the worst type, run by political grafters. In this “Crime School’ they are fast becoming criminals, when a new Commissioner of Correction (Humphrey Bogart) is appointed. Although beset by many obstacles, he finally turns the school into a real “reform” school and sets the boys on the right path, winning the sister (Gale Page) of one of them for his wife. Mat 202—30c (S) CAST OF CHARACTERS THE “DEAD END” KIDS: Cooper “\\/...... ie eee eee Morgan. ........:....came.ie. eee mae. Judge Clinton..2c9ed 0.20% 2d 8 joe Delaney... 2508 2rstes peFt fn MNO oa 2. 5.0... sdb ischeeeiainaaae Nick Papadopolo.. Jotn, Brower. oe teeta aah ee se wee oe cer mee ee ees | O@icer Howan...60 50 oe... SCR aR OT etek ese a ae Sa ee BILLY HALOP eles BOBBY JORDAN ND sen ied HUNTZ HALL proms GORCEY. SEFES cies BERNARD PUNSLEY CS ea ee as GABRIEL DELL Be HUMPHREY BOGART TS ee ee ee GALE PAGE plies GEORGE OFFERMAN, Jr. sete a? .WELDON HEYBURN 4 SR Rs See ee CY KENDALL iis CHARLES TROWBRIDGE eee ee ME BURN. STONE cohceriutaeaane HARRY CORDING Peter oe SPENCER CHARTERS th i Reel DONALD BRIGGS | 7 aN: FRANK JAQUET MS Me HELEN MacKELLAR ies eee ee eae AL BRIDGE ne Renee tee SIBYL HARRIS SERRE: PAUL PORCASI Apne JACK MOWER SU ce mins ee FRANK OTTO Gassugtbelihecocieeas ame ED GARGAN aeRO cu eh JAMES B. CARSON BOGART HAS DYNAMIC ROLE IN SMASHING DRAMA ‘CRIME SCHOOL’ OTHING less than the com plete reformation of one of the world’s classic villains took place in Holtywood during tte filming of “Crime School,” the Warner Bros. picture: which comes to the Strand Theatre next Friday. For Humphrey Bogart, the man who played Duke Mantee in “The Petrified Forest,’ Baby Face Martin in “Dead End,” and Turkey in “Kid Galahad,” became in “Crime School” a thoroughly reformed character. He laughed at the change himself. “Imagine a noble Bogart,” he was heard frequently to mutter. This man Bogart, whom millions of movie-goers know only as a very tough hombre, because of the roles he customarily plays, is really a very likable fellow who in real life is far different from his movie characterizations. That leer now—well, you find it difficult to recognize him off the screen, for the corners of his mouth usually turn up instead of down. And his laugh has the hearty ring of a jovial good fellow. It comes more and more often during the making of “Crime School,” for Bogart liked the change in roles and, when he became a hero instead of a villain, got a bigger kick out of his work than before. In the new Warner Bros. picture, he plays the role of a commissioner appointed by the governor of his state to oversee institutions for juvenile delinquents, and who, finding them mismanaged and_= graft-ridden, cleans house. One particularly badly administered boys’ reformatory comes in for his personal attention. It happens to be the very place where a gang of a half dozen boys from his own city _ has been incarcerated; and as one of the boys is Jre~protner ofa very charming girl, in whom the crusader is interested, there are romantic complications. This, as anybody familiar with Bogart’s screen characterizations can see, is an altogether new role for the man of a thousand villainies. How did he like it? “T liked it very well, indeed,” was his answer. “It was a new kind of thing for me to play, it’s true. It demanded that I think like a crusader instead of a criminal. It made me alter my facial expressions, even the tones of my voice. “But there’s nothing namby pamby about Mark Braden, the commissioner. That’s my _ role, you know. He’s all man. And he’s not a plaster saint, either, but has his human frailties and failings. So he’s just as full-bodied a human being to play as if he were a villain. See what I mean? Most heroes aren’t as human as villains. That’s why ordinarily | prefer to play the villain. But this role is different.” Bogart was grateful, however, that in making him noble the script of “Crime School” didn’t also handcuff him. Instead, it let him swing a mean fist in one good rousing fight. “People like a fighter,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons why they like villains. And, bearing that in mind, I was a bit dubious about the advisability of my playing this new kind of role for me, when the part was first offered. But after I read the script, I had no more worries. Mark Braden in his own way is just as virile as Duke Mantee.” He Looks Like Gable Weldon Hevyburn, featured in “Crime School,” looks exactly like Clark Gable — without a moustache. He and the star, incidentally are old friends from Broadway stage days. Washed Down by Flood Bobby Jordan, one of the “Dead End” kids now playing in “Crime School,” has adopted a flood refugee, as pal and helper. He’s Wash Johnson a colored lad.