The Mayor of Hell (Warner Bros.) (1933)

ADVANCE FEATURES James Cagney’s Heart Went Into “‘The Mayor of Hell” Would Like to Play Big Brother Role in Life Similar to the One He Has in Latest Picture HE least suspected trait in James Cagney is, perhaps, his strongest. That red-headed young man who has been set ting ’°em up and knocking ’em down in movies for the past two years is, by nature and a certain amount of practice, a ‘‘re former.’’ He is not of the “‘blue nose’’ variety that is commonly asso ciated with this term. He isn’t the kind that tries to tell you what’s good for you and what’s not good for you— and makes you like it no matter how much it hurts. Cagney goes in for the broader field, the correction of ‘‘man’s inhumanity to man.”’ er reform school. It is against these hell holes that pass as Reform Schools that Cagney crusades in his present picture, “The Mayor of Hell.” Cagney doesn’t choose his pictures. This story just happened to fall to his lot, and he immediately put everything he had to graphically bring home the heart rending drama in “The Mayor of Hell.” His role in “The Mayor of Hell” fits him singularly well because of his own childhood experience in the slums of New York and his youthful battle to make his way in the world. The fate of the boys in the picture might easily have been that of Jimmy himself had conditions been but slightly altered. For these boys, according to Jimmy, are no worse and no better than the average. They were merely letting off steam as every active boy must. But for deeds which, for the children of the rich would have meant at most a scolding, these boys, because of their poverty and lack of parental guidance, are sent to a reform school, where boys are hardened into potential criminals. Islin Auster’s story, while it paints the shocking conditions that exist in certain reformatories with stark realism, is altogether reliable and authentic, facts bearing it out and almost paralleling the incident in the picture having been revealed in recent exposures of certain state institutions. Almost unbelievable cruelties are practiced on the boys at this school, cruelties so inhuman as to give the picture its title. Boys of tender years are herded in barbed wire enclosures like wild animals. They are half starved, and flogged for the slightest infraction of rules, or locked up in a damp dungeon which results in the death of one boy from exposure. It is to such an institution that Jimmy goes as a supervisor. A ward heeler, he has little interest in the Abuses of Reform Schools Exposed in ““Mayor of Hell”’ HERE are at least 350 young boys in Hollywood who are going to make sure they never do anything that will land them in a reform school. They are the boys who worked with James Cagney in the Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘The Mayor of Hell,’’ which comes to the Theatre next..<.°. 22... ; For several weeks, they were engaged on the reform school sequences for the picture, and in this time got a taste of what the real thing is like. The research work which had been done before the picture went into production resulted in the uncovering of shocking conditions that are equal to some of those that existed in chain gangs and penitentiaries for the punishment of adult criminals. Following photographs of several state reformatories, a huge set was built on the Warner Bros.’ lot zonsisting of ten wooden buildings, with dormitories, mess hall, administration offices, infirmary, “cooler” and other adjuncts of a reform school. The whole group of buildings was surrounded by a high barbed wire fence. Watch towers containing armed guards were erected at each corner of the set. All the details, were the result of actual research among certain reformatories throughout the United States. The cat.o’-nine-tails is not a weapon confined to chain gangs alone. It was discovered that each guard in certain reformatories was supplied with one of these cruel whips, and that they did not hesitate to use them. “The Mayor of Hell” deals with a reform school in which corruption and inhuman methods of punishment are rife. Shocking abuses unearthed during the research investigation were incorporated in the picture. | Graft and Abuse | food. The head of the institution would charge the state for the amount and type of food that should be served, but would actually starve -his inmates on thin, non-nourishing rations, and pocket the difference. What some reform schools are like and what they could become under wise management is revealed along with the romantic story contained in “The Mayor of Hell.” James Cagney as “The Mayor of Hell,” is a ward heeler whose appointment to the position of Deputy Commissioner of Correction, is a reward for his political work. Tough and none too scrupulous himself, he becomes touched at the horrible conditions he finds exist at the Reform School and sets out to correct them. He becomes the Big Brother of the poor devils in the Reform School. He accomplishes what he starts out to do, but not before he has locked horns with the grafting, eruel head of the reformatory. The large cast which supports James Cagney in this picture includes Madge Evans, Allen Jenkins, Dudley Digges, Arthur Byron, Frankie Darro, Sheila Terry, Robert Barrat, Farina, Harold Huber, Dorothy Peterson, George Pat Collins, Edwin Maxwell and others. It was based on a story by Islin STC ang (Lo 4 AAS enmeres O 4 BOY) ___. _FRANKIE DARRO and JAMES CAGNEY in “The Mayor of Hell,’ War_ ~~ ner Bros.’ dramatic sensation coming to the Strand. ee Out No.5 Out 30c Mat i0c cee “ ‘ school other than the fees it pays jim, But when he learns of the cruelties “practiced on the boys One of the systems of graft un| : covered dealt with the purchase of |2 — f er eo In his latest Warner Bros. pic| ture, “The Mayor of Hell,” which comes to the Theatre Cagney put more than mere acting into his work. His heart was in his work because he feels quite strongly about the almost unbelieveable conditions depicted by the picture. Cagney has often been called a radical, which is quite true of him except that he isn’t a shouter of “Down With Everything!” What he seems to do is to bring about a correction of certain abuses such as the manhandling of boys sent to Reform Schools. He isn’t an anti-cigaretter nor a Prohibitionist of any kind. The fact that he doesn’t smoke nor drink doesn’t make him frown on people who do. This type of reforming isn’t in his line. His feelings toward conditions that he feels should be altered, are the result of his own childhood. He lived among people to whom the fight for existence was a real battle, and he appreciates the factors that lead the weak into temptation. It was the result of his mother’s wise training that kept him and his three brothers from getting mixed up with the Law the way most of the boys did in the neighborhood in which they lived. Boys who were the close pals of Jimmy and _ his brothers. | Heart in His Work | He has seen some of his boyhood friends sent to reform schools, only to emerge embittered against society | because of the vicious manner with which they were treated while in the through a pretty nurse at the institution with whom he falls in love, Jimmy goes about reforming the place, using the strong arm methods to which he is accustomed, on the heads of the school, finally throwing out the grafting ring in control. “The Mayor of Hell” is a picture filled with pathos and tragedy and thrilling action, but is brightened by a love affair which leads to the reform of the ward heeler as well as the reformatory. Jimmy is ably aided in the highly entertaining picture, “The Mayor of Hell” by a splendid cast including Madge Evans, Arthur Byron, Dudley Digges, Frankie Darro, Sheila Terry, Harold Huber, Robert Barrat, Farina, Dorothy Peterson, Edwin | Maxwell and others. The picture was directed for Warner Bros. by Archie Mayo from the screen play by Edward Chodorov. Only 22, Madge Evans Has Been in Pictures 16 Years TARS may come and stars may go, but Madge Evans, who plays opposite James Cagney in the Warner Bros. picture, ‘‘The Mayor of Hell,’’ coming to the Theatre Back in the silent days she played important roles, as a child of course, with such stars as Alice Brady, Ethel Clayton, Montagu Love and Holbrook Blinn. In those days, James Cagney, who is a present-day top-notcher, was just a little boy without any thought of becoming an actor, much less of entering the movies. : “The funny part of it is,’ Madge confided, “that I have known Jimmy Cagney for several years. We met back in New York when I was a movie name of many years’ standing, and Jimmy had no idea of performing before the cameras.” It was back in 1917 that Madge got her first chance in the movies by appearing in “Sudden Riches,” directed by Emil Chautard for the Sere ae ee , goes merrily on her way winning new picture honors, a veteran despite her tender years. Madge Evans is only twenty-two years of age, yet she has been in motion pictures for 16 years, although she never saw Hollywood until about two years ago. old World Films Co., with Robert “The Mayor of Hell” on the Warner Bros. lot, Madge ran into Robert Warwick as star. While playing with Cagney in Warwick who is now playing large and small parts in various produetions. For seven years, Madge played child parts. About the year 1925 she and every one else discovered that Madge was grown up, and she was given the feminine lead opposite Richard Barthelmess in “Classmates.” She went to work on the Cayney picture at the same time that Richard Barthelmess was filming “Central Airport,” for Warner Bros. Practically all her former film work was done in the East, principly in Fort Lee, New Jersey, in the days when that center of film activity outshone Hollywood. Madge Evans you see has not only outlived LOE. MADGE EVANS Cut No.8 Cuti15c Mat ic stars but even companies and production centers. “T should feel like a very old woman indeed,” Madge observed. JAMES CAGNEY, to judge from the scene, finds himself intrigued by the lips of MADGE EVANS—but wouldn’t you be? In Jimmy’s new picture, “The Mayor of Hell,” which begins its engagement at the Strand Theatre next Friday, Warner Bros. offer one of the most exciting and dramatic stories of the year. Most of the action takes place in a reform school. Included in the cast are a group of youngsters, with Frankie Darro most prominent, representing the reformatory’s inmates, who offer portrayals that are said to rank with more mature stars. Out No. 4 Cut 30¢ Mat 10c =—ooIIIIIyyyEEEEEEEEEyEE>EEEEEEEEEEeEC~CyCywyL—_—_—aeEeEeES—————EEO I was thrown into the movie world at a very early age and grew up with it. I don’t feel any different from any other girl of my own age brought up in any other sphere of activity. Everything has changed and progressed at about the same rate in the past sixteen years. “T had the same thrill at the thought of going to Hollywood to work in the movies, as any other girl would have had. And when I arrived, it all seemed like a new and glorious adventure to me.” In “The Mayor of Hell,’ Miss Evans plays the part of a pretty nurse in a reform school, the conditions of which are so terrible, the “But I don’t. It just happens that] institution is given the name of Hell, by the young inmates. Through her romance with the politician, who is appointed head of the school, she not only reforms the reformatory, but the ward heeler. The story by Islin Auster is a startling revelation of actual cruelties practiced by a grafting head on boys who have been committed to the Reform School. In addition to Miss Evans, the supporting cast includes Allen Jenkins, Dudley Digges, Arthur Byron, Frankie Darro, Sheila Terry, Robert Barrat, Farina, Harold Huber and Dorothy Peterson. The screen play by Edward Chodorov was directed by Archie Mayo. Page Fifteen