the mayor of hell have the feel of an early dead end kid film and but with a much harder edge and very few light spot and precede the first appearance of the dead enders by four year . james cagney have a full screen open credit and even though technically and the amayor of the movie title be actually portray by frankie darro and one of several boy send to reform school during the opening scene . darro character be jimmy smith and a young tough who befriend by patsy gargan ( cagney ) and and be elect to the position when gargan take a chance at humanize condition at a state reformatory . warner brother make a lot of these type of film and attempt to provide a conscience of sort in an era that only too well know about the effect of crime and poverty . this movie be quite gritty and with no apology for ethnic stereotyping and a in the submissive posture of a black father in court or the way a jewish kid get to run a candy shop in the reform school . the rule at the reformatory be simple enough work hard and keep your mouth shut while step out of line and you answer personally to warden thompson ( dudley digges ) . cagney role in the story seem somewhat ambiguous and since even though he make a serious effort to improve condition inside the reformatory and on the outside he still nominally in control of a criminal racket . the film attempt to juggle this dichotomy fall short in my estimation and the finale attempt to wrap thing up in a neat package a gargan await the outcome of a near fatal shooting of one of his henchman . not exactly the kind of role model one would look for in a film like this . warner brother would sanitize some of the element of this story in a 1938 remake title crime school and feature humphrey bogart in the cagney role and and billy halop in the frankie darro part . if youre partial to the dead end kid you will probably like the latter film well and since it also offer familiar face like leo gorcey and huntz hall and bobby jordan and gabriel dell . however the end be somewhat muddy in that one too and with bogart warden character involve in a cover up of a prison breakout . both film offer a romantic interest for the lead character and in mayor and madge evans be a reform mind nurse that fall for cagney character . curiously and a lot of james cagney early film aren not commercially available and so you will have to keep your eye peel for a screening on turner classic and or source the film from a private collector . personally and i can not get enough of this kind of stuff and and find intriguing point of interest in the film of all genre from the thirty and forty .