Wild Boys of the Road

(1933)
Directed by William Wellman
Written by Earl Baldwin from a story by Daniel Ahern
Starring Frankie Darro, Edwin Philipps, Dorothy Coonan, Sterling Holloway, Rochelle Hudson
IMDB Entry

Before talkies came in, Warner Brothers was struggling. The Jazz Singer turned them into a major studio and they continued with gangster films and other movies showing the seedier side of life, and especially life in the lower classes.* Wild Boys of the Road is one of their gems, but one that tends to be overlooked.

Eddie Smith (Frankie Darro) and Tommy Gordon (Edwin Philips) are two teens during the Depression who are suffering its effects. When Eddie’s father loses his job, the two decide to hit the rails to Chicago in search for work. On a freight train, they meet Sally (Dorothy Coonan), and go from train to train until they reach their destination – but there’s no work there. Sally has an aunt who can give them a home, preventing them from being rounded up and sent home, but the aunt turns out to be running a bordello. When it’s raided, the three escape and keep heading east, getting into trouble all the way

The movie still is powerful after all these years.  The three are all attractive characters and you quickly sympathize for them.**

Since this was a pre-code film, the script doesn’t shy away from things the Hays office cracked down upon a few years later. It makes the story that much stronger.

Frankie Darro had been acting on screen for quite some time, starting when he was six. He worked regularly in the silent days, since he was a talented stunt performer and was often the first one called when they needed a child to do a stunt. He kept working through the 1960s, with is best-known role one that he wasn’t credited for – one of the actors who operated Robbie the Robot in Forbidden Planet.

Wild Boys. Sterling Holloway is the gawky boy second from right.

He’s excellent as Eddie – the driving force of the trio and the one who eventually helps to get things fixed for them. Edwin Phipps also puts on a good performance, though his career didn’t extend past this. This was also the only named and credited role for Dorothy Coonan, who left acting soon after this to marry director William Wellman.

Wellman was the director of The Public Enemy, which introduced James Cagney to the world, and had a long and successful career with movies like A Star is Born,**  Nothing Sacred, Beau Geste, Lady of Burlesque*** and The High and the Mighty.

There are two other familiar names and voices. Ward Bond – who appeared in many John Ford westerns and, of course, the Bogart Maltese Falcon --  has an uncredited small but memorable part as a horrific brakeman. And Sterling Holloway was working regularly into the 1980s, appearing on a lot of 50s TV as well as lending his distinctive voice to Disney characters, most notably, their original Winnie the Pooh.

There are many interesting elements in the story. The various teens end up hanging together, including two Blacks. Though their roles stay close to the stereotypes of the time, they seem to be accepted by the other boys riding the rails.

Another touch is the judge who ultimately decides their fate. The actor has the glasses and accent of Franklin Roosevelt, and there’s a prominent poster of the National Recovery Administration eagle in his courtroom.*****

It’s a shame the movie is not better known. Like many 30s films, it is fast paced and fits a lot into its short running time. Not having to abide by the Hays code makes it more realistic than later films.  It’s available at archive.org.

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*When they weren’t doing lavish musicals.

**Darro was actually still a teen  and the other two were just barely out of them.

***The original Janet Gaynor version

****From the novel The G-String Murders by Gypsy Rose Lee

*****One of the earliest of FDR’s agencies to fight the Depression, until it was declared unconstitutional.