The idea of filming a play that explicitly linked urban poverty with juvenile delinquency, reform school with adult criminal behavoir, doesn't seem like that big a deal to modern viewers, but it was a big deal in 1937. The play, by Sidney Kinglsey, was a big hit on Broadway, but it made the powers that be nervous. It was too blunt, I suppose, and it went against typical ideas that criminals are criminals because they are bad people. Saying that society gave them no other option was a radical step.

But Sam Goldwyn bought the play for the record amount of $165,000 and vowed to film it, against the wishes of the Hayes censorship office. After some changing and some neutering, the film premiered in 1937. It was a big hit, was nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture, spawned a host of imitators, and launched the careers of the Dead End Kids, who went on to appear in dozens of films together as the Dead End Kids, then the East Side Kids, then the Bowery Boys. It's still a compelling film, and it features a novelty: Humphrey Bogart's name isn't at the top of the credits.

The film chronicles a single day in the life of an East End slum. The neighborhood is a narrow alley lined with tenements, an amazing set built on MGM's lot. It's squeezed between the polluted East River and the looming walls of the houses of the rich, who have moved there because of the river view. Tellingly, the servants' entrance opens on the slum; the only reason we see the rich people at all is because the street in front of their homes is under construction.

Bogie plays Babyface Martin, a gangster on the run. He's had plastic surgery to make him look a little different, but he's noticed by his old gang-mate Dave (top-billed Joel McCrea), an architect who can't find work in his field so he paints signs for a living. Dave wonders what Martin wants in his old neighborhood; Martin's there because he felt homesick for his mother and his ex-girlfriend. He sees both of them, but both meetings are disastrous: his mother slaps him and calls him a dog, and his ex-girlfriend Francey (Oscar-nominated Claire Trevor) has become a prostitute. They have a great scene together: he angrily asks her why she didn't starve instead of selling herself, and she responds with the same question.

There's not a lot of story in the traditional sense. The film is more interested in showing us the lives of these people. We spend a lot of time with the Kids, who hang around the water's edge, getting into fights, taunting the rich kid up on his balcony, and boasting to one another. They get into trouble when they convince the rich kid to come into their territory, where they beat him up and take his watch. When the boy's father collars Tommy (Billy Halop), Tommy, desperate to get away, stabs the guy in the arm with a small knife before fleeing. Everybody in the neighborhood knows that that's the end for Tommy: if he's caught, he'll go to reform school and emerge a hardened criminal.

McCrea's part was a concession to the censors. I suppose they demanded a character to represent the American Dream. He's a trained architect who can't find work, but he is an honest man instead of being a criminal. He is supposed to show that the kids have options other than crime and prostitution, but the emphasis is on the shortage of opportunities, not on Dave's self-madeness.

The film convincingly argues that the urban poverty and lack of opportunity that the kids find in their slum will almost inevitably lead to many of them turning into Babyface Martins or Franceys. "What chance have they got against all this? They've got to fight for a place to play, fight for a little extra something to eat, fight for everything. They get used to fighting. 'Enemies of Society' it says in the papers. Why not? What have they got to be so friendly about?"

Everyone in the cast does a great job, especially Claire Trevor, who, in her single five-minute scene, still showed enough talent to earn an Oscar nomination. Bogart is sly and desperate; he looks convincingly devastated when his mother repudiates him. Gregg Toland, who would go on to shoot Citizen Kane, does an amazing job here, especially in the opening and closing tracking shots that move into and out of the neighborhood set. In addition to the Best Picture and Trevor's Supporting Actress nominations, Toland was nominated for Best Cinematography, and the film was nominated for Best Art Direction.