Wild Boys of the Road

William A. Wellman, 1933

Another film released in the early stages of the Great Depression, Wild Boys of the Road, which was inspired by true events, represents the drastic measures that children of the depression had to go to in order to not be a burden to their families. Boys and girls made their way from city to city in search of work with the assistance of the railroad company. Directed by William A. Wellman and starring child star actors Frankie Darro, Edwin Phillips, and Dorothy Coonan, Wild Boys of the Road centered on two young gentlemen, fast-talking Eddie Smith (Darro) and mama’s boy Tommy Gordon (Phillips). In the beginning of the film, their greatest obstacle is getting into the Sophomore Frolic with Tommy’s mother being out of work. What starts off as the struggles of one boy turns into the struggle of two when Eddie also discovers that his father is out of work. So, the boys take to the road and the dangers that come along with it. They run into the female character (Coonan) who acts as “mother figure” to the boys as they run into a world of rowdy children who have also been driven to the sewers and dumps of various cities.

This film came out during a time when Warners believed that the best way to depict the current unemployment issue was to offer realistic shots of the world that society was currently living in. This film, which would be dubbed a “social problem film” by Tino Balio, came off as almost a gangster film if it were depicted through children, which could have helped it pass the Production Code of that time. In scenes of confrontation against police these children do not use actual weapons but instead break out rocks and produce. In return the police use a water hose which indicates that they have no intention on hurting the children. The Code was in effect in the scene of the little girl’s rape when her attack was implied, but not shown.

In the end we are introduced to the judge of the juvenile court who is supposed to sentence Eddie and his friends for their wrongdoings. Eddie says to the judge, “You send us to jail because you don’t want to see us. You want to forget us.”

The judge character comes off as a Roosevelt type as he decides to release the children from their sentence, and promises to help them find work. In a film that was presented to a 1933 crowd, and to a community which has just started to experience the depression, the judge declares that the depression would soon be over and that these children’s parents would soon find jobs again. The viewer knows that this resolution does not take place in 1933, but his declaration would not be the last film to express such an idea through the use of a Roosevelt-like character. The Roosevelt character is seen again Grapes of Wrath (1939), six years later when the economy is even worse. It is believed that the overall message of this movie is that when children leave home they are bound to run wild and the law can not properly function.

-Ashley Atkins-