Rachel Daniels

English 395

Film Review – They Made Me a Criminal

When one hears the appellation "B-Movie", it conjures up images of cliché-ridden dialogue and sometimes painfully bad acting. The movie They Made Me a Criminal fortunately delivers on only one of these aspects. While the movie is filled with unfortunate choices in its writing style, most of the actors do a decent job with what they have been given. They Made Me a Criminal tells the story of a boxer who is on his way to the top of the profession, when due to his drunkenness he is present when a reporter is killed in the his apartment. Jonnie Bradfield (John Garfield), the boxer, is innocent of the murder but is told by his lawyer that he has no chance of an acquittal. The lawyer advises Jonnie to change his name to Jack Dorney, to go on the lam and never go back to boxing.

Jack Dorney travels around the country, and eventually stumbles onto a date farm that is a work camp for juvenile delinquents. He is forced by circumstance to remain on the farm for a while, and during his stay he begins to care about the boys living on the camp and Peggy (Gloria Dickson), the sister of one of the delinquents. Predictably Jack and Peggy fall in love while they try to figure out how to keep the farm afloat. The work farm was once partially funded by a charity organization, but the head of the organization has recently died thus stopping the farm’s funding. Of course the only way to get the needed money for improvements to the farm is for Jack to box against a touring champion. At the same time as all this is occurring, a tough New York detective, Monty Phelan (Claude Rains), is hot on Jonnie’s trail. He has been following the trail despite the fact that Jonnie is thought to be dead. Phelan made his name as a detective when he used forensic evidence to send a man to be executed. The man was later proven to have been innocent, but had already been executed. He has devoted himself to tracking down Jonnie in an effort of redemption.

They Made Me a Criminal is filled with clichéd writing, not only in the dialogue but also in the plot of the movie. If one is looking for starling revelations or twist endings, this is not the movie to watch. However, while the writing does not have much to recommend it, the acting in the movie is quite good. John Garfield stands out in particular in his role of a boxer finding redemption when he didn’t even know he was searching for it. Claude Rains does the best he can with the role, but casting him as a New York cop is just a poor choice. As brilliant an actor as he is, there is just no way for him to do a consistently believable accent. Despite all of its faults, this movie is entertaining. The boxing scenes are done very well, and are complemented by comic moments from the Dead End Kids and Grandma Rafferty (May Robson). While there are better versions of this type of fugitive-from-justice style film, watching They Made Me a Criminal is not the worst way to spend an evening.