Hell's House

Plot-- Following his mother's untimely death, young Jimmy (Durkin) is misled into a crime by fast-talking family friend Kelly (O'Brien). Betrayed again by Kelly, Jimmy is sent to a boy's reformatory where he experiences many institutional cruelties, but also meets fellow inmate Shorty (Coghlan), where a fast-friendship is formed. The question is what will become of Jimmy, friend Shorty, and will the cruelties of the reformatory and Kelly be rectified.

That reformatory brickyard is stacked to the skies and unlike anything I've seen. Should the mountainous stacks tumble, I doubt the boy stackers would ever be found. The movie's an interesting antique (1932) where O'Brien gets to show his fast-talking specialty as a pretentious bootlegger. But the real focus is Durkin, a likable kid, maybe too much so for the toughened last part. Sorry to say Davis's role looks like an add-on as O'Brien's conscionable girlfriend, and one that also gets a woman into a mainly male cast. It's still early in her career, but already Davis has that hard-eyed stare. And catch that toe-the-line stare-at-the-wall punishment misbehaving boys have to go through. That too is unlike anything I've seen.

Anyway, most of the runtime occurs inside the reformatory, minus the two top-billed players. Apparently, Durkin didn't have that same name recognition even though he gets the screen time. Too bad he died at such a young age and with so much to live for. His scenes with Junior Coughlin are unusually tender and moving, and dare-I-say, almost homo-erotic. All in all, the movie's in the prison-reform wave that occupied much of Hollywood at the time- e.g. Hell's Highway (1932); I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932). Despite the many passing decades, the hour still holds interest, so shouldn't be passed up