Wild Boys of the Road

Wild Boys of the Road
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	William Wellman
Screenplay by	Earl Baldwin
Story by	Daniel Ahern
Produced by	Robert Presnell Sr.
Starring	Frankie Darro Rochelle Hudson Grant Mitchell
Cinematography	Arthur L. Todd
Edited by	Thomas Pratt
Music by	Bernhard Kaun (uncredited)
Production company	First National Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date	October 7, 1933 (1933-10-07)
Running time	67 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$203,000

Pre-Code lobby card with Ward Bond and Ann Hovey depicting a sexual assault scene on the film. In spite of her rather brief appearance, Hovey was prominently featured on promotional advertising, while Bond wasn't even credited in his role of the brakeman.

Wild Boys of the Road is a 1933 pre-Code Depression-era American drama film directed by William Wellman and starring Frankie Darro, Rochelle Hudson, and Grant Mitchell. It tells the story of several teens forced into becoming hobos. The screenplay by Earl Baldwin is based on the story Desperate Youth by Daniel Ahern. In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

One Saturday night, Eddie Smith (Frankie Darro), Tommy Gordon (Edwin Phillips) and Eddie's girlfriend Grace (Rochelle Hudson) go to the high school prom. Casually chatting about the unemployment situation, Tommy tells Eddie that he is going to drop out of high school to look for work to help support his struggling family. Eddie offers to speak to his father (Grant Mitchell) about getting him a job, only to discover that his father has lost his job. Eddie sells his beloved car and gives the money to his father, but when his father remains unemployed, the bills keep piling up, and the family is threatened with eviction. Eddie and Tommy decide to leave home to ease the burden on their families. Eddie leaves a note, then they board a freight train, where they meet Sally (Dorothy Coonan), another teenager, who is hoping her aunt in Chicago can put her up for a while. They have to jump from the train, and end up in a milk transfer station, where many teens in similar dire straits hop aboard another train.

When they reach Chicago, they are met by the police, who inform them and other hobos that the unemployment crisis has hit Chicago as well. Most of the transients are sent to detention, but Sally has a letter from her aunt, so they let her through. She claims her companions are her cousins; the kindly policeman is skeptical, but lets them go. Sally's Aunt Carrie (Minna Gombell) welcomes all three into her apartment, which is in reality a brothel. She warmly welcomes the three, and starts to feed them, however, before they even have a chance to eat, the place is raided by the police. The trio hastily depart, climbing out a window, and continue their rail journey east.

Nearing Columbus, Ohio, one girl (Ann Hovey), caught alone in a railcar, is raped by the train brakeman (an uncredited Ward Bond). When the others find out, they start punching the assailant. By accident, the brakeman falls out of the train to his death. A little later, as the train approaches the city, everyone jumps off. Tommy hits his head on a switch stand and falls across the track in front of an oncoming train. He crawls desperately towards safety, but his foot gets mangled and his leg has to be amputated. They live in "Sewer Pipe City" near Cleveland, Ohio for a while, until the city authorities decide to shut it down to discourage vagrancy, prompted in part by Eddie's theft of a misfitting prosthetic leg for Tommy.

Finally, the three end up living in the New York City Municipal Dump. Eddie finally lands a job, but needs to find $3 to pay for a coat which the job requires. They panhandle to raise the money. When two men offer Eddie $5 to deliver a note to a movie theater cashier across the street, he jumps at the chance. The note turns out to be a demand for money. Eddie is arrested, and the other two are taken in as well when they protest. The judge (Robert Barrat) cannot get any information out of them, particularly about their parents. However, Eddie's embittered speech moves him. He dismisses the charges and promises to get Eddie's job back for him. He also promises to help the other two, and assures them that their parents will be back to work soon.

Cast

• Frankie Darro as Eddie Smith
• Edwin Phillips as Tommy Gordon
• Rochelle Hudson as Grace
• Dorothy Coonan as Sally
• Sterling Holloway as Ollie
• Arthur Hohl as Dr. Heckel
• Ann Hovey as Lola
• Minna Gombell as Aunt Carrie
• Grant Mitchell as Mr. Smith
• Claire McDowell as Mrs. Smith
• Robert Barrat as Judge White
• Willard Robertson as Captain of detectives
• Adrian Morris as Buggie Maylin - Gangster

Alternative Ending

The ending as presented in the film is not the one wanted by William A. Wellman and was imposed on him by the producer Jack Warner. Originally, after Eddie's heartfelt cry in front of the judge, the latter explained to the three teenagers that the law left him no choice and announced their sentence to them. In the final scene, the judge looked out the window as a police car took the teenagers away for incarceration.

Jack Warner, finding the ending too harsh and depressing for the public in the context of the time, and against Wellman's advice, forced the latter to adapt a happy ending where the judge gives in, renounces sentencing the three teenagers and proposes even to help them. The New York Times, in its July 16, 1933 edition, declared that the producers had stripped the film of its value as a social issue.

Accolades

In December 2013, the film was selected for the 2013 National Film Registry.

See also

• Miss Nobody (1926) - directed by Lambert Hillyer
• Beggars of Life (1928) - directed by William Wellman

External links

• Wild Boys of the Road essay by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster at National Film Registry
• Nothing Sacred: The Cinema of William Wellman by John Andrew Gallagher and Frank Thompson. Men With Wings Press, 2018. ISBN 9780998769929, pages 232–238.
• Wild Boys of the Road at IMDb
• Wild Boys of the Road at the TCM Movie Database
• Wild Boys of the Road at AllMovie
• Wild Boys of the Road at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• Letter suggesting changes to film to comply with the Hays Code from www.thechiseler.me