Wild Boys of the Road (1933)

Dir.: William A. Wellman

Plot: Two suburban teenagers run away from home in search of work after their families are hit by the Depression and enter the dangerous world of underage hobos, at the mercy of police, railroad guards and each other.

 Eddie (Frankie Darro) and his friend Tommy (Edwin Phillips) are wisecracking best pals whose friendship is tested when they decide to run away from home after the Depression strikes their families. Leaving behind a carefree world of co-ed dances and jalopy rides they hop a train bound for Chicago and hopes of a job, but soon find they have become part of a wandering tribe of hundreds. Chased from town to town by police and attacked by train guards, these teenage outlaws drift from place to place and anger and desperation soon explode into violent confrontation.

 Exceptional for its time in its portrayal of male friendship, which in Classic Era films tended to be only a plot point for a woman to disrupt, the heart of the film is the relationship between Tommy and Eddie. Their guileless physical and emotional closeness, still childlike, adds affecting melodrama to the already engaging social history. Even when Tommy loses his foot in a train accident (one of the high tension scenes that Wellman does so well, and eye-wateringly unpleasant), Eddie refuses to lose faith in his friend’s resilience.

 Frankie Darro is particularly poignant - he has not yet assumed the rough-hewn rigidity of a male lead, and his malleable, sensitive face is perfect for conveying the uncertainty and fear of a boy whose life has fallen down around him. Darro, child star and leading cause of the sentence “Wow, he looks just like Jimmy Cagney”, deserved to make it bigger than he did. Phillips struggles to make much of an impression in comparison, but his downbeat performance complements Darro’s more ostentatious turn. Dorothy Coonan (who would go on to marry director Wellman) shines in her introduction, disguised as a boy aboard a freight train. However, her role fades into the background as the film goes on, although queer theory enthusiasts will likely find plenty of interest in a striking moment where she sweeps the steps of the boys’ shack in perfect feminine style, still dressed in men’s clothing. 

The weird thing is, they don't break into song right after this...

 The adults are the supporting players here, but clearly have no qualms about stealing scenes from the young ‘uns with their limited screen time. Grant Mitchell is outstanding as Eddie’s father. Their devastating interaction in the kitchen after Eddie sells his car, swinging between hollow cheeriness and raw grief, is a remarkably acute depiction of anguish. Elsewhere, the ever-welcome Minna Gombell gets a brief but memorable turn as Sally’s aunt, who greets the starving trio with a vast chocolate cake. Sadly they don’t get to eat it. Turns out Aunt Carrie has beaten the Depression by operating some sort of cake-baking/prostitution ring, and her apartment is promptly raided by police, causing the runaways to flee back to the railway.

And your initial joy at seeing a young Ward Bond pop up as a brakeman may be dampened somewhat when he turns out to be a brutal rapist (he is credited on IMDb as ‘Red, the Raping Brakeman’, really isn’t funny but is probably the worst nickname ever). Wild Boys of the Road’s frank and unambiguous depiction of rape, which would have been impossible a year or two later, is a chilling reminder of just how different the American popular fantasy of hobo-ing was from the reality of exploitation and abuse. Although it says something about the nature of Hayes Code prudery that I was more surprised we saw Ann Hovey’s bra than the lead-up to her rape.

 The ending of the film, in which our heroes are abruptly rescued by Roosevelt’s federal aid programme, is usually the aspect which tends to draw fire. And although its kitschy aura of Soviet-esque propaganda might not be to everyone’s taste, it would be hard to deny that the three have earned a respite from trials and trauma, however improbable.

 As gritty as driving behind a lorry full of rock-salt on a snow day, Wild Boys of the Road is up there with the toughest of 1930s Warner Brothers realism. The story of normal teenagers whose lives are shattered by a crisis they can do nothing about, it pulls no punches in its snappy 70-minute run time - showing injustice, violence, abuse and deprivation with unblinking candour.

9/10