It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

"They Made a Criminal" seems to be the product of a collective screen writing work, it's just as if each writer were assigned to prepare for a specific part of the film, and at the end they tried to reassemble the pieces with more or less of consistency. The result is that many things happen in the film, and most of them are less likely to happen. So much for a great deal of realism mostly conveyed by the performance of John Garfield and the 'Dead End' kids.To give you an idea, the first twenty minutes of the film contains more twists and false tracks than the last twenty minutes of "Psycho", "The Usual Suspects" and "Fight Club" combined. It starts where Johnnie, a lightweight boxer (John Garfield) wins a shot to the title and publicly dedicates his victory to his mother, he passes for a sassy but in the following locker room scene, he confirms to the journalists that he doesn't care for women and booze. Next scene, he's having a good time with his gal, played by Ann Sheridan a few minutes later, he admits this 'mother' thing is just a publicity scam.Bad luck, one of the guests is a reporter, bad luck for the reporter, while Johnnie misses him (too drunk), his manager hit him so badly, he collapses, dead. At that point, the title gives the first clues, obviously the manager will make it Johnnie's fault, with the help of Sheridan's character, they transport him to his house and agree to never reveal what they did (obviously). And just when you think it's a wrongly-accused-man story, the two dies in a car crash, even the top-billed Ann Sheridan, here go the only persons who could prove Johnnie's innocence. But wait a minute, you ain't read nothing yet, I'm not giving the film away, that's only the first 10 minutes.The corpses are so burned they're unidentifiable, except that the manager took Johnnie's watch so, the Police think the body is his, so Johnnie's officially dead. He dies a criminal but nevertheless, it's still better than living in jail. His lawyer advises him to disappear, and to invent himself a new identity, to never fight anyone, let alone with his famous left punch (he's a southpaw) Phew! At that point of the film, we're allowed to catch our breath and enjoy a seemingly linear story. Although there's one that doesn't believe Johnny's death, he's played by Claude Rains, an odd choice for a private detective, but he makes a convincing Detective Phelan.After traveling along America, Johnny ends up in a date ranch in the middle of Arizona belonging to an old lady (May Robson) taking care of some kids from a reformatory school and this is when John Garfield meets the Dead End kids. Good old buddies are still there, Leo Grocey, Huntz Hall, Gabriel Dell and Billy Halop who -again- is the one with a sister, Peggy, played by Gloria Dickson, a gentle blonde actress I didn't recognize and for good reason, she prematurely died in 1942 in a tragic fire accident. There is also Bobby Jordan and an oddly underused Bernard Plunsy (I don"t think he ever says a word) The whole part with the 'Dead End' kids is the film's reason to be and to be appreciated, because John Garfield is one of the most natural actors of his generation, the whole part I described were played in a natural and convincing way, whether drunk or upset, I never felt the guy acted. and I thought I knew anything about movies, that Garfield guy is one of the most natural talents I've ever seen in a Hollywood classic, and the way he got along with the 'Dead End' kids it's like they weren't even acting, I know Brando is the pioneer of 'method' acting, but Garfield had nothing to envy from him.And what a match he found in the 'Dead End' kids, who also act naturally on the screen, that bonding between the ex-boxer and young hoodlums is the salt that gave the film its delicate spice, and justifies why the suspicion from May Robson and Gloria Dickson turn slowly into admiration. Naturally, he teaches them how to fight and one of the kids takes the picture of him while doing it, so we suspect the picture to get on the hands of the copper but at that part, the plot was so behind me, I was enjoying the interactions and the greatest part of the film, the trip to the water tank.This is one of the most suspenseful sequences I've seen from a 30's where the kids and Johnnie get trapped in the water tank where the level of water is dropping enough to make reaching the top impossible but not enough so they can stand on their feet… and one of them, played by Bobby Jordan, can't swim. A really heart-wrenching and well-directed sequence with a use of camera on-the-water ahead of its time, well, of course, it was 1939, and Hollywood Golden Age was reaching its pinnacle with "Gone With the Wind" and "The Wizard of Oz", but within its own limitations the film had some pretty good shots, even the use of hand camera gave it a dizzying effect … but that was so overused I wonder if it was genuine.Never mind, the film evolves to its obligatory conclusion : a boxing fight, we know it's ought to happen because the leopard can't change its spots, it can earn 500 bucks to help the kids to start a gas station business, that's the only thing that defines him, and there has to be something to prove the detective right but then the film seems in a hurry to rush to a conclusion that seemed to belong to another kind of story, since the main character was in a dead-end, anything could set him free except that.

A seemingly home-spun boxer gets accused of a murder he didn't commit and goes on the run. Fortunately for him, he's believed to be dead so he blends right in with the Dead End Kids, picking dates on an Arizona farm. Unfortunately for him, a determined detective spots him in a newspaper photo, and his cover is endangered.Another imitator of Fury, the classic early film noir with a very similar set-up, this one suffers slightly from both predictability and a generic structure. Where it succeeds is with the superb Warner Brothers technology and a dream cast of contract players. John Garfield plays a media darling, so perfect with public relations that he publicly thanks his mother, whom we never even see. His phoniness is exposed the minute the camera is off and the booze flows. Ann Sheridan is wasted as his floozy moll, the real leading lady the lesser known Gloria Dickson who works on the date farm supervising the Dead End Kids.Claude Rains is, as always, impressive as the desperate detective, a much more low-key variation of Les Miserables' Javert, albeit one with a soft touch and cynical sense of humor. He's been beaten by life and empathizes with Garfield. A true scene-stealing performance comes from May Robson who combines love, no-nonsense and a thrilling love of boxing that creates a lot of humor. Being a remake of an earlier pre-code film with elements of film noir thrown in, the result is a noble try that doesn't completely come off but isn't a dud, either. The fact that this is directed by veteran choreographer Busby Berkley without any of his famous over-the-head camera shots of chorus girls makes this even more interesting.

Starring John Garfield, Claude Rains (finding his role for "Casablanca"), and plenty of other known actors of that time. This is a fully predictable story about a boxer who ends up "on the lam" trying to start a new life, and in the process seems to have done exactly that… and then things get complicated… Sometimes you just want to sit back and go for the ride, and this one is one of those. It's enjoyable, the "tough guy Bronx chatter" is over the top, the dames and the gal next door are perfect, the kids who need a role model – although aging their ways past these roles – were big box office at that time as "The Dead End Kids", there's a young Ward Bond in here, good cars, bad booze, fast broads, and slow conclusions. Hey, it's Hollywood in the Depression before the War. Lighten up.

The early films of the Dead End Kids (before they were re-christened "the Bowery Boys") were all very entertaining and well-produced films from Warner Brothers. Despite their being rather formulaic, they still had excellent writing, acting and hold up well over time. Do NOT confuse these with the cheap Bowery Boys films from Monogram Pictures--despite the presence of Huntz Hall and Leo Gorcey, these films were several notches below the earlier films in regard to quality.The film begins with tough-guy John Garfield winning the lightweight boxing championship. Unfortunately, shortly after this he's on a drunken binge and is blamed for a murder he really didn't commit. The problem is that he was so loaded that he wasn't sure he didn't kill the man, so he runs away and lives the life of a hobo. Eventually, he meets up with feisty May Robson and the Dead End Kids--as well as a lady you just know will become his girlfriend given time.Where the rest of the film goes was not all that surprising, but because of the quality of the film, it doesn't seem to matter. Garfield and the Kids are at their best and this is a film sure to please all but the pickiest of viewers.