The Life and Times of John Garfield / They Made Me a Criminal / USA 1939
Garfield’s boxing champion Johnny Bradfield becomes a suspected murderer overnight. Fearful of the ruinous intervention of blind justice, he goes on the run and eventually ends up on a date farm in Arizona, an unofficial reform school for young offenders. Will his confrontation with these affable adolescents and with the kind-hearted blonde Peggy restore Johnny’s shaken faith in the impartiality of the judiciary? Warner Bros. Studios installed Busby Berkeley behind the camera, until that time a respected director of lavish musicals, who succeeded in crafting an agreeably forthright crime drama featuring magnetic performances from the cast. The Warner clan were rubbing their hands: they had a true film star in their midst.
Karel Och
92 min / Black & white, 35 mm
Director Busby Berkeley
/ Screenplay Sig Herzig
/ Dir. of Photography James Wong Howe
/ Music Max Steiner
/ Editor Jack Killifer
/ Art Director Anton Grot
/ Producer Hal B. Wallis
/ Production Warner Bros.
/ Cast John Garfield, The Dead End Kids, Claude Rains, Ann Sheridan, May Robson, Gloria Dickson, Billy Halop
/ Sales Park Circus Group
/ Contact Library of Congress
Busby Berkeley (1895, Los Angeles – 1976, Palm Springs, California). Selected filmography: Dames (1934), They Made Me a Criminal (1939), Ziegfeld Girl (1941, co-dir.), Cabin in the Sky (1943, co-dir.), Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), Annie Get Your Gun (1950, co-dir.).
Park Circus Group
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