Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Edwin The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

mnorris-97396 I agree with other reviewers about the fabulous performance of Marjorie Main. It has stuck with me for decades. "you're just a dirty dog" I realize that her accent is wrong -- more Okie than Brooklyn (or other NYC neighborhood). But on my fourth or fifth view, I just noticed how much Bogart's speaking pattern resembles Huntz Hall's. (I realize that's kind of the point -- that the kids growing up today are going to follow the path of Babyface Martin of yesterday -- but I urge you to listen to the similarity in the speech patterns. )

kijii This movie was nominated for four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Claire Trevor), Best Cinematography (Gregg Toland), and Best Art Direction (Richard Day). Its cast includes: Sylvia Sidney, Joel McCrea, Humphrey Bogart, Wendy Barrie, Claire Trevor, Allen Jenkings, Marjorie Main, and Leo Gorcey (from the Dead End Kids). The movie appears to be an allegory about the tale of two cities (or at least, two socioeconomic groups in NYC that are placed side by side for contrast):Movie's Opening Prologue: "Every street in New York ends in a river. For many years the dirty banks of the East River were lined with the tenements of the poor. Then the rich, discovering that the river traffic was picturesque, moved their houses eastward. And now the terraces of these great apartment houses look down into the windows of the tenement poor."Since the movie received Oscar nominations for Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction, it definitely deserves to be restored. The picture quality and sound are definitely sub par for such a movie.

writers_reign The element that prevented my enjoying this film wholeheartedly was the sound; in 1937 they had yet to perfect the sound department and provide 'natural' sound which includes 'atmos' the normal background noise that you would expect to hear especially in a movie like this where 90% of the action occurs in the street. Though set in the street it was clearly shot in a studio and the mic was in a soundproof booth so that what we hear is 'clean' sound which is, of course, unnatural. Screenwriter Lilian Hellman has 'opened out' the Broadway play as little as possible so that no imagination is required to visualise the story on stage. Probably the stage version of Street Scene was very similar. Wyler retains the theatricality by having the disparate characters come together in an area no larger that a Broadway stage and exaggerate the social divisions. The drawback in this approach is that the characters don't seem quite real and give the impression that they are playing solitaire just out of camera range while waiting for their cue to move to stage centre, say their lines and exit. Having said that there are several fine performances to admire and it remains watchable close on eighty years later.

utgard14 Brilliant adaptation of a hit Broadway play about life in the slums of New York during the Great Depression. A gangster on the run from the law returns to the neighborhood he grew up in to plot his next move. Add to that a little romance and a gang of street kids getting into trouble and you've got a first-rate Warner Bros. urban drama picture (only this wasn't made by Warners). Humphrey Bogart plays the gangster character 'Baby Face' Martin. In some ways it was a very familiar role to many others he'd played up to this point, but this one was a bit more layered and gave him a chance to flex his acting muscles some. Solid turns from Joel McCrea, Wendy Barrie, Claire Trevor, and Marjorie Main. Allen Jenkins is always fun to watch. Next to Bogart, I'd have to say the standout is the lovely Sylvia Sidney, one of my favorite actresses from this period. She had some of the most expressive eyes in the business.Among other things, the film's notable for being the first screen appearance of the Dead End Kids, who would go on to appear in several WB gangster pictures (in basically the same roles as this) before starring in a few series of their own under different names, my favorite of which was the Bowery Boys. It's interesting to see them here looking and acting much more like roughneck teenagers than later where they were clearly adults behaving like overgrown kids. Directed by William Wyler, this is a "message movie" from a time when those types of movies actually felt earnest and not phony or preachy. Yes it's pretty much a filmed stage play, which was very common in the 1930s, but the great cast, excellent sets, and Gregg Toland's beautiful photography goes a long way to bringing it all to life. Not one you'll want to pass up if you're a fan of the stars or the period.