1. Bridger 1
Robert Wesley Bridger Jr
Professor Arguello
History 141, 71154
2 October 2011
Bonus Movie Review: Dead End
New York in the 1930s was a place of unrest. In the Lower East Side there was a split
between the rich and poor that was so easily seen it was literally draw with the road that
separated them. The poor had been living there for so many years that their apartments were
falling apart and the area was home to overcrowded families with nothing to their name.
Baby Face Martin, a now grown gangster known for his violence, is one such person who
had grown up on these streets. Martin had come back to visit his old childhood home in hopes of
a happy reunion with his mother and old girlfriend. His visit had caused his mother to slip into a
deeper depression than she had already been in, knowing she had raised such a dark hearted man.
Also pushing his visit from hopeful to bitter was finding out that his old flame had become a
prostitute, killing his short lived desire to settle down. Once he had pushed past happiness and
back into his more suited evil bitterness, he began planning a kidnapping of a rich boy in the
apartments across the street.
Around the same time as this is being planned, a boy named Tommy Gordon pulls a knife
on a rich man living in the wealthy apartments and when he wouldn’t let him go Tommy cuts
him. This all began because Tommy and his gang of poor kids had a scuffle with the rich mans

2. Bridger 2
son, and ended up stealing his money, watch, and dress coat. Doing this puts Tommy on the
radar of Police in the area, so he goes into hiding for a short while.
Tommy’s sister Drina has been working hard to keep a roof over their heads and food on
the table since before she could even remember. She loves her brother and wants so badly to
keep him from the path he is heading towards, afraid he will end up in prison or dead. She tries
to escape to the countryside with her brother once the police are onto him, but fails to do so when
Tommy decides to go back and find the member of his gang who had ratted him out. While there
he gets snagged by the police.
Dave Connell, a childhood friend of Drina, confronts Baby Face Martin early in the
movie about leaving New York, and staying away from his friend’s kid brother Tommy. Later in
the movie when Dave confronts Martin and tells him he will inform the police of his
whereabouts. This angers Martin so he stabs him then punches him into the river, yet still alive
Dave comes after Martin and this time ends up killing him in a mix of self defense and
aggression. Dave is then quickly recognized as the man who brought Baby Face Martin to
justice, and for this receives a large cash reward. Then, during the trying time with Drina’s
brother being pulled away by the police, Dave pledges his love for her and that he will help in
any way he can to bring them all together again. Drina gets her dream man in Dave and the
movie credits roll.
Overall this movie helps viewers like me, who have never been to New York let alone
know much of its history, see into what it was like during the 1930s. A new respect is gained for
the citizens who had to grow up there. It becomes easy to see how gangsters, like Baby Face
Martin, and others became the way they were when raised in such an environment.