Review of The Mayor of Hell (1933) by Private U — 22 Jan 2008

If you have to choose between watching "Crime School" and "The Mayor of Hell", choose the latter--it's grittier, with more believable performances (especially from the kids) and a better story overall.

The idea of a gangster taking over a reformatory is unlikely but fun if you think about it. It does offer a lot of stereotypes at the beginning (meeting the kids' parents, you get the whole spectrum of racist stereotypes in less than five minutes), so if that pisses you off, you probably should skip this one.

But a lot of the scenes are really effective (the death of an inmate and the ensuing riot in particular) and you should try to catch it if you can.