Review of The Mayor of Hell (1933) by Trent M — 13 Jan 2008

James Cagney is wonderful -- when is he not? -- as a gangster who, through a political favor, becomes the head of a boys' reform school formerly run by a sadistic warden. Great performances by the teenage boys cast in the primary roles, This film had a lot to say about whether punishment or reform is the point when children are put away.

Even more relevant now in an age of rampant adolescent crime, "boot camps" and alternative schools.