... I'm perhaps a poor judge of the film itself since it is an obvious remake of "The Mayor of Hell" with some "San Quentin" thrown in for good measure. In particular, "San Quentin" has Bogart as the convict made to believe that the warden is just being nice to him to get to his sister, and in this film Bogart is the prison administrator. It's interesting to compare the scene in both films where the escaped prisoner confronts the warden, in "San Quentin" with Bogart holding the gun on the warden, and in "Crime School" with Bogart being the wrongly accused warden being held at gunpoint. It's a tribute to his acting skills that he was so believable in both.
James Cagney played the head of the reform school in Mayor of Hell, but he was more of an accidental angel, getting the job because of political connections, plus he was a former gangster with moll in tow when he arrived. Bogart's take on this same role has him as always having been a straight arrow, a guy with an education who wants to help these kids who have come up from the same neighborhood from which he came up.
What makes this one special versus its predecessor is seeing Bogart in a good yet tough guy role and the special chemistry of the Dead End Kids who were so good together that they continued making films under various monikers until 1958.
James Cagney played the head of the reform school in Mayor of Hell, but he was more of an accidental angel, getting the job because of political connections, plus he was a former gangster with moll in tow when he arrived. Bogart's take on this same role has him as always having been a straight arrow, a guy with an education who wants to help these kids who have come up from the same neighborhood from which he came up.
What makes this one special versus its predecessor is seeing Bogart in a good yet tough guy role and the special chemistry of the Dead End Kids who were so good together that they continued making films under various monikers until 1958.