Not to be confused with THEY MADE ME A KILLER/’46 (see right below) or THEY MADE ME A FUGITIVE/’47 (see far below), THEY MADE ME A CRIMINAL was rushed out by Warners in the wake of John Garfield’s star-making debut in FOUR DAUGHTERS/’38, and it shows. Pure (not to say puerile) cornball hoke, about newly crowned boxing champ Garfield going on the lam after wrongly thinking he’s killed a reporter. Claude Rains, brought along from the earlier film, is hopelessly miscast as the one ‘Noo Yawk’ detective who doesn’t think Garfield died in a car crash. (That crash, just a reel & a half into the pic, does take out fourth-billed above-the-title star Ann Sheridan, beating Janet Leigh in PSYCHO for famous early star departures.) Garfield ends up going West, picking up work on a date farm with The Dead End Kids where he falls for proprietor Gloria Dickson and holds his own in a local boxing challenge-bout to help save the farm. As long as nosy Claude Rains doesn’t spot his left jab! The whole ridiculous package might have overcome all absurdities if only those Dead Enders hadn’t started to outgrow their comic shtick; if Dickson & Garfield had some chemistry; or if director Busby Berkeley brought some of the eccentric brilliance of his dance routines to his dramatic work. Not just out of his element, he’s inept. A surprising stinker.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Hiding from Rains, Garfield briefly ducks his big boxing match citing ‘a bum ticker.’ No gag! Garfield died of exactly that in 1952 only 39.
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Listen in the opening credits to hear composer Max Steiner sample a bit of what would become his famous ‘Tara Theme’ from GONE WITH THE WIND out later this year.
WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Garfield would reteam with this pic’s cinematographer James Wong Howe (and redeem himself) with some of the best boxing scenes ever shot in BODY AND SOUL/’47.
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