Hell's House (1932)

After his mother (Mary Alden) is killed in a hit and run accident, a a 15 year old farm boy (Junior Durkin) goes to live with his aunt (Emma Dunn) in the city. He's taken under the wing of a bootlegger (Pat O' Brien) and his girlfriend (Bette Davis) but the bootlegger lets the boy take the rap for him when his warehouse is raided and he's sent to reform school. With Davis and O'Brien topbilled and its gritty expose of a corrupt and sadistic penal system, one would think this "social problem" film a product of Warner Brothers who tackled such subjects in films like I WAS A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG but it's not. It's an independent film and Davis and O'Brien weren't Warners contract players at this point in their careers. Most of the film is focused on young Durkin (who would be killed in an auto accident three years later at age 19) and the horrific conditions at the reform school. Though the film is not above laying on the sentiment (as soon as one kid says he has a weak heart, you know he's going to croak by the film's end), it's still a pretty disturbing film. O'Brien is pretty good as the heel whose conscience barely bothers him but Davis doesn't have much to do as "the girl". Directed by Howard Higgin. With Charley Grapewin and Frank Coghlan Jr.