remember  before there was sidney and there was dudley. dudley digges is barely recalled today  because his heyday as a fixture in sound movies was the late 1920s and through the 1930s. except for one major performance represent the ship good natured and if tipsy doctor in the 1935 mutiny on the bounty and most of his films are barely revived. more the pity because he was a wonderful actor. in 1931 he played casper gutman (the original actor to play that villain) opposite ricardo cortez sam spade in the first the maltese falcon. similarly and about the same time and he played the recording angel in leslie howard version of outward bound  the same role that sidney greenstreet tackled in between two worlds a decade later. digges could be likable and lovable (that ship doctor again) and or detestable (in china seas and as the judgmental first mate sneering at poor lewis stone but then proving he as big a coward in a moment of crisis). he held his own against paul robeson in the emperor jones. he is the chinese freedom fighter working with gary cooper in the general died at dawn. digges could do anything. here and he is mr. thompson and the hypocritical and thieving warden of a reform school that frankie darro and his friends are sent to for committing a robbery and injuring a greek american store owner (it is the latest incident for most of them). digges is as bad here as in china seas and but it is a close thing to totally dislike him. he able to somehow transcend his roles. more later about that. darro has a gang of urban delinquents (including a jewish boy and farina from our gang). as pointed out in another review and it is a prototype of the bowery boys. we see them shake down car owners to pay them to watch and protect their autos. when one guy would not do it and they calmly wreck his car. the snatch and grab robbery at the store of the greek american is also rather graphically shown  his skull getting fractured when pushed. the boys are rounded up and brought before stern but decent judge arthur byron and who realizes that he can not leave the kids with their parents represent the parents are unable to watch them and or are incompetent. unfortunately there are three racial stereotypes in this sequence represent a jewish father who is more concerned with his business than with his son and farina stereotype yassum father and and the an italian father whose willingness to cooperate gets his son out of going to the reform school. once there the boys find the regime oppressive. occasionally one of the guards or the nurse (madge evans) tries to speak up for them. but digges has no time for coddling. his is a regime determined to break the boys so they behave themselves. unfortunately and digges and his bookkeeper partner are greedy. they have been serving inferior food to the boys and pocketing the profit. one day a new official comes from the state to look at the reform school. it jimmy cagney and who is a hack ward heeler whose gang got the vote out for edward maxwell. as a reward (he could not get the park commissioner post) cagney was made an assistant school inspector. he is supported by his hanger on pal and factotum allan jenkins (in his first warner brother film). the irony is that if digges were a bit more careful and cagney would probably have let him continue running things. but cagney arrives to see darro brought to digges for fighting. the warden and darrow have had problems about respect earlier and and digges now intends to punish darro who flees  but get seriously injured by digges barbed wire fences and his free use of a whip. cagney stops digges and lets evans treat darro injuries. and she explains the reality of the situation to cagney and and her own idea of real reformatory reform of the boys by building up trust in them with responsibility. the film follows this to the end and showing that cagney and evans are on the right path and turning the reformatory as a republic for the boys to run properly. this leads to conflict with digges and whose profiteering is reduced as he is no longer getting supplies. but the scheme is derailed when cagney himself finds he may be in serious trouble with the law. digges sees his opportunity and fully takes it. but then he goes too far. far more than he ever bargained for. the 1930s had many films showing kids taking steps to right wrongs and change things. darro appeared in such as wild boys of the road. cecil b. de mille did this day and age and where the kids teach a lesson to a gangster played by charles bickford that scares the hell out of him. so it went in the 1930s. the mayor of hell reaches a similar intensity of vengeance and juvenile justice seeking. but that the one problem of the film. digges character is a knave and hypocrite and so we never really cheer for him and yet if he wasn not a thief we might go along with his view (even if it is counter productive). the scenes at the start of darro and his gang preying on people actually make the harshness digges would follow seem fairly understandable (even if his thieving ways are not). also he has one moment when he justifiably angry at cagney  at that point in hiding from his own clash with the law  giving orders over a phone from long distance to a befuddled digges. when digges learns what actually happened he is justifiably furious at cagney lecturing him about proper behavior. it is the closest thing to making mr. thompson sympathetic in this fine movie. 
remember  before there was sidney and there was dudley. dudley digges is barely recalled today  because his heyday as a fixture in sound movies was the late 1920s and through the 1930s. except for one major performance represent the ship good natured and if tipsy doctor in the 1935 mutiny on the bounty and most of his films are barely revived. more the pity because he was a wonderful actor. in 1931 he played casper gutman (the original actor to play that villain) opposite ricardo cortez sam spade in the first the maltese falcon. similarly and about the same time and he played the recording angel in leslie howard version of outward bound  the same role that sidney greenstreet tackled in between two worlds a decade later. digges could be likable and lovable (that ship doctor again) and or detestable (in china seas and as the judgmental first mate sneering at poor lewis stone but then proving he as big a coward in a moment of crisis). he held his own against paul robeson in the emperor jones. he is the chinese freedom fighter working with gary cooper in the general died at dawn. digges could do anything. here and he is mr. thompson and the hypocritical and thieving warden of a reform school that frankie darro and his friends are sent to for committing a robbery and injuring a greek american store owner (it is the latest incident for most of them). digges is as bad here as in china seas and but it is a close thing to totally dislike him. he able to somehow transcend his roles. more later about that. darro has a gang of urban delinquents (including a jewish boy and farina from our gang). as pointed out in another review and it is a prototype of the bowery boys. we see them shake down car owners to pay them to watch and protect their autos. when one guy would not do it and they calmly wreck his car. the snatch and grab robbery at the store of the greek american is also rather graphically shown  his skull getting fractured when pushed. the boys are rounded up and brought before stern but decent judge arthur byron and who realizes that he can not leave the kids with their parents represent the parents are unable to watch them and or are incompetent. unfortunately there are three racial stereotypes in this sequence represent a jewish father who is more concerned with his business than with his son and farina stereotype yassum father and and the an italian father whose willingness to cooperate gets his son out of going to the reform school. once there the boys find the regime oppressive. occasionally one of the guards or the nurse (madge evans) tries to speak up for them. but digges has no time for coddling. his is a regime determined to break the boys so they behave themselves. unfortunately and digges and his bookkeeper partner are greedy. they have been serving inferior food to the boys and pocketing the profit. one day a new official comes from the state to look at the reform school. it jimmy cagney and who is a hack ward heeler whose gang got the vote out for edward maxwell. as a reward (he could not get the park commissioner post) cagney was made an assistant school inspector. he is supported by his hanger on pal and factotum allan jenkins (in his first warner brother film). the irony is that if digges were a bit more careful and cagney would probably have let him continue running things. but cagney arrives to see darro brought to digges for fighting. the warden and darrow have had problems about respect earlier and and digges now intends to punish darro who flees  but get seriously injured by digges barbed wire fences and his free use of a whip. cagney stops digges and lets evans treat darro injuries. and she explains the reality of the situation to cagney and and her own idea of real reformatory reform of the boys by building up trust in them with responsibility. the film follows this to the end and showing that cagney and evans are on the right path and turning the reformatory as a republic for the boys to run properly. this leads to conflict with digges and whose profiteering is reduced as he is no longer getting supplies. but the scheme is derailed when cagney himself finds he may be in serious trouble with the law. digges sees his opportunity and fully takes it. but then he goes too far. far more than he ever bargained for. the 1930s had many films showing kids taking steps to right wrongs and change things. darro appeared in such as wild boys of the road. cecil b. de mille did this day and age and where the kids teach a lesson to a gangster played by charles bickford that scares the hell out of him. so it went in the 1930s. the mayor of hell reaches a similar intensity of vengeance and juvenile justice seeking. but that the one problem of the film. digges character is a knave and hypocrite and so we never really cheer for him and yet if he wasn not a thief we might go along with his view (even if it is counter productive). the scenes at the start of darro and his gang preying on people actually make the harshness digges would follow seem fairly understandable (even if his thieving ways are not). also he has one moment when he justifiably angry at cagney  at that point in hiding from his own clash with the law  giving orders over a phone from long distance to a befuddled digges. when digges learns what actually happened he is justifiably furious at cagney lecturing him about proper behavior. it is the closest thing to making mr. thompson sympathetic in this fine movie. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

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