Pals Frankie Darro and Frank Coghlan Jr. are practically brothers under the skin, Darro raised pretty much by Coghlan's long-suffering mother (Lillian Elliott) and more loyal to her than her own offspring. Coghlan doesn't come home for his own birthday dinner and as a result of a criminal act Coghlan was in the middle of, Darro ends up in reform school, breaking his surrogate mother's heart in the process, even more when Coghlan ends up there as well. An escape leads to more criminal activity yet heroics by the two non-blood brothers who have learned a lesson or two.
While some of the reformatory scenes are truly tough, the title promises a film which is never delivered, the atmosphere overloaded with more pathos than the grittiness that should be there. The sleazier characters are extremely one dimensional, the good brother/bad brother theme a bit overplayed, and Elliott's seemingly aging mother the type that early talkie melodramas always presented as the kindly drugstore owner who is always threatened with foreclosure. Grant Withers, as the reformatory doctor, gets a few good key scenes, but his character is never developed beyond predictability already seen in many films of this nature.
While some of the reformatory scenes are truly tough, the title promises a film which is never delivered, the atmosphere overloaded with more pathos than the grittiness that should be there. The sleazier characters are extremely one dimensional, the good brother/bad brother theme a bit overplayed, and Elliott's seemingly aging mother the type that early talkie melodramas always presented as the kindly drugstore owner who is always threatened with foreclosure. Grant Withers, as the reformatory doctor, gets a few good key scenes, but his character is never developed beyond predictability already seen in many films of this nature.