They Made Me a Criminal

John Garfield plays Johnny Bradfield, a champion boxer who flees after a night of partying ends with a dead reporter and his face in the papers. He ends up hiding out on an Arizona date farm run by a schoolteacher (Claude Rains is the detective on his trail) and mentoring the Dead End Kids in the boxing ring. Busby Berkeley — better known for his kaleidoscopic musical numbers — directs this remake of The Life of Jimmy Dolan with surprising grit. The film is in the public domain.