Narratives Of Failure: Dead End (1937), The Desperate Hours (1955), and Gangsters in Distress

This chapter evaluates William Wyler's so-called gangster films in relation to existing discourses on the genre and characterizes both films as narratives of distress, through which Wyler reflects socio-cultural issues involving masculinity. Wyler's gangsters do not undergo the same “precipitous rise and fall” as classical gangster-heroes do in early, conventional gangster films. This chapter argues that Wyler's Dead End and The Desperate Hours are also distinguished by the presence of a dual protagonist who represents the hard-working class and undercuts the projection of the gangster as urban hero. Wyler's films are key to understanding the diversity of narrative structures within a genre that is often read as having a monolithic format. Author: Terrance H. McDonald