The Mayor of Hell

The Mayor of Hell is a 1933 American PreCode Warner Brothers film starring James Cagney. The film was remade in 1938 as Crime School with Humphrey Bogart taking over James Cagneys role and Hells Kitchen with Ronald Reagan in 1939.

Gargan sends Thompson, the superintendent, on vacation and, while he is gone, puts Dorothys reform ideas into action. The school is functioning well under a system of selfgovernment when Patsy is called back to the city to take care of some political business. Patsy shoots another man during a fight and has to go into hiding. Thompson returns to the school and convinces the boys that Patsy has abandoned them. He then starts running things the old way and, when Dorothy protests over the poor quality of the food served, he fires her. Then one of the boys, Johnny Skinny Stone, dies while in solitary confinement and the boys rebel. Thompson is put on trial by the boys, who find him guilty. Thompson, in a panic, jumps out a window to escape. Pursued by the boys, many of whom carry torches, he scrambles up onto the roof of a barn. The boys immediately set fire to the barn. Dorothy, meanwhile, finds Patsy in his hideout and tells him the whole story. Patsy races back to the school to restore order, but Thompson is dead, having fallen from the roof of the barn. At the pictures end, Patsy decides to give up his political career and stay at the school permanently.

Source: Wikipedia