Humphrey Bogart wears an unidentified watch

Sidney Kingsley's Broadway play opened in 1935 to Depression-era audiences, and William Wyler's film adaptation kept its claustrophobic setting: a single New York City block where luxury apartments tower over waterfront slums. Bogart plays Hugh "Baby Face" Martin, a gangster who returns to his childhood neighborhood to find his mother and his old girlfriend. His mother rejects him outright. His girlfriend Francey, played by Claire Trevor, is now a syphilitic prostitute. Martin's homecoming is a series of doors closing.

Bogart was still a supporting player in 1937, four years away from The Maltese Falcon and stardom. Dead End gave him one of his strongest early roles — Graham Greene called it "the finest performance Bogart has ever given." The film earned four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, with Gregg Toland's cinematography capturing the gulf between wealth and poverty on a single studio-built block.

Martin wears a rectangular Art Deco dress watch, the kind of piece a 1930s gangster would bring back to the old neighborhood to prove he'd made something of himself. The brand hasn't been identified, though Bogart was known to wear his own watches on set and owned several Gruen pieces in this style during the period.