Are These Our Children

Are These Our Children? is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by Wesley Ruggles and written by Howard Estabrook. The film stars Eric Linden, Ben Alexander, Beryl Mercer, Mary Kornman, Arline Judge, and Rochelle Hudson. The film was released on November 14, 1931 by RKO Pictures
Plot.
Eddie Brand (Eric Linden) is a high school student in New York City. After he loses an oratory contest about the U.S. Constitution, he becomes depressed and leaves his girl friend Mary (Rochelle Hudson) to take up with Flo Carnes (Arline Judge) and her hardcore friends, Maybelle (Roberta Gale), Agnes (Mary Kornman), Nick Crosby (Ben Alexander) and Bennie Gray (Bobby Quirk), in spite of his grandmother's warnings. He and his new crowd of friends get drunk on gin in jazz clubs and dance halls, and start robbing strangers for cash. Eddie drops out of school and become more and more dependent on liquor.
One night, Eddie, needing a drink, shoots an old family friend, Heinrich "Heinie" Krantz (William Orlamond), who has refused to sell him a bottle of booze. When Eddie, Nick and Bennie are arrested for the murder, Nick blurts out the truth on the witness stand, and Eddie is given the death penalty, with Nick and Bennie given life sentences.