Warner Brothers focuses our social conscience here on Depression-era teenagers who take to the rails (the "Road" of the title is a railroad) to relieve the burden on their unemployed parents-or so their selfless motivation is represented. Hopping freights is not the carefree pastime of Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (to be shown September 14), but instead pits the teens against rapists and rail company goons. Looking for work, they find only a "sewer city" filled with an "army" like themselves. But Variety's complaint that Wild Boys of the Road makes for "a depressing evening" fails to account for "Wild Bill" Wellman's exhilarating flair. It's like a Capra film stripped down for action-still sentimental and loaded with Hollywood compromises, but punctuated with striking, unforgettable moments. The bland confidence of the ending is a letdown, as a Roosevelt-voiced judge steps down from the bench to set everything aright. However, that Wellman directed another seven films for release in 1933 says much about the routine excellence possible in Warners' heyday. This new print struck by the Library of Congress Motion Picture Preservation Laboratory restores the beauty to a film almost invariably screened in dupey 16 millimeter. Preceding the feature will be the two-reel Gypsy Sweetheart, a very early three-color Technicolor Vitaphone short recently restored from the Library of Congress negatives. Produced in 1934, it was held back for release until the week after Becky Sharp (the first three-color feature) in 1935. Like the first such short, La Cucuracha (1934), color is its excuse for existence, with "exotic" singing types who again sport wild outfits. Scott Simmon