Review of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) by Sherry L — 16 May 2009

This is a very strong movie about James Allen, a world war I veterian, who has just returned to America and quits his job as a factory employee. He dreams about a future in the construction business, and he travels arcross the country taking casual jobs. He meets a man at his shelter who asks him if he wants to follow and go buying hamburgers. James agrees and follows the guy to the hamburger shop. What he didn´t know was the fact that the man intended to rob the hamburger shop and James gets framed for the robbery and is sentenced working in a brutal chain gang for ten years.

Men who attemps to escape are frequently shot. James however manages to escape, and goes to Chicago to make a living. A few years later he has realized his dream and he is a successful business man in the construction business. Everything works out fine and he has met a nice girl named Helen. But soon an ex. girl friend finds out where he is and blackmails him to marry her, and if not she´ll contact the police. Said and done, he´s taken to court and despite many protests (he´s gotten a very highly prestigious man now with good reputation) he is send back to the very same chain gang he´d once escaped from.

He escapes again and on the run he meets Helen. He soon has to leave and Helen yells after him asks how he makes his living. "I steal!" he yells back...

A very capturing and strong movie that pictures what´s wrong in the american system and what kind of rights and chances you as a citizen have, or rather havn´t. Paul Muni who plays James Allen, I dare say is one of the most talented actors in the 1930s. A classic movie from the depression era. After 1933, they would never get permitted to make a movie like this, when the church and the goverment got something to say about what to have in movies and what not. Highly recommended.