Review of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) by Van R — 07 Feb 2010

In â??Little Caesarâ?? director Mervyn LeRoyâ??s riveting pre-Code prison melodrama â??I Am A Fugitive from A Chain Gang,â?? protagonist James Allenâ??s appetite for a hamburger lands him in the worst place on earthâ??a southern chain gangâ??because his hunger prompted him to participate as an accomplice in the robbery of a short-order restaurant that yielded only five dollars! Scenarists Sheridan Gibney, Howard J.

Green and Brown Holmes derived their sizzling screenplay from Robert E. Burnsâ?? autobiographical account of life on a Georgia Prison chain gang. Indeed, the author remained at large while Warner Brothers Studios produced this landmark film about social injustice that gave Georgia a black eye.

Actually, the title of the Burns autobiography carried the name of the state where he served time. Paul Muni was ideally cast as Robert Burns, and he makes a highly sympathetic hero who pays the price for his split-second lack of poor judgment that sent him to jail.

Allen was one of the thousands of troops that survived the First World War to return home a changed man. He tells his priest and his family that he does not want to go back to his old factory job, even after his boss meets him at the railroad station and gives him his job back.

Instead, Allen wants to go into construction, but the market for construction workers is extremely tight and our hero finds himself moving from one job to another until he meets a shady character in a flophouse.

â??I Am A Fugitive from a Chain Gangâ?? qualified as one of the earliest films to expose the legitimacy of the United States legal system. Indeed, as TIME magazine reported in 1932, Georgia chain gang warden J.

Harold Hardy sued Warner Brothers Pictures Inc. and Vitaphone Corporation for $1,000,000 each for "vicious, untrue and false attacks" in movie. In the film, Burns breaks out of prison and heads north to Chicago where he makes quite a name for himself until a woman turns him in and he is sent back to Georgia.

Initially, during his first stint on the chain gang, Allen learns to keep his trap shut when he gets whipped for calling the chain gang warden a skunk for wanting whip a man who is nearly dead from exhaustion.

When Allen brings up the subject of escape, the convicts tell him the slang phrase for it is â??hanging it on the limb.â?? They explain that anybody who breaks out has to contend with three things: first, the chains, second, the bloodhounds, and third, guards who would rather bring you back dead rather than alive.

Later, he entreats the African-American inmate to smash his ankle chains to loosen them so he can eventually slip out of them. Among many memorable scenes is the barbershop scene. While the barber is shaving Allen, a policeman enters the shop and describes James Allen to the barber.

Allen demands a hot towel to cover his face. As he is leaving the shop later and trying to hide his face from the cop, the barber inquires if the shave were close enough. â??Plenty,â?? replies Allen and vanishes into the evening.

The ending is a corker. â??I Am A Fugitive from a Chain Gangâ?? is one of the greatest social problem movies to ever illuminate the silver screen. The trenchant indictment that this film made against brutality is one of the major themes in literature: man versus man.

The film received nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor for Muni, and best sound. Not to be missed.