Warners’ I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is a blistering exposé of the brutality of chain-gang punishment and a pointed criticism of America’s forgetful treatment of its war veterans. Enormously profitable and highly praised in its day, I Am a Fugitive is still a sensational, startlingly powerful movie, directed by Mervyn LeRoy (who made Little Caesar) and anchored by a performance from nearly forgotten Paul Muni that gives credence to his once-hallowed reputation.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Eric // Aug 21, 2008 at 11:26 am
I am so glad you included this wonderful film in your book. I enjoy it on a purely artistic level, but also as earnest and well-intentioned propaganda. That may sound like a back-handed compliment, but in my view there is a value to good propaganda (especially when it delivers a message I agree with!)
Other propaganda-ish movies often seem to sacrifice believability, drama, and character for the sake of the important “social message” but this one succeeds at both.
A playwrighting professor once told me that all great works of literature are ultimately propaganda pieces; they are all attempting to “sell” us an ethical idea, but the good ones do this implicity, avoiding explicit declarations of the message, thereby allowing the audience to reach the right conclusion on their own. I think “I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang” accomplishes this with great integrity.
Quick Fix: There’s a typo in the opening graphic of your video; “Chain Gang” is spelled wrong! That will mean five years of either solitary confinement or hard labor for the perpetrator!
2 John DiLeo // Aug 25, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Hi Eric,
I’m so glad to hear that you love this movie as much as I do. I agree that the reason it holds up so beautifully is the grace with which it makes its points. Instead of shouting at us it offers stunning imagery, unbearable suspense, and, most of all, a superb performance from Paul Muni, the finest he ever gave. The immediacy and honesty in his acting keep I AM A FUGITIVE as powerful today as it was in 1932.
Thanks for catching the typo, too!
3 Eric // Aug 26, 2008 at 4:26 pm
John,
Curious about the creator of the film, I just did some googling tto learn that one of the screenwriters was Howard J. Green. Looking at the long list of his films, I wasn’t familiar with any of them. One of them caught my attention, though.
He’s credited with creating the story to CURTAIN CALL (1940) and the capsule synopsis sounds like something I’d get a kick out of. Are you familiar with this? Would it be worth checking out? How about any of the other films by this writer?
4 John DiLeo // Aug 28, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Hey Eric,
I have seen CURTAIN CALL and wish I could recall it better. I saw it in the days before I started writing index-card reviews for every film that I see. It’s a B comedy, and, though minor, I’d think you’d get a kick out of its old-time portrait of the theatre, silly and innocent. I’ll try to alert you the next time TCM airs it.
As for other films written by Mr. Green, there are two that stand out. MORNING GLORY (1933) won Katharine Hepburn her first Oscar. It’s a wildly uneven picture (another Green script about the theatre) that begins splendidly in a casting office, with Hepburn positively radiant and quite funny and heartbreaking. But the picture deteriorates steadily, winding up a heap of tired old showbiz cliches and hokey melodrama.
The other Green picture of note is the enchanting Depression-era romantic comedy IF YOU COULD ONLY COOK (1935), starring the wonderful Jean Arthur. It’s one of those delightful rich-poor comedies like MY MAN GODFREY (though it precedes it by a year). Jean is a poor girl and Herbert Marshall is a rich guy posing as a poor fellow, smitten as he is with adorable Jean. They get hired as the cook and butler to a gangster and pretend to be married. It’s a charmer.
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