I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)

Directed by Mervyn LeRoy. Starring Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Allen Jenkins, Noel Francis, Preston Foster, Edward Ellis, Hale Hamilton, Berton Churchill, David Landau.

Searing social drama shows how itinerant war vet Muni gets fingered for a crime he wasn’t responsible for, gets railroaded by a fatally flawed justice system, suffers through hostile conditions and vicious treatment as a prisoner in a Georgia chain gang, and becomes unable to break free from this dire fate no matter the breathless escapes or good faith deals he makes. A few instances of clunky plotting and heavy-handed transitional news headline montages, but the film boasts tight direction and sharp photography (by Sol Polito), plus a terrifically dismayed and exhausted portrayal from Muni; its haunting final scene is justifiably famous. Based on Robert Elliott Burns’ novel “I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!” which recounts his own experiences in a Deep South chain gang during the 1920s; together, the book and movie are credited with helping to instigate major prison reform some years later. The true story was later dramatized in the 1987 made-for-television movie The Man Who Broke 1,000 Chains.

89/100