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I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang |  | Directors: Mervyn LeRoy, Roy Mack
Actors: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Jerry Bergen, The Rollickers, Novia
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $14.99
as of 3/22/2010 02:51 CDT details
You Save: $4.99 (25%)
New (6) Used (5) from $10.50
Rating:  39 reviews
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 92 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D67010D
ISBN: 0790796627
UPC: 012569701021
EAN: 9780790796628
Theatrical Release Date: August 12, 1933
Release Date: May 10, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
WRONGLY CONVICTED JAMES ALLEN SERVES IN THE INTOLERABLE CONDITIONS OF A SOUTHERN CHAIN GANG, WHICH LATER COMES BACK TOHAUNT HIM.BASED ON A TRUE STORY.
Amazon.com
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is one of the toughest and most uncompromising movies to ever come out of Hollywood. Paul Muni stars as a regular Joe, just back from World War I, who is unjustly convicted of a crime and sentenced to 10 years of bruisingly unfair treatment on a chain gang. Even a successful escape can't shake the spectre of the chains, nor the amazingly fatalistic twists the screenplay has in store. This picture could only have been made at Warner Bros., where social-justice movies flourished in the 1930s and criticism of judicial systems and prisons was sanctioned. Muni's weird acting style (he was recently off Scarface) somehow fits the film's furious tone, and director Mervyn LeRoy--as in his earlier Little Caesar--was dexterous enough to build the action to an unforgettable ending. It's a film that filters the American Dream through Depression realities and noirish pessimism (with a streak of pre-Code sexual frankness--note the one-night "friend" Muni makes the night of his escape). This one holds up, folks; it's a stunner. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 39
 Early prison flick sets the model February 16, 2010
Dr. James Gardner (California)
Paul Muni was nominated 5 times for Best Actor. He received his first nomination in 1929 ("The Valiant") and his last in 1959 ("The Last Angry Man"), and he won for his role in "The Story of Louis Pasteur" (1936). His 1932 performance in "I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" earned him his second nomination (he lost to Charles Laughton in "The Private Live of Henry VIII"). The film came out after the success of "The Big House" in 1931 (Wallace Beery), and was part of the early 30s interest in crime dramas (e.g., "Public Enemy", "Little Ceasar", "Scarface"). In fact, a few months before its release, David Selznick at RKO released "Hell's Highway" which was also based on a chain gang, but the film had little critical or commercial success and is mostly forgotten.
There would be many chain gang flicks after this one. Most people agree that the best depiction was "Cool Hand Luke" (1967). Other memorable chain gang films include "Road Gang" (1936), "Take the Money and Run" (1969), "Chain Gang Women" (1971), and "The Longest Yard" (1974)
"Chain Gang" features Allen Jenkins, one of those actors whose name you don't recognize but whose face you've seen 100 times. He appeared as Hunk in "Dead End" (1937), Portuguese Joe in "Tortilla Flats" (1942), and Vermin Whitouski in "Robin and the 7 Hoods" (1964). Beginning in the 50s he appeared in dozens of TV shows, best remembered as Muggsy in "The Red Skeleton Show".
The film was directed by Melvyn LeRoy who directed Edward G Robinson in "Little Ceasar" the year before. LeRoy directed dozens of films, the most memorable of which were "Tugboat Annie" (1933), "Random Harvest" (1942), "30 seconds over Tokyo" (1944), "Mister Roberts" (1954), and "No Time for Sergeants" (1958). He is perhaps best remembered as the man who introduced Ronald Reagan to Nancy Davis.
"Chain Gang" is based on a true story about Robert Elliott Burns' experience in a Georgia chain gang. It so outraged audiences that significant changes were made as a result. By 1937 chain gangs were outlawed in Georgia.
While the picture focuses on the chain gang experience, the background is the Depression and the difficulties of finding work. Muni gives a terrific performance as a WW 1 soldier returning to the US and unable to fit in. True to the gritty Warner Brothers motif, "Chain Gang" spares no punches on the societal pressures that individuals must face.
 Film on the Lam February 12, 2010
Mark L. La Rue (Portland, OR USA)
How little we know these days! I was amazed to learn about this man's real life, and the book he wrote. He actually helped direct this film while on the lam, but got found out and had flee Hollywood. His story came to rouse the national feeling during the Great Depression. Anyone interested in filmology and the Great Depression, just can't afford to miss this one!
A fantastic film ! February 3, 2010
Jose Antonio Arteaga (Lima, Peru)
I watch this film when I was kid on TV and although it has passed a very long time since that "first sight" I was still amazed by the realism and darkness of this film. Paul Muni -as always- does a fantastic job and the ending is a one of the most impressive ones in the history of cinema.
I highly recommend this film...
misunderstood December 19, 2009
Peter Andronas (Canada)
Leroy's essay on the abandoned man is too real and too devastating. The film starts with our hero's return from War and his struggle to re-enter society with a whole new set of values with no support from family, church, community or country and in one mistaken identity of motivation his life is ruined! The last moment in this film, is by definition the most harrowing I've ever seen! It stayed with my consciousness for months!
The video transfer is very nice.
Transcendant "social conscience" film October 11, 2009
One-Line Film Reviews (Easton, MD)
The Bottom Line:
One of the first of Warner Brothers' social issues movies, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang refuses to be buttonholed with lesser efforts in the same genre due to its consistently interesting situations (I have a theory that movies set in prisons and schools are never boring), likable performance by Paul Muni in the lead, and final line to rival all others; the shrill treatment of the women in the picture do mar the final result a bit, but on the whole it's an exceptional film that stands up very well today.
3.5/4
Showing reviews 1-5 of 39
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