I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
*Person who’s only seen Cool Hand Luke* Hey, this movie has real Cool Hand Luke vibes.
There’s just two ways to get out of here—work out and die out.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) - watched 9/30/24
Director: Mervyn LeRoy
Writers: Howard J. Green, Brown Holmes, Sheridan Gibney
Starring: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Noel Francis, Preston Foster
Available to watch on TCM
First Time Watch? Yes
In the wake of World War I, veterans returning home struggled to adjust to civilian life again—there were no jobs, and due to the Great Depression these veterans came back from a war just to live in poverty. It felt like America had turned its back on its heroes. The frustrations of these veterans and their families led to a march on Washington in 1932 to demand early cash redemption of their service bonus certificates. These protestors were met with hostility from the police, who shot at protestors and ended up killing two veterans. These were fraught times, and people were desperate to claim what was theirs, what was promised to them for their service and sacrifice.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang depicts this struggle without pretense or compromise. The honesty of this film is blood-boiling, heart-wrenching, and necessary. It’s been said that this film is one of the first films to spur social change, and specifically one of the first films to bring to both the treatment of veterans after the war and the cruelty of the prison chain gang system to light.
Chain gangs were the preferred method of punishment in the American South after the Civil War. They treated chain gangs as a replacement for slavery, taking prisoners and forcing them into performing menial and physically demanding tasks, such as clearing land, repairing railways, and building roads. Prisoners would work long hours in the blistering sun, under close supervision, shackled together with chains to prevent escape.
This form of punishment was mostly eliminated in the United States in the 1950s, but a few states have still tried to hold onto and bring back chain gangs over the years, with states like Arizona and Florida reintroducing them in 1995. While the conditions of the modern chain gang may be “improved” from their original form… it’s still slave labor. And it’s a blight on the American justice system.
Haha okay enjoy the review!!
A soldier of peace, instead of a soldier of war. — I don’t want to be a soldier of anything.
James Allen (Paul Muni) returns home after serving with distinction in World War I. He has bigger aspirations than the life he left behind for the war—instead of going back to the factory where he used to work, James wants to become an engineer. His family disapproves, for reasons that make absolutely no sense to me. I think it’s because they’re haters and they don’t want to see James thrive.
Unsatisfied with settling with the factory job, and struggling to find employment elsewhere, James becomes impoverished. He is forced at gunpoint by an acquaintance to participate in a robbery, during which James’ dubious friend is killed. James is convicted of his murder and sentenced to ten years in a southern1 chain gang. As part of the chain gang, James experiences hard labor, physical and verbal abuse, and psychological torment. One night he is whipped for making a dissenting comment under his breath. These brutal conditions eventually drive him to escape, enlisting the help of his fellow inmates to do so.
James miraculously makes it out of the chain gang successfully, but the police are hot on his trail. He manages to make it to Chicago, where he assumes the brilliant alias of “Allen James” and gets a job in construction. He gets an apartment from landlady Marie (Glenda Farrell) and they become romantically involved, though James isn’t very fond of her. James ends up making a name for himself in the construction business, working his way up to the top position, a title which I am forgetting right now and have tried in vain to look up without actually pulling up the full movie again, but I’m at a loss. Just know he was a real construction bigwig known as Allen James, okay?
Marie finds out about James’ status as a fugitive and uses it as leverage to keep him in the unhappy relationship. In an attempt to distract himself from the misery, he attends a party and meets Helen (Helen Vinson) and they immediately hit it off and begin an affair. After he asks Marie for a divorce, she turns him in to police out of revenge, and they scoop him up from work and arrest him again.
The state of Illinois, bless them, won’t give up this golden boy without a fight. They refuse to extradite him back to Georgia,2 so the southern state’s officials offer a deal—they will pardon James if he returns voluntarily to the prison camp and serves 90 days in the chain gang. James weighs his options, and eventually agrees, wanting to clear his name completely and start a new life with Helen.
James is sent to an even more brutal prison camp than before, and due to his first escape he has a target on his back. He discovers that the pardon he was promised was a lie, and they refuse his pardon twice. After the second time, James plans to make another escape. He steals a truck full of dynamite from a work site, with an accomplice. During a very stressful chase scene, James’ copilot throws dynamite at the pursuing officers, causing a landslide. After getting shot, the fellow escapee falls from the truck and dies, causing James to stop the truck to try to tend to him. With the police getting closer, James throws another stick of dynamite and blows up a bridge, narrowly preventing a second capture. He escapes, technically free again, but having to live his life completely in hiding, not really very free at all.
He arranges to meet up with Helen one last time. Helen desperately wants to be with him—she asks him where he’s hiding, if they can write to each other, if he needs any money. He refuses to tell her any of this, as he slowly, fearfully retreats back into the night. Helen asks him how he lives—”I steal,” he answers, before disappearing into the shadows.
When a fellow wants to ditch a girl he'll do most anything - providing it doesn't land him back in the chain gang.
*Person who’s only seen Cool Hand Luke* Hey, this movie has real Cool Hand Luke vibes.
Truly, though, since the “chain gang” genre of films is fairly limited,3 it’s hard not to compare I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang to the Paul Newman classic, which is a movie I only recently watched and loved. The similarities are obvious, but where the films diverge the most is in tone. Cool Hand Luke dips into a “dudes rock” sort of humor at times, while still not pulling any punches in the depiction of the prison camp system in the American South. Fugitive, on the other hand, is relentlessly bleak, with barely a sliver of comedic relief to be found.
There are moments when the audience can unclench a smidge—it’s refreshing to watch James live his new life in hiding. He becomes a top engineer in Chicago, contributing in meaningful ways to the city. He meets and falls in love with Helen in a sweet, hopeful scene. You start to think maybe he’ll be okay after all. But these moments are tinged with dread, as we know deep down that all of James’ good fortune can’t possibly last.
Paul Muni gives a great, subtle performance here—he was rightfully nominated for Best Actor this year. You can feel his apprehension at all times, his aversion to attention, wondering when someone might recognize him. He never gets too cocky or too comfortable—that is, until Marie finally drives him to his breaking point. It’s like, damn, Marie was so insufferable that James would rather take his chances with the chain gang? Woof.
What’s striking to me is how little of the film’s runtime we spend with the chain gang—James’ life in hiding takes up the bulk of the film—but this doesn’t lessen its impact. If anything, having the chain gang scenes bookend James’ life in hiding reminds us of the life that James should rightly have, of everything that was taken from him by a system that sets people up for failure. While the U.S. has (almost) moved on from the brutality of chain gangs as punishment, our justice system still actively works to either keep people in prison, or make it so that it’s difficult to stay out. We’re almost a century away from when I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang was released, and my main infuriating takeaway is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
How do you live? — I steal.
Quick Facts:
Nominated for 3 Academy Awards, won none
Best Picture
Best Actor (Paul Muni)
Best Sound Recording (Nathan Levinson)
Based on the true story of Robert E. Burns
Became a hit in Russia after some (possibly) stolen prints surfaced there. It became the biggest American film in the Soviet Union at that time.
Stray Notes:
We gotta go back to opening credits that introduce the characters, and who’s playing them. At least once in a while!
Why are these people so horny for factory work?
Okay this is bullSHIT!!
The way he doesn’t make a sound while he’s being whipped…haunting
Making me think a lot about why it’s so easy for some people to be cruel to others, even/especially if they’re “just doing their jobs.” Feels unfathomable.
Oh I am so stressed out/scared for James
Marie is EVIL!!!
Nooooo don’t take the deal! Don’t trust the state!!!
FUCK!!
This is so stressful!! And bleak and frustrating!! And I loved it!
My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐
Next Up: Lady for a Day (1933)
Presumably Georgia, where the real-life event that the movie is based on took place
Allegedly!
Though not limited enough, since there is a Mickey Mouse short all about chain gang shenanigans! How fun!!