I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang: Still Powerful After All These Years
Released: 1932
Directed By: Mervyn LeRoy
Mentioning movies like I Was a Teenage Werewolf, or I Married a Communist, or I Was a Brooklyn Gorilla for the FBI, usually evokes a smile, or a laugh, or both. And while working at a video store for 15 years the same could be said whenever I recommended I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang. However, you cannot judge this film solely by its title, Chain Gang is a serious and powerful film.
I first saw I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang while working at the Video Gallery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, when my boss, Anne purchased a box set for the store of Controversial Classics, from Warner Bros. Home Video. We cracked it open and watched Chain Gang. So incredible it was, I took it home that evening and watched it again. I’ve seen it many times since, and it’s impact never diminishes.
Made in 1932, at the height of Hollywood’s Pre-code era, Warner Brothers produced the true story of James Allen, a WW1 vet who sets out to make a life for himself. His family protests, thinking they know what’s best for him, not comprehending what he experienced and saw in Europe. Allen sees things differently. He’s seen the horrors that the world has to offer, now he wants to pursue his dream of being an engineer and create rather than destroy. Things don’t quite go as he plans, and finds himself in a southern prison, on a chain gang. On paper Allen is guilty of armed robbery, in truth his only crime is being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The atmosphere of the work camp is dark and claustrophobic, constantly threatening. This place feels real, right down to the meals. Allen’s first breakfast looks exactly as described, grease, fried dough, pig fat, and sorghum. It is as offensive to us as it is to him. Small details like this place us inside that prison barracks. You yearn for the expanse of the outdoors. But, even there, relief will not be found.
From sun up to sun down, Allen and his fellow prisoners are subjected to soul destroying work. Breaking rocks, with no clear purpose. The prisoners are returned to the barracks, after dark, where inmates who didn’t put in a good days work are mercilessly beaten. Allen mutters what we are all thinking, and suffers that horrifying fate.
These are the things that stand out the most about Chain Gang, a heightened reality that you normally wouldn’t associate with Hollywood of the 1930s. It’s far more brutal than the gangster films Warner Bros. was putting out at the same time.
Allen has had enough, and escapes from the chain gang. He becomes what he set out to be, an upstanding citizen of impeccable character, contributing to society, fulfilling his dream of being an engineer. Years pass, we are happy for him, but the south has not forgotten.
As is life, not everything is happiness and warmth. Upon discovering his secret, Allen is blackmailed by Marie his landlady, into marrying her. She’s a gold-digger with the heart of a scorpion, and dangles his secret anytime he shows the slightest hint of going astray. However, Allen meets and falls in love with Helen, a woman willing to stand by his side no matter what. Marie turns Allen in.
Allen is offered a deal from the south, 90 days and light administrative duties at the prison he escaped from. Allen reluctantly takes the deal. As much as we want to believe the prison authorities will live up to their end of the bargain, Allen is double crossed and given hard labour, not for 90 days but, indefinitely. A sucker punch that Allen didn’t see coming, and revenge for making fools of his captors.
It does not matter that he is innocent. It does not matter he has proven himself a worthy member of society and made something of himself. It does not matter that he makes an honest living. It does not matter he voluntarily turned himself in. It does not matter he agrees to the deal that he has been offered. Allen has done everything that has been asked of him, and still the authorities in the south want to continue to punish and break this man. The level of frustration and anger is as real as if this was happening to yourself or someone close to you.
My greatest anger, right from the start, is leveled towards Allen’s brother. A priest(!), who thinks he knows what’s best for Allen throughout the entire story, not even comprehending in the slightest what his brother has had to endure. You just want to punch the guy in the face, even though that would be wrong and likely land you in jail. Allen was right initially at the start not to listen to his brother. But as we see throughout the story, be careful who you trust.
Needless to say, Allen escapes again, only now there is no way he can return to a normal life. He’s destined to be forever on the run. The final scene is haunting. Quite possibly the best film of the Hollywood pre-code era.
