James Allen (Paul Muni) returns from the Great War a hero and doesn’t want to return to his old desk job. Wanting to be an engineer, he goes out looking for his dream job. But work is hard to find and he ends up living as a hobo. Wrongfully convicted of a petty crime, he ends up on an old-timey chain gang. Spoiler alert: he becomes a fugitive.
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is an indictment of the chain gang system which is apparently not just a Looney Tunes trope. And it is a pretty brutal depiction, as only pre-code Hollywood could do. In small part it’s the Midnight Express of its era. There are also frank depictions of prostitution, premarital sex, and infidelity. Into shirtless men being whipped? It has some of that as well.
In the second act a young woman utters a confounding line, one I’ve heard a couple times before. Expressing that she is beholden to no one, she says “I'm free, white, and twenty one”. I suppose that’s just something white Americans with means said back in the day. I don’t think the filmmakers had purpose behind the line, but earlier a black man on the chain gang wasn't being released because he was too good of a worker. The context of the film makes the line especially callous.
The story is based on the real life imprisonment of Robert E. Burns, who collaborated on the film while on the lam! Unlike many films that dabbled in exploitation, Fugitive is not played with a wink and a nod. This is real social commentary that helped reform the criminal justice system, and earn Burns his eventual freedom.
FW21 aside, Fugitive is a very compelling film, entertaining and eye-opening, and Muni was fantastic. Some of the acting is a little dated and truth be told, the story does drag for a bit. But I think I would like to see it again if I could share it with someone who liked movies like this. AMRU 4.
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