Product Details

• Actors: Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Jerry Bergen, The Rollickers, Novia
• Directors: Mervyn LeRoy, Roy Mack
• Writers: A. Dorian Otvos, Brown Holmes, Cyrus Wood, Howard J. Green, Robert E. Burns
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: May 10, 2005
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0007TKNJ2
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,315 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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• For more information about "I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

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

Product Description

Classic fact-based drama about an innocent man brutally victimized by the Depression-era criminal justice system.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars True Story & Great Example of 1930s Social Conscience Films., May 14, 2005

By	mirasreviews (McLean, VA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (VINE VOICE)

"I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" is one of the most respected Depression-era "social conscience" pictures. The story was adapted from Robert Burns' autobiography "I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang", and Burns was an advisor on the film even though he was a wanted man at the time it was made. The film was released to great popular success less than a year after Burns' book was published. The story is essentially true, although some details have been changed. The real Robert Burns was perhaps a little less a victim than his character, James Allen, in the movie, and he was a magazine editor, not an engineer. Allen is a man who is consistently wronged in spite of trying to do right, and Depression-era audiences identified with his victimhood. Robert Burns was a crusader against the inhumanities of chain gangs, on which he was twice forced to serve. Instead of confining its themes to one cause, filmmakers made "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" into a platform for a host of social issues of the time, including unemployment, veterans' rights, the penal system, and the criminal justice system. Although most of the events of the film take place in the 1920s, the economic circumstances depicted in the film have been altered to reflect the hardships of the 1930s, when the film was made.

James Allen (Paul Muni) is a World War I veteran returning home with high hopes of putting the engineering skills he learned in the Army to civilian use. He takes a factory job, but is reluctant to replace the routine of the military with that of the factory. So he travels the country in search of construction work but has trouble making ends meet. One evening, he accompanies an acquaintance to a lunch wagon for a hamburger. His friend tries to rob the proprietor, and James is sentenced to 10 years hard labor on a chain gang as his accomplice. On the chain gang. prisoners are beaten, starved, and sleep deprived, and James makes a successful escape. He ends up in Chicago, where his landlady, Marie (Glenda Farrell), blackmails him into marrying her with threats of exposure. But James works his way up from a laborer on a bridge project all the way to engineer and becomes a honored and affluent citizen of the city. When he threatens the free-spending and philandering Marie with divorce, she exposes James to the police. And things begin to repeat themselves.

The social agenda of "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" is heavy-handed, but there is no denying the film's impact on audiences in 1932. And this film isn't nearly as political as some of the New Deal movies that would follow later in the decade, as it was made during the Hoover administration. It's just a very good example of "social conscience" filmmaking of the 1930s, made all the more interesting because the story is essentially true. Paul Muni gives a sympathetic performance as a bright, hardworking man who is trying to build America into a better nation as America keeps tearing him down. I have to mention Edward Ellis, a wonderful character actor of the 1930s who is memorable here as James' friend on the chain gang, Bomber. "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang" was critically acclaimed, popular, and timely in the 1930s. It's also a very good film that fans of 1930s cinema won't want to miss.

The DVD ( Warner Brothers 2005 release): This is a good print of the film, but it does not appear to be a restored print. There is an occasional white speck on the image, but picture and sound quality are basically good. Bonus features include a short film, a theatrical trailer, and an audio commentary. The short film is "20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang" (20 minutes), which is a comedic spoof of "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang". A zany group of convicts escape the chain gang only to try to return because the conditions have become luxurious in preparation for a review by the Governor's Committee. The audio commentary is by USC film professor Richard B. Jewell. Jewell talks about the actors, making the film, the film's reception, and compares the life of the real Robert Burns to his fictional counterpart in the film. This is an informative, generally well-organized commentary that I recommend if you enjoyed the film. Subtitles of the film are available in English, French, and Spanish.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An incredible film!, February 6, 2003

By	A. L. Spieckerman (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I considered Paul Muni amazing in Scarface (and consider that one of the best gangster films ever), but he knocked me on my ... with this performance. I was mesmorized from his speech to his father at the dinner table--explaining his dreams and desires, his frustrations at his mundane life. It's an absolutely incredible film. I'm not sure what I expected, I knew it was a film that was often banned for it's less than glowing portrayal of the chain gang system and especially the unfair justice system.
The Cinematography was especially compelling, it was so incredible to look it that I could care less if they reused the chain gang sets and guards. I loved the passage of time, with the calenders falling away to the beat of sledgehammers. And the final shot elevated the film to an even higher plane of achievment. Extremely gutsy to end the film on the line it ends on as Paul Muni backs into shadow, beautifully done, a perfect ending.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cinema Classic, April 3, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Watching I AM A FUGITIVE is an experience. The viewer can't help but get caught up in the ongoing saga of James Allen, a World War I vet who is sent to jail for a crime he didn't commit. Because it was made so long ago, in 1932, you would think that it's age would hurt the film. But in this case, it is just the opposite. Watching this movie is like going back into time and we can almost feel the suffering of James Allen (Paul Muni) as he endures the horrors of a Georgia chain gang. This film has some historical significance as well, for after its release there was a public outcry against the chain gang prison system which was mostly prevelant in the South. As a result, chain gangs soon disappeared. I AM A FUGITIVE hits the viewer with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. It stunned the audiences of the 30s with its brutal portrayal of living conditions in Georgia prisons (mild by today's cinema standards). And although Muni's acting gets a bit hammy at times, his portrayal of Allen is a great achievement. And the ending! Besides the emotional punch it delivers, I AM A FUGITIVE is full of truths. And after 65 years, those truths may be even more relevant today than when the film was made. Don't miss it!