Synopsis
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) is a Warner Bros. crime drama you can watch online on iFILM — directed by Mervyn LeRoy and powered by Paul Muni's raw, un-actorly performance as a man the system grinds to dust.
James Allen comes home from World War I wanting to build things. The economy has other plans. He gets swept into a diner robbery he barely participated in, and a court sentences him to a chain gang in the South — shackles, beatings, guards with whips. He escapes. He rebuilds a life, gets a good job, nearly becomes respectable. Then the state finds him.
LeRoy keeps the camera close and the exits shut. The film drew directly from Robert Elliott Burns' autobiography of the same year, and the outcry it triggered pushed prison reform legislation in multiple states. Muni got an Oscar nomination for the role, but the film's bleak final seconds are what people remember. Stream it online on iFILM.
Starring
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