Black Legion
by Archie Mayo
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Ann Sheridan, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Helen Flint, Humphrey BogartDirector: Archie Mayo
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: George Barnes
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Producer: Jack L. Warner
Producer: Robert Lord
Writer: Robert Lord
Writer: Abem Finkel
Writer: William Wister Haines
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, NTSC, Original recording remastered
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 83 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Black Legion
Movie Review: A Story About Secret Societies
Summary: 4 Stars
"The names in this drama are all fictitious." But it is based on real crimes. The film begins in a factory where the workers take a meal break. One worker uses a slide rule to educate himself during lunch. The foreman got a promotion, somebody will replace him from the workers. Scenes from domestic life are shown. The Grogan's are well-to-do (they own a telephone). So does Frank Taylor (who dries dishes). Stories on the radio entertain the family. At the factory they choose education over experience. Frank is disappointed, but Joe invented a device that saved money for the company. [Luck favors the well-prepared.] Are immigrants taking jobs from Americans? [It's how the system works.]
Frank's resentment shows at work. Will he "get wise" to himself? A coded question introduces Frank to the secret organization. [Should anyone surrender their judgment to any organization?] Frank buys a revolver to protect his home and family. [He had the right to keep and bear arms.] The Black Legion attacks a family and burns their home and barn; the father and son are put on an outbound train. They attack businesses to benefit the competition. The owners of the Black Legion benefit from the organization, and want more money from more members. Frank's inattention to detail causes the loss of his foreman's job. His replacement is abducted and tortured, then left in the woods. What gang is doing this?
Frank's conscience is bothering him, and causes problems at home. Ruth leaves home with her son. Frank has been fired and turns to drink. He tells Eddie Jackson too much. "What am I going to do?" The Black Legion abducts Eddie, and shoots him when he tries to escape. "I didn't mean it!" The police catch the killer and learn about this organization. Frank is warned by an agent of the organization, they will fix the testimony to free him. Mrs. Danvers testifies as to the cause of the murder: a romantic triangle! It was quite a performance. Frank also tells a good story. But there is a dramatic surprise at the end!
Justice triumphs at the end of this Hollywood movie. Real life is another story. Will Frank sacrifice himself to save his family? Will the secret organization be exposed and rolled-up and sent to prison? Do bad economic times cause such organizations to grow? Political scientists have long noted the how bad times cause increased crimes and violence. The sad truth is that many of the crimes shown in this film were not punished when done by wealthy and powerful corporations. Read the history of the early 20th century form examples.
Summary of Black Legion
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 03/25/2008 Run time: 93 minutes Rating: NrOne of Humphrey Bogart's earliest starring vehicles, this 1936 melodrama typifies the Warner Bros. touch in its modest but potent production values and Depression-era social acumen. Prompted by contemporary news reports of new neofascist groups targeting political and religious minorities, the script conjures up a shadowy, Klan-like organization preying on factory workers to set them against blue-collar immigrants. Bogart is Frank Taylor, a hard-working drill-press operator hoping for a promotion that can help him better provide for his adoring wife and cherubic young son. Frank's coworkers reassure him he'll snag the foreman's post, but when a studious young Polish American gets the nod, Frank's bitter disappointment sets the stage for the tragedy that follows.
What proceeds in this 83-minute feature is a pointed morality play about tolerance and democracy. The legion's rank and file invoke a "free, white, and 100 percent American" future in justifying their scare tactics, which hound Frank's rival out of town, briefly gaining him the coveted job. But his deepening involvement in the mob soon drives wife and son away, costs him his job, and ultimately spurs him to murder his best friend, Ed (Dick Foran). Indicted for the murder, Frank is nearly acquitted by a crooked defense team funded by the corrupt businessmen who are bankrolling the legion (more to profit off the sale of robes and revolvers than to incite any real political change), but his climactic, cathartic pang of conscience brings the tale to its moralistic end.
Bogart, who dutifully marched through dozens of features before graduating to true stardom, gives the simplistic story its modest power through a credible performance that traces Frank's descent from streetwise but principled worker to angry, disillusioned thug. The supporting cast also includes Ann Sheridan, likewise fine in an otherwise two-dimensional role as Foran's wife. --Sam Sutherland
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