Product Description

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 03/25/2008 Run time: 93 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64823 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2008-03-25
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, Original recording remastered, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 83 minutes

Amazon.com
One 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

Customer Reviews

A True Story
This movie is a gripping account of a very real problem that affected the Detroit automotive industry in the 1930's. The editorial review states that "the script conjures up." This movie is no conjure job. It tells a true story. My father, originally from Kentucky, went to Detroit to work in the automobile factory in the 1930's. While he was never in the Black Legion, he had enough stories to tell about it. I recommend that everyone watch this movie once.

A Brutal Film For The Thirties
Humphrey Bogart stars as Frank Taylor, a factory worker who wants to be the next foreman. When he is passed over for the promotion he was counting on by a young, eager Polish American, his frustration and anger leads him to join the Black Legion, a group of racists out to punish anyone who isn't "100% American". He keeps this activity a secret from his wife Erin O'Brien Moore and his best friend Dick Foran. But before long, his life starts to unravel because of his association with this group, leading to a lot of tragedy, death, and heartache. I was impressed to see that a major studio like Warner Brothers took such a direct look at a hate group in 1930's Hollywood. The scene where Bogart takes the group's pledge particularly surprised me with its subtle brutality. Bogart is very good in this film, one of the few actors of his time that could have made this character seem believable. The supporting cast, which also includes a young Ann Sheridan as Foran's fiancee, all give good performances as well. The film is tough, presents a hate group as frankly as a 1930's film could, and although a little preachy at the end, delivers its message well.

Warner's social drama but not very good
In 1937, Warner Brothers continued their crusade on social issues with the release of "Black Legion", a powerful story of fascist vigilantes, clearly based on the Klu Klux Klan.

The films stars Humphrey Bogart as a happily married factory worker who misses a promotion and takes revenge. Bogart works hard to overcome an unsubtle and trite script which draws 2 dimensional characters. The cliched "happy home life" is particularly awful. The young Ann Sheridan appears as the girl next door and she is appealing. Dick Foran is very good as the worker who refuses to join the clan. The vigilante scenes are much more convincing then the domestic ones but more for what they are depicting than due to any imagination in Archie Mayo's journeyman direction.

The print of the DVD is excellent and there is a good commentary shared between 2 relaxed historians. Warners's night at the Movies is included with an entertaining short featuring the band leader Cab Calloway, a highly individual performer with a distinctive unusual singing style. The technicolour short on Stonewall Jackson is poor but 2 future Warner's players appear, Jane Bryan and Wayne Morris. The cartoon features Porky Pig and a goat called Gabby who clearly was scrapped - shrill and aggressive. The DVD is good value as part of the Warner's Gangster Set Volume 3.