I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
| I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang | |
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Movie poster
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| Directed by | Mervyn LeRoy |
| Produced by | Hal B. Wallis |
| Screenplay by | Howard J. Green Brown Holmes |
| Based on |
I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! by Robert E. Burns |
| Starring |
Paul Muni Glenda Farrell Helen Vinson Noel Francis |
| Music by | Bernhard Kaun |
| Cinematography | Sol Polito |
| Edited by | William Holmes |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
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Release date
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Running time
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93 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) is an American Pre-Code crime-drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Paul Muni as a wrongfully convicted convict on a chain gang who escapes to Chicago. It was released in November 10, 1932. The film received positive reviews and three Academy Award Nominations.
The film was written by Howard J. Green and Brown Holmes from Robert Elliott Burns's autobiography of a similar name "I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang!" serialised in the True Detective magazine. The true life story was later recreated in the television movie, The Man Who Broke a 1,000 Chains (1987) starring Val Kilmer.
In 1991, this film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Sergeant James Allen (Paul Muni) returns to civilian life after World War I but his war experience makes him restless. His family feels he should be grateful for a tedious job as an office clerk, and when he announces that he wants to become an engineer, they react with outrage. He leaves home to find work on any sort of project, but unskilled labor is plentiful and it's hard for him to find a job. Wandering and sinking into poverty, he accidentally becomes caught up in a robbery and is sentenced to ten years on a brutal Southern chain gang.
He escapes and makes his way to Chicago, where he becomes a success in the construction business. He becomes involved with the proprietor of his boardinghouse, Marie Woods (Glenda Farrell), who discovers his secret and blackmails him into an unhappy marriage. He then meets and falls in love with Helen (Helen Vinson). When he asks his wife for a divorce, she betrays him to the authorities. He is offered a pardon if he will turn himself in; Allen accepts, only to find that it was just a ruse. He escapes once again.
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Wikipedia