Frank Taylor and people like him have a vision for America. It is a vision shaped by terror and fueled by fear ignorance and hate - a nation of "free white 100-percent Americans!" In his first lead role in a major movie Humphrey Bogart portrays Taylor reuniting with the director of The Petrified Forest for this powerful tale of a white supremacist group. Threats surrounded the making of the film but the studio persisted creating a bold torn-from-the-headlines expose selected as one of 1937's 10 Best Films by the National Board of Review. The movie also fanned controversy for months after its release. "Black Legion will not stay in its place as cinema fiction" The New York Times' Frank Nugent wrote."It strikes too hard too deep and too close to the mark." Year: 1936 Director: Archie Mayo Starring: Humphrey Bogart Dick Foran Erin O'Brien-Moore Special Feature: Original Theatrical Trailer B&w/83 Mins.Running Time: 83 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CLASSICS UPC: 883929002757 Manufacturer No: 1000035752
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
Login
Add tags
