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In her first starring film vehicle, She Done Him Wrong, Mae West is Lady Lou, a saloon singer and "slick article" who drives every man who sees her mad with desire. She positively oozes sex, but always with sly, self-mocking humor. Lady Lou remarking on the nude painting of her hanging over the bar: "I gotta admit that is a flash, but I do wish Gus hadn't hung it over the free lunch." West warbles several numbers in her Brooklyn-accented, sweetly nasal voice, accompanied by her famous suggestive roll of the eye and flip of the hip: "Frankie and Johnny," "Easy Rider," and "A Guy What Takes His Time."

Based on West's Broadway play Diamond Lil, the film is set in the Gay '90s, "a lusty, brawling, florid decade, when there were handlebars on lip and wheel and legs were confidential." The corny plot involves the eternal male rivalry for Mae's favors, as well as a white slavery ring that is shipping unsuspecting girls to the Barbary Coast. But the movie's real treat is the cat-and-mouse game between West's Lady Lou and the Hawk, a detective disguised as a missionary, played by a devastatingly handsome young Cary Grant. West: "Why don't you come up some time, see me? I'm here every night." Grant: "Yeah, but I'm busy every night." West: "What're you tryin' to do, insult me?... You can be had."

In She Done Him Wrong, Mae West is absolutely in her prime. Her one-of-a-kind intermarriage of eroticism and humor, worldly wisdom and scalding wit are presented with perfect panache. --Laura Mirsky ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Bowery Bruiser With A Comic Edge
Mae West had a Broadway smash when she penned the bawdy tale of DIAMOND LIL for herself--and with a few tweaks here and there the story came to the screen as SHE DONE HIM WRONG. The film was an immediate hit and the role of Lady Lou remains one of West's best remembered performances. The script is jam-packed with some of West's most famous lines, including the memorable "Come up'n see me sometime. I'm home every evenin'" and "You can be had." West throws her lines with style, aplomb, enough innuendo to make a censor cringe, and considerable humor--but, somewhat surprisingly, the movie is not really a comedy.

SHE DONE HIM WRONG is a hard-knocks tale of Bowery bruisers who dance attendance upon the 'Lady Lou' and often resort to crime to keep her dripping in the diamonds she prizes above all else. But although she has one lover already locked up in jail, another one mixed up in the white slavery rackets, and still a third waiting to step into the gap, the Lady Lou is more interested in seducing missionary Cary Grant... only to find him less interested in her body than her soul, a circumstance that prompts West to utter one of the most how-did-that-get-past-the-censors lines in 1930s cinema: "Maybe I ain't got no soul."

This is a surprisingly tough little movie, and in addition to West's zinging lines and occasional musical numbers SHE DONE HIM WRONG also offers a glimpse at a very young (and still slightly wooden) Cary Grant; it also has an ensemble cast that plays in a very enjoyable grand manner, truly first rate production values all the way, and A surprisingly brisk running time. West did funnier films than this, but the mix of her sharp wit and the rough story is particularly memorable. This is where the fire started really started, and I recommend it very strongly.

Come Up And See Her Some Time
This was the first Mae West film I have seen, and I was curious to see if she would live up to her reputation. She did. West stars as Lou, a singer with a penchant for diamonds and men. She's mixed up with a bunch of white slave traders and crooks. West has a wisecrack for everything, and more than enough male admirers to keep her busy. But the one guy she wants, she can't seem to get, and that's do-gooder Cary Grant, the recipient of her famous "Come up and see me sometime" line that has made her immortal in films. West has a great screen presence and she exudes sexuality. She must have been a shock to Thirties film audiences. The film moves along briskly (it's just over an hour), and the dialogue really keeps your attention, as does Mae. The lady had a way with words.

I wonder where my easy rider's gone!
Mae is brilliant in this tale of sordid intrigue. Sex, scandal and murder! Well-acted, a bit stagey (naturally, since this like many early motion pictures started out as a stage play). Watch for Gilbert Roland as the luckless Sergei, the gigolo who makes a play for Lou behind his keeper's back.

What a hoot of a film!
This film is a real tickler for the funny bone. Mae West was at her absolute peak when she made this film, her first major starring role. Many of her famous one - liners are here and are guaranteed to keep you laughing through out the 70 or so minute running time.
As the saying goes they dont make films like this anymore, mores the pity. I believe the sexual underplay here is so much more effective than in today's films where everything is thrown into your face.
The overraul look of the film is authentic and very lavish. Paramount obviously spent a fortune on the production and thankfully the MCA VHS print is magnificent.
It is also of interest in being one of Cary Grants earlier films but he appears quite stiff throughout the film and is no where near the totally charming performer he became later in the late 30's and 40's
I enjoy this film very much and I recommend it to those that enjoy a good fun time at the movies

LADY LOU TO YOU
The spicey humour and sexual double entendres that characterised West's career where brought to the nation's attention this little 66 minute film from 1933. SHE DONE HIM WRONG is a most enjoyable vehicle for Mae's comedic talents ( it was based upon her successful 1928 hit play DIAMOND LIL ). Mae was fair, fat and forty, but her timing, inflection and phrases are pure fun, and her demeanor and carriage brought to the screen the playful sexiness with which she was so integrally associated. The direction by the former stage actor Lowell Sherman is excellent as the it leaves the viewer with a good idea of what the atmosphere of the Bowery in the 'nineties was like. However, it's obvious that West carried the movie where she desired it to be led. Grant's portrayal is well-done and believable; his transition from missionary to detective is quite acceptable. A classic comedy and a classic seduction. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Early Davis Spark
Richard Barthelmess stars as the young son of a sharecropper who finds himself torn between his loyalty to other sharecroppers and to their landowner, for whom he has become a trusted employee. Barthelmess disagrees with the exploitation of the sharecroppers by the landowners, but he also disagrees with the sharecroppers' response of stealing and unrest. Complicating things for Barthelmess is the fact that he has fallen in love with the landowner's daughter, Bette Davis. Barthelmess spends the whole movie looking confused, no doubt trying to figure out how anyone is going to believe him playing a young man. He never seems to get a grasp of the character and he comes across as awkward, and at times, laughable. Davis acts circles around him, very appealing in an early role as the tempting Madge. She provides the film its only spark. The direction of Michael Curtiz in this early sound film is admirable, and with a better leading man and tightened script, this could have been a much more memorable film due to its socially significant theme. As it is, it's an interesting piece of early Thirties' cinema, containing one of the film world's famous bits of dialogue. But it could have been more than it is.

CIRCA 1932 BETTE DAVIS AS A SOUTHERN VAMP ...
Directed by Michael Curtiz, this film focuses on the symbiotic relationship between southern planters and their tenant farmers or sharecroppers. It was, inevitably, a relationship fraught with conflict and was a social issue that this film sought, in some measure, albeit melodramatically, to address. It was an issue that would later be more eloquently addressed by the classic film "The Grapes of Wrath".

"Cabin in the Cotton" is representative in style of a cinematic effort that still showed the transition the film industry was making from silent films to talkies, as it has some of the stylized accouterments representative of a silent film. It begins with the written word from which the viewer gleans the context in which the movie is to be viewed. The leading male role, that of Marvin Blake, the sharecropper's son, is played by Richard Barthelmess, a noted silent film actor. Unfortunately, he plays it as if he were doing a silent film, down to the painted lips that he sports in some scenes, a la Ramon Navarro. Why he sports these painted lips in some scenes and not in others is somewhat puzzling. Moreover, his acting, while perhaps impressive in a silent film, is notably unimpressive in a talkie. He is clearly miscast as the sharecropper's son who rises above his station in life and becomes the love interest of the plantation owner's southern belle daughter, fetchingly played by Ms. Davis.

The story is simple. Sharecroppers are taken advantage of by the planter who keeps them as virtual slaves. Sharecroppers look to get back at the planter. Sharecroppers steal from the planter in an effort to balance the books, so to speak. The planter seeks redress for this. Marvin Blake, the sharecropper's son who got an education of sorts, is now the planter's right hand man. Caught in between the divergent interests of the competing groups, Blake is forced to come to a decision about what he is to do to reconcile the two groups, both of which are clearly getting out of hand in their efforts to win for their side.

Blake should have been portrayed by someone for whom the viewer would root. Unfortunately, Barthelmess does not cut it. He is, at times, laughable, at other times, contemptible and simpering in the role. He makes the viewer want to give him a swift kick in the can. He does not demonstrate the qualities of which leaders are made and that is a quality demanded of his role.

Bette Davis, on the other hand, is wonderful as Madge Norwood, the attractive daughter of the planter whose sharecroppers are bedeviling him. She is vampish, seductive, and beguiling, as the love interest with whom the hapless Blake is totally besotted. She plays Blake like a violin, and he falls for her like a puppy dog for its mistress. This, of course, breaks the heart of a sharecropper's daughter, who loves Blake wholeheartedly. To see who triumphs, watch this film. It is a must for all Davis fans.

"AH'D LIKE TAH KISS YEW BUT AH JES' WAHSHED MA HAYA!"
The above quotation, contained in this little potboiler from 1932, was La Davis's very favourite line of all-time from her entire career in the movies! The role of Madge, the cankered young temptress gave Davis something to work with. Richard Barthelmess, an excellent actor from the silent era, was past his peak at forty-something - in 1932; he probably held very little interest for the notoriously difficult Hungarian director Michael Curtiz - Davis later wrote that Curtiz would refer to her as "A no-good sexless bum, a lousy , no good actress....... and words which are generally unprintable. Historically, a semi-important film (TCM certainly likes it!) because in it, Davis creates one of the great voyeuristic experiences the cinema has afforded us......Bette's voice, a call sign pitched between a taunt and a whine, resonates with trampish selfishness. A classic seduction has those Davis eyeballs prominently ogling poor Richard from under that famous bulging, shining forehead, her fingers clutching his hand as he nervously lights a cigarette for her, the flirtatious sag of her body against the shop counter, the breathy little ballad of WILLIE THE WEEPER (who had the dope habit and had it bad). Obviously a female in heat, Bette slips in "something more restful" and the erotic rustle of her waist-sash being untied before she rises into the sreen, bare-shouldered and presumably totally naked has left Barthelmess helpless! As Madge Norwood, a planter's spoiled child, Bette got to act. Davis presents a budding specimen af a Deep Southern nympho, stealthily seducing the conscience-bowed sharecropper's son (Barthelmess) who's employed by her Daddy..........Barthelmess was too old for his role and obviously unhappy and uncomfortable in his playing. In 1939, Davis would again be directed by the tyrannical Curtiz in her first Technicolor film - which hopefully will available again on video (AND SOON!) - THE PRIVATE LIVES OF ELIZABETH AND ESSEX based upon Maxwell Anderson's esteemed play ELIZABETH THE QUEEN. Curtiz had to eat humble pie this time; Davis, by now was also known as the "Queen of Hollywood"!! Ironic.

Young Bette Davis in a poor man's version of Grapes of Wrath
Bette Davis gets her first major vamp role in "The Cabin in the Cotton," adapted from the novel by Harry Harrison Kroll. This is the one where you utters that immortal line, "I'd like to kiss you, but I just washed m'hair." Marvin Blake (Richard Barhtelmess) is the son of a poor sharecropper who dreams ot educating himself and helping his neighbors lead a better life. After his father dies, Marvin is given a job at the general store by Lane Norwood (Berton Churchill), a wealthy planter. Norwood's daughter Madge (Davis) comes home from school and flirts with Marvin, eventually getting the poor boy to confess his love. Meanwhile, Marvin gets promoted to bookkeeper and quickly learns the planter has been cheating his tenants out of their fair share of the profits. But Norwood has been treating Marvin like a son and the planter wants to know which of the sharecroppers have been stealing cotten and plotting against him. When a neighboring planter is killed by a cotton thief, Norwood leads the lynch mob that hunts down the killer. The sharecroppers retailiate by burning down Norwood's store, destroy not only the evidence of his skimming profits but of their overdue accounts as well. Asked to lead the sharecroppers in their fight to get better conditions from the planters, Marvin demands the violence stop, and confronts Norwood with evidence of his crimes. If that was not enough of a problem, Marvin also has to choose between Madge and his childhood sweatheart, Betty WRight (Dorothy Jordan).

This 1932 Warners Brothers film is directed by Michael Curtiz, who went on to direct "The Adventures of Robin Hood" and "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Davis received her first really rave reviews for her role as the seductive little rich girl. Given what is to come, Madge is actually a relatively tame character for Davis to play; she is bad, but she is not that bad. "The Cabin in the Cotton" is representative of Hollywood's take on social issues during the Thirties, which is to say they manage to solve serious problems in a 79 minute film. Barthelmess, who has starred opposite Lillian Gish in the silent classic "Broken Blossoms," turns in an earnest performance which makes "The Cabin in the Sky" sort of "The Grapes of Wrath" of its day.

INGENUE DAVIS IN HER FIRST VAMP ROLE!
"Cabin in the Cotton" could have been a powerful screen story, but this adaptation from the novel left much on the cutting room floor. Davis is well-cast as a rich southern flirt who toys with the affections of the poor son of a share cropper Barthelmess (who works a the store owned by Davis's father). Davis is vivacious and luminous in her scenes which include singing "Willie the Weeper" This is the movie in which cotained Davis's all-time favorite line:"Yur'e cute!-A'hd luve ta kiss ya but I jes wash'd ma haya!" ... Read more

Reviews (4)

LOST CLASSIC
ARROWSMITH IS JUST ANOTHER FINE EXAMPLE OF THE INTENSE ABILTY AND CREDIBILITY THAT ONLY RONALD COLMAN COULD BRING TO LIFE.THIS MOVIE IS MOST CERTAINLY A MILESTONE FOR COLMAN, AND DIRECTOR JOHN FORD.ARROWSMITH IS AN ALL AROUND, SOLID AND BELIEVABLE FILM THAT IS WORTH VIEWING SEVERAL TIMES. TRULY A LOST CLASSIC!

One of Ronald Colman's best screen performances
"Arrowsmith," the 1931 film directed by John Ford and adapted from Sinclair Lewis' classic novel by screenwriter Sidney Howard, was actor Ronald Colman's favorite film until he made "A Tale of Two Cities." Colman stars as Martin Arrowsmith, the idealistic young doctor who seeks a cure for bubonic plaque. Inspired by his mentor Professor Gottlieb (A. E. Anson) to pursue medical research, Arrowsmith gets his medical degree and marries nurse Leora Tozer (Helen Hayes) and ends up being set up by her family as a country doctor in South Dakota. He proves to be a poor physician, but he does come up with a serum to cure cattle of a disease. After returning to New York to work with Dr. Gottlieb, Arrowsmith is inspired by the Swedish doctor Gustav Sondelius (Richard Bennett) to go to the West Indies where the bubonic plague is raving the islands. Gottlieb wants Arrowsmith to give the test serum to only half the patients, to do a sound clinical study. But after Leora succumbs to the disease, Arrowsmith gets drunk and ends up giving the serum to all of the patients. Although the British authorities credit him with ending the epidemic, Arrowsmith knows he has betrayed science to be a humanitarian.

Certainly an interesting film, which Sinclair Lewis considered an excellent cinematic representation of what he had tried to do in his novel, even with the major cuts and changes mandated by Howard's screenplay. The author had refused the Pulitzer Prize for his 1925 novel, so if he is happy with the adaptation I am not going to accuse him of merely being polite. The choice of John Ford to direct the film does not end up being significant in any noticeable way and I would think most viewers would be surprised to see his name on this one. Colman's performance is excellent in a part that plays to his strengths, and since his character dominates the movie he gets the main credit for making it work. His scenes with Hayes, who won the Oscar that year for "The Sin of Madelon Claudet," are quite effective as if young Myrna Loy as Joyce Lanyon, who briefly catches Arrowsmith's eye. The story is certainly atypical in that it speaks for the important of scientific research over the healing arts that Hollywood usually associates with great doctors. "Arrowsmith" received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Writing (Adapted), Cinematography and Art Direction, and the score is by Alfred Newman.

CALLING ALL RONALD COLMAN FANS...
This highly touted 1931 film, based upon the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Sinclair Lewis (who refused to accept the Pulitzer), was named one of the ten best films of the year by none other than The New York Times. It also received a number of Academy award nominations, including that of Best Picture. Directed by the now legendary John Ford, I had high expectations of the film that were, unfortunately, not met.

This is a film that has not aged that well. While Ronald Colman, in the role of the central character, Martin Arrowsmith, is excellent, the film does not live up to its reputation. This film was shot in the early years of talkies, and it still carried some of the earmarks of a silent film. Exaggerated posturing, odd segues, and somewhat disjointed scenes mark it as such. It also suffers from a somewhat uneven screenplay.

The story revolves around a young, idealistic man who wishes to become a research doctor, rather than a practicing ohysician. He runs into a nurse, Leora Tozer (Helen Hayes), whom he falls in love with almost immediately and marries right away. One wonders what the urbane Arrowsmith sees in this somewhat pedestrian woman, as there appears to be no chemistry between them.

After they marry, he gives up his dream to be a medical researcher and, instead, moves to South Dakota, where his wife, Leora, is from and sets up a country practice. While working as a local physician, he interests himself in the plight of the local bovine, as they have fallen prey to disease. He comes up with a serum that saves the day, and he publishes his findings.

His research comes to the attention of the well respected McGurk Institute in New York City, where his medical school mentor, Dr. Gottlieb, is established. They make him an offer he cannot refuse, and he and the devoted Leora relocate to the big apple. There, he has a break through, having created a bacteria destroying serum. When Bubonic plague besets the then British West Indies, he goes down there to conduct a clinical trial with his serum. Leora also goes with him, against his better judgment.

While in the British West Indies, the authorities refuse to let him conduct clinical trials. They want him to give the serum to everyone. Arrowsmith is not prepared to do that as a medical researcher. He is then approached by a black doctor, a graduate of Howard medical school, who is working with the native population in one of the outer islands. He is willing to have Dr. Arrowsmith conduct his clinical trials on the native population. So, Arrowsmith goes off, leaving Leora behind on the main island, where he believes she will be safe.

A tragic set of circumstances causes the devoted Leora to contract the plague, while Arrowsmith is away. By the time he returns to her, it is too late. Going off the deep end, he stops his clinical trials and does the humanitarian thing, indiscriminately giving the serum to all. When he returns home, he is hailed as a hero, but he knows that, as a man of science, he has failed in his objective.

The most interesting segments of the movie are those scenes that take place on the islands. They are beautifully shot, moody and atmospheric. It was interesting to see the inclusion of the black doctor, at a time when Hollywood films generally only included blacks as eye rolling, singing, dancing Stepin Fetchit characters.

Ronald Colman is his usual velvet voiced and handsome self, competent and sympathetic in his role as the idealistic man of science. Helen Hayes I found to be lackluster and annoying in the role of Leora. When she contracted the Bubonic plague, I could not help but think that Arrowsmith would now be free of this stupid and insipid albatross. Myrna Loy has a bit, and I mean bit, part in this film, as a lovely looking woman, who is definitely interested in Arrowsmith.

Notwithstanding its shortcomings, fans of Ronald Colman, as well as those who love vintage films, will enjoy this one.

VINTAGE COLMAN
A prestigious Goldwyn production, ARROWSMITH offers a wonderful performance from Helen Hayes as Leora; Colman's performance is good, yet he's rather wooden in comparison. Directed by John Ford (!) it was actually considered a very modern picture back in 1931 because of the criticism the film makes of the "selfless" dedicated research scientist. An interesting, complex comment on racism is also part of the experiments which Arrowsmith practices: When the white inhabitants, to whom the serum is first offered, refuse the conditions of it's administration, Brooks, a black doctor offers his people to test it. Arrowsmith accepts and hellish montage of fire, shadows, rats and fleeing black bodies follows! ... Read more

Reviews (5)

An unusual politcal drama from the Great Depression
A somewhat bizarre Depression-era political drama, which transforms the Capra-style populist comedy into a grim, protofascist litany. And I don't use the term "fascist" lightly -- it's meant quite literally. Walter Huston stars as Judson Hammond, a newly elected Republican President, appropriately cynical and snugly placed in the pockets of big business, who faces the same challenges as Roosevelt did in '32, namely, the continuing misery of the Great Depression and the disaffection and anger of millions of working class poor. Hammond has no intention of meeting any of his lofty campaign promises, and sees the Presidency itself as a bit of a lark. An ardent isolationist, he even jeers at the congratulatory telegrams sent to him by other world leaders ("Siam? Where's that?" he asks, in an early scene, prompting an easy comparison to our own geographically-challenged G.W. Bush, back in the days of the 2000 campaign...)

Everything changes, however, when Hammond has an automobile-related brush with death, and comes back from the brink with a newfound commitment to saving his fellow man. Initially his impulses are markedly Rooseveltian -- he asks Congress to authorize a gigantic public works program to get the working poor back on their feet, and fires any of his old cronies who object. Faced with a backlash from his own party, and legislative opposition in Congress, he counters the accusation that he seeks to become a tyrant by embracing the idea, claiming that a benevolent dictatorship is more moral than neglecting the interests of "the People." Later, as he confronts an ongoing wave of gangster-related violence, Hammond takes a can-do attitude, and annihilates a Mob boss who won't buckle under... The scene in which the criminal kingpin is sentenced to die is spectacularly fascistic: Hammond's aide-de-camp (played by an under-used Franchot Tone), dressed in a gleaming military outfit, sits behind a huge Greco-Roman, art deco tribunal bench, and ardently praises Hammond's ability to "cut through the red tape of legal procedures and get back to the first principles -- an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life." Finally, Hammond uses a gigantic display of American military power to blackmail and intimidate the other nations into disarming, summoning an apocalyptic (and sadly, somewhat prophetic) vision of the horrors that await the world if the arms race should continue.

The film is quite remarkable in its outright emulation of fascistic, authoritarian politics, and is unlike practically any other American political film of the era (which were much more prone to upholding the nation's fundamental democratic ideals). Still, it does capture the zeitgeist of the times -- the anxiety and desperation, the urge to find stability and salvation, and the fear of a renewed global war -- it just comes down on a side which didn't get much credence on this side of the Atlantic. Admittedly, this film is a dramatic failure -- for one thing, Huston was a horrid actor; and secondly the script is a bit brusque, talky and shrill -- but historically speaking, it's a fascinating document and deserves consideration in that regard. Those who see it as a parable for the New Deal are sadly mistaken, however -- I think the film's creators may have been far more enamored of Mussolini than they were of good old FDR, who actually did pull us back from the brink.

In the 1930's MGM was a movie assembly line, just
cranking out one movie after another. This one, at first, kind of flew under the radar. It was released at a sensitive time, that is, the start of FDR's administration & the "New Deal".
A dispicable man is elected president, a puppet to his powerfull rich friends & the politicians of his party thet helped him get elected(Republican?). How this happens isn't made clear. MGM hated wasting time on exposition in it's movies. This president is totally corrupt cares nothing for the people except to exploit their misery & enrich his cronies.
He suffers a life threatening injury & is visited by the arch-angel, Gabriel. This is a life changing experience & he becomes a changed man, taking on dictatorial powers. He feeds the starving masses, solves unemployment, wipes out organized crime & with the help of the military, forces peace on the rest of the world.
There is a scene on the waterfront. He has gangland criminals lined up to be shot, without due process. The Statue of Liberty is framed in the background. Quite effective.

The Spirit that watches over the Republic
Based on the popular novel of the early Great Depression this is a rather unique tale of a cheap, corrupt political crook who becomes President of the United States- only to become possessed by the spirit of the archangel Gabriel. It is hinted at, that this is the same spirit that moved Abraham Lincoln.

The country in this tale is in deep crisis. Economic collapse has left millions unemployed- millions on the point of starvation. The political bosses cynically ignore the crisis. The military make plans to cut down the million unemployed men who start a great march on Washington. Crime bosses play on the corruption and misery to become still richer.

And then a spirit enters a President that has otherwise been the most inadequate of men, the most unworthy of stewards. In short order, the poor are fed, the unemployed are put back to work, the bosses are forced to resign, the military is forced to help, the crime bosses are lined up and shot, even the war-mongering nations of the world are forced into signing a Pax Americana at the threat of overwhelming American strength of arms.

Yes, this film does uncannily presage many actions of the Roosevelt administration from the Civilian Conservation Corps to the fireside chats. The death of the president at the moment of his greatest triumph over the Europeans is also here. Maybe, this was deliberate propaganda- or maybe not. In any case, I like it. May the spirit of Gabriel return to the White House soon....

extraordinary fascist wish fulfillment
This is an amazing film, which should be viewed by every history student. Made shortly after the Crash, this film glorifies a despotic (and angel anointed) presidency that uses military might to further seemingly reasonable goals. And sure enough, the wish was granted in the election of an imperial president who ruled for 4 terms, tempered only by the checks and balances of the constitution. An remarkable example of the ability of cinema to tap into the dark dreams of a nation in crisis.

PLEASINGLY DATED "NEW DEAL" FANTASY.
A crook becomes President and mysteriously reforms...Definitely a curiousity from the thirties: this is a bizarre but wholly fascinting film. Because of the honest performance of the great Walter Huston, this was a big springtime hit in 1933. Much of the story first indicts the Republican administrations which had occupied the White House, notably that of Warren G. Harding's. Later on, it takes on the newly appointed personality of the Roosevelt adiministration: this wasn't a fluke: William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper czar, urged producer Wanger to put this on film. When Wanger - worried about what his boss, M-G-M mogul Mayer would say - Production chief Irving Thalberg replied "Don't worry about him". At the time, Louis B. Mayer despised Roosevelt (although he later supported him) and wanted the film to be canned. But Mayer really didn't have the power to shelve the film. Almost eerily, Huston is seen addressing the US via radio broadcasts: a preview of FDR's famed Fireside Chats! Enjoy! ... Read more

Reviews (37)

More horsing around
I had a professor in college who seemed to base his entire teaching style off of Groucho Marx's character in HORSE FEATHERS. And, yes, it was one of the more amusing set of classes that I took in my time at university. So, any time I want to relive a more surreal version of my undergraduate learning years, I simply have to throw this DVD into my player and get set for 68 minutes worth of hilarity.

While DUCK SOUP may the best known of the Marx Brothers' films, I think that HORSE FEATHERS may actually be the better introduction to show to someone unfamiliar with their material. It's a short, snappy, quick film, the musical numbers are quite funny and the gags are classic Marx Brothers material. Groucho Marx the professor is here, as are Chico and Harpo as a pair of delinquent, accidental, and almost middle-aged students. Zeppo makes a brief appearance as Groucho's son and barely appears in the second half of the film. It has all the elements of the standard Marx Brothers film, but it doesn't feel tired or clichéd.

Naturally, the Marx Brothers themselves are as hilarious as ever. The only real secondary character of note is played by Thelma Todd, who, unfortunately, has a much weaker and smaller role than she did in MONKEY BUSINESS. Still, it's fun to see the ubiquitous scenes of different Marx brothers all trying to get the blonde (and in the end, of course, they all do). The rest of the characters are the collection of gangsters, idiots and straight-men that we come to expect (and then forget about) from the various Marx Brothers pictures. They have their part to play in the plot, which is really only an excuse for there to be an actual story for the brothers to subvert. The other people exist only so that they can have various Marxs running hilarious rings around them.

The DVD itself looks about as good as you'd expect a film of that age to look like. There are some strange jumps in the film, as though someone along the line had cut out a remark or two. I understand that this is due to problems with the surviving print of the movie rather than any fault of the DVD itself, so it doesn't really seem fair to complain about it. The extras are few and far between; in fact, there aren't any extras at all. It's just a bare-bones release with nothing other than the film included. Of course, when you've got a film that's as much fun as HORSE FEATHERS is, who needs extras?

Marx to the extreme
Groucho Marx becomes the [inaccurate] head of a college, but decides football is more important than education and hires Chico and Harpo to kidnap players from the opposing team. This is my absolute favorite Marx brothers movie. I can't recall any other movie making me laugh as hard as this one did. I was somewhat disappointed with Harpo's performance (he does much better in Animal Crackers and Duck Soup), and there are several songs included, but Horse Feathers runs one zany scene after another, and I found it really hard to ever grow bored of it. -- If you enjoy good, clean, off-the-wall humor, then watch this epitome of Marxist slapstick and I guarantee you'll be their next biggest fan.

What is a college widow anyway?
A previous reviewer asked this question, and I must say it's something I've always wondered about myself. But it doesn't really matter. In this sublimely funny film Groucho is Professor Wagstaff, newly-appointed head of Huxley College. Zeppo is his son ("your mother and I wanted children. Imagine our disappointment when you arrived."), who tells his father that Huxley needs a better football team. So Groucho goes to a speakeasy to buy a couple of professional football players. Here he meets Chico and Harpo and mistakes them for the pros he's looking for,and engages them to play for Huxley. Soon all four of the Marx Brothers are romancing Connie Barnes, the College Widow,(ravishing Thelma Todd) whose gangster boyfriend wants the rival college Darwin to win the match.The whole film is packed with laughs. It includes my all-time favourite scene in any Marx Brothers comedy, when a tramp comes up to Harpo and says "can you help me out? I want to get a cup of coffee" and Harpo takes a steaming cup of coffee out of his pocket and gives it to him. And then there's the scene with the swordfish, and the bit with the seal, and the ice, and when Groucho and Thelma Todd go out in a boat, and all four marx Brothers singing 'everyone says I love you' to the widow, and the climatic scene at the football match, and - oh just take your pick, every scene is wonderful. I know 'Duck Soup' is considered to be the Marx Brothers' masterpiece, but this is my personal favourite.

This was the first one I saw.
First off, the Marx Brothers rock!The was the first ine i saw of them, and I love them! These are so much better than Laural and Hardy. So please buy this DVD.

I`m not against it!
This movie is so funny I cried.(And me, tough man.) The story is basicly that Groucho plays a new headmaster of a collage, and turns the place upside down (like always) with this big footballgame. If I told you any more about it I`d spoil it. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

i am a fugutive from a chain gang
In the movie I am a fugutive from a chain gang an individal is rivited by the injustice done to a war hero who was falsely accused of a crime. Although it is in black and white, the content, story and editing allows one to get into the moview and become James Allen, played by Paul Muni. As a war hero, James Allen returned home with a big dream of becoming an engineer but this dream was stiffled by the plans of his brother and mother who wanted him to return to his old life. Finally in a rage one day James decided to leave home and venture out into the world to seek his dream. Alas! it did not work out because at a very low moment he hooked up with a low life who decided to steal from a hamburger seller. James Allen who survived was placed into the chain gang which he escaped from persued his dream but was sent back to due to his wife. Once more he escaped and like the live of a theif -exactly what he was not. It is a wonderful film because it is a rarity since films around this period was made to show the good part of the war and led one to belief that nothing bad was happening.

An incredible film!
I considered Paul Muni amazing in Scarface (and consider that one of the best gangster films ever), but he knocked me on my ... with this performance. I was mesmorized from his speech to his father at the dinner table--explaining his dreams and desires, his frustrations at his mundane life. It's an absolutely incredible film. I'm not sure what I expected, I knew it was a film that was often banned for it's less than glowing portrayal of the chain gang system and especially the unfair justice system.
The Cinematography was especially compelling, it was so incredible to look it that I could care less if they reused the chain gang sets and guards. I loved the passage of time, with the calenders falling away to the beat of sledgehammers. And the final shot elevated the film to an even higher plane of achievment. Extremely gutsy to end the film on the line it ends on as Paul Muni backs into shadow, beautifully done, a perfect ending.

Tough Social Drama
Paul Muni is terrific in this story of a returned WWI soldier unable to find the kind of work he wants to do. When he is accidentally mixed up in a hold-up, he ends up being sentenced to ten years in a brutal chain gang. He escapes and starts a new life for himself, but can the hunted man ever really escape his past? There are a number of reasons for recommending this fine film. Muni, not always the most subtle of actors, really delivers with this performance. His wordless response to finding out he will not be pardoned is unforgettable. The story and dialogue are presented in a very frank way, not attempting to gloss over anything. The scenes in the chain gang and prison camp are riveting and disturbing. This is not a feel-good movie, but a tough social drama and character study that will involve you every step of the way. Muni is an Everyman, trapped by circumstance and driven by necessity, and his struggle is not one you will soon forget.

Unrelentingly grim, but real
Most of the other posters have dealt with the plot, so no need to re-elaborate. However, viewers should be warned that this film has no kind of levity whatsoever and if you don't like dark stories that deal with harrowing reality, watch a Disney flick and leave this alone. However, it provides a lot of insight into the corruption of some state governments as Paul Muni is persecuted for revealing the truth about the Georgia chain gangs. Since Chain gangs still exist in Alabama, this film may still be a relevant warning to the "Lock 'em up and throw away the key" school of thought.

Stark and compelling view into our recent history
I always find a viewing of "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" a soul wrenching experience and it never fails to leave me stunned and slightly uneasy that man could be so incredibly cruel to their fellow man.

The film without a doubt is one of the most significant and brutally honest depictions of life on the chain gangs of the 1920's and 1930's. I'm glad the film was made by Warner Bros in the early thirties bacause not only was the topic still fresh but Warners were expert at portraying gritty and emotional situations with all the surface verneer stripped off. Indeed "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" never glamourises the story of one man wrongly convited of a crime he didn't commit and who finds himself sentenced to the living hell of life in one of America's notorious chain gangs. Not only the lack of justice offered is explored but also the almost unspeakable brutality that all the prisoners are subjected to. The film never flinches from displaying the soul destroying and totally degrading de- personalisation that the men go through in the course of their backbreaking work on the mountains and highways they are clearing.

Paul Muni is nothing short of brilliant in the lead role of James Allen the man wrongly accused on a petty crime who experiences the unendurable nightmare of life on the gangs and who seeks to escape, seeing any existence as better than that he is living. Rarely has Muni been more suited to a role and his progression from naive innocent to a hardened member of the chain gang is both compelling and brilliantly portrayed. Muni had a way of actually getting under the skin of most of the characters that he played and here he expertly conveys the anguish of a man wrongly accused who seeks proper justice only to find that system betray him and sentence him to a second term on the gangs.

There are so many memorable and thought provoking moments in "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang". Notable scenes include the muster first thing in the morning of all the prisoners, the miserable rotten food they are forced to eat, the back breaking work that they perform day in day out, the ongoing cruelty by the guards towards the men, and the scenes during Muni's illfated attempts to escape and make a new life for himself.

So many other performers also shine in this production as well. Notable among them are Glanda Farrell as Marie who plays the conniving wife of Muni who eventually betrays him to the authorities after he has built a new life for himself. Hers is a vicious and despicable performance and indeed was one of the best Farrell ever did. Allen Jenkins also shines in the role of Muni's elderly pal on the chain gang Barney, a character that has seen it all and has basically resigned himself to a life time of suffering. His performance is tragic yet brutally honest at the same time and his eventual death is a heart wrenching experience to witness on screen.

As stated previously the movie has a harsh and gritty look and feel to it. Any sentiment is stripped to the bone and the production benefits greatly from the terrific on location photography that was employed, in particular in the scenes of the chain gangs working on the highways and on sides of mountains. It gives the film a dull and honest feel, as though we were almost there with the men. Theawe inspiring scope of the story really fills the viewer with a feeling of the awesome sense of hopelessness that these unfortunate men must have experienced.

I often wonder if such a confronting film as this released at the time it was did any good in getting the running of these gangs reviewed. One would certainly hope so as it shows quite clearly that it only brulaised men and didn't help to reform them and send them back to society as useful citizens.

I cannot recommend "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" highly enough. It is a splendid motion picture that really makes you think and stuns with its superb central performance by Paul Muni. It is one of the very best social justice films of the 1930's or of any decade for that matter.For Paul Muni's work alone in this film, of which he is the heart and soul, it is worth having in your film collection and it deserves multiple viewings. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Judge Priest
This is a great period film depicting life in Kentucky after the Civil War and Reconstruction Period. It still shows the stereotypes and prejudices which existed at that time in a somewhat humorous manner. Based on a story by the noted Kentucky humorist, Irvin S. Cobb, it presents life as one would have imagined it at that time period. ... Read more

Amazon.com

One of John Ford's earliest talkies, Arrowsmith demonstrates the director's underrated knack for contemporary drama. Adapted (by acclaimed screenwriter Sidney Howard) from the novel by Sinclair Lewis, the film is a prestigious vehicle for Ronald Colman in the title role of Martin Arrowsmith, a promising physician whose research ambitions are curtailed when he improbably marries the adoring but comparably dim-witted nurse Leora (Helen Hayes), who relocates him to her South Dakota home and convinces him to be a country doctor. Unchallenged and unhappy, he readily accepts an offer to battle bubonic plague in the British West Indies, where he encounters both triumph and tragedy. Creaky logic and primitive sound quality don't stop Ford from crafting some still-impressive sequences (the island sequences prepared Ford for 1937's The Hurricane), and the theme of marriage-vs.-career remains timelessly relevant. Though not as powerful as the Lewis-based Dodsworth (1936), Arrowsmith is that later film's worthy companion. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (3)

CALLING ALL RONALD COLMAN FANS...
This highly touted 1931 film, based upon the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Sinclair Lewis (who refused to accept the Pulitzer), was named one of the ten best films of the year by none other than The New York Times. It also received a number of Academy award nominations, including that of Best Picture. Directed by the now legendary John Ford, I had high expectations of the film that were, unfortunately, not met.

This is a film that has not aged that well. While Ronald Colman, in the role of the central character, Martin Arrowsmith, is excellent, the film does not live up to its reputation. This film was shot in the early years of talkies, and it still carried some of the earmarks of a silent film. Exaggerated posturing, odd segues, and somewhat disjointed scenes mark it as such. It also suffers from a somewhat uneven screenplay.

The story revolves around a young, idealistic man who wishes to become a research doctor, rather than a practicing ohysician. He runs into a nurse, Leora Tozer (Helen Hayes), whom he falls in love with almost immediately and marries right away. One wonders what the urbane Arrowsmith sees in this somewhat pedestrian woman, as there appears to be no chemistry between them.

After they marry, he gives up his dream to be a medical researcher and, instead, moves to South Dakota, where his wife, Leora, is from and sets up a country practice. While working as a local physician, he interests himself in the plight of the local bovine, as they have fallen prey to disease. He comes up with a serum that saves the day, and he publishes his findings.

His research comes to the attention of the well respected McGurk Institute in New York City, where his medical school mentor, Dr. Gottlieb, is established. They make him an offer he cannot refuse, and he and the devoted Leora relocate to the big apple. There, he has a break through, having created a bacteria destroying serum. When Bubonic plague besets the then British West Indies, he goes down there to conduct a clinical trial with his serum. Leora also goes with him, against his better judgment.

While in the British West Indies, the authorities refuse to let him conduct clinical trials. They want him to give the serum to everyone. Arrowsmith is not prepared to do that as a medical researcher. He is then approached by a black doctor, a graduate of Howard medical school, who is working with the native population in one of the outer islands. He is willing to have Dr. Arrowsmith conduct his clinical trials on the native population. So, Arrowsmith goes off, leaving Leora behind on the main island, where he believes she will be safe.

A tragic set of circumstances causes the devoted Leora to contract the plague, while Arrowsmith is away. By the time he returns to her, it is too late. Going off the deep end, he stops his clinical trials and does the humanitarian thing, indiscriminately giving the serum to all. When he returns home, he is hailed as a hero, but he knows that, as a man of science, he has failed in his objective.

The most interesting segments of the movie are those scenes that take place on the islands. They are beautifully shot, moody and atmospheric. It was interesting to see the inclusion of the black doctor, at a time when Hollywood films generally only included blacks as eye rolling, singing, dancing Stepin Fetchit characters.

Ronald Colman is his usual velvet voiced and handsome self, competent and sympathetic in his role as the idealistic man of science. Helen Hayes I found to be lackluster and annoying in the role of Leora. When she contracted the Bubonic plague, I could not help but think that Arrowsmith would now be free of this stupid and insipid albatross. Myrna Loy has a bit, and I mean bit, part in this film, as a lovely looking woman, who is definitely interested in Arrowsmith.

Notwithstanding its shortcomings, fans of Ronald Colman, as well as those who love vintage films, will enjoy this one.

One of Ronald Colman's best screen performances
"Arrowsmith," the 1931 film directed by John Ford and adapted from Sinclair Lewis' classic novel by screenwriter Sidney Howard, was actor Ronald Colman's favorite film until he made "A Tale of Two Cities." Colman stars as Martin Arrowsmith, the idealistic young doctor who seeks a cure for bubonic plaque. Inspired by his mentor Professor Gottlieb (A. E. Anson) to pursue medical research, Arrowsmith gets his medical degree and marries nurse Leora Tozer (Helen Hayes) and ends up being set up by her family as a country doctor in South Dakota. He proves to be a poor physician, but he does come up with a serum to cure cattle of a disease. After returning to New York to work with Dr. Gottlieb, Arrowsmith is inspired by the Swedish doctor Gustav Sondelius (Richard Bennett) to go to the West Indies where the bubonic plague is raving the islands. Gottlieb wants Arrowsmith to give the test serum to only half the patients, to do a sound clinical study. But after Leora succumbs to the disease, Arrowsmith gets drunk and ends up giving the serum to all of the patients. Although the British authorities credit him with ending the epidemic, Arrowsmith knows he has betrayed science to be a humanitarian.

Certainly an interesting film, which Sinclair Lewis considered an excellent cinematic representation of what he had tried to do in his novel, even with the major cuts and changes mandated by Howard's screenplay. The author had refused the Pulitzer Prize for his 1925 novel, so if he is happy with the adaptation I am not going to accuse him of merely being polite. The choice of John Ford to direct the film does not end up being significant in any noticeable way and I would think most viewers would be surprised to see his name on this one. Colman's performance is excellent in a part that plays to his strengths, and since his character dominates the movie he gets the main credit for making it work. His scenes with Hayes, who won the Oscar that year for "The Sin of Madelon Claudet," are quite effective as if young Myrna Loy as Joyce Lanyon, who briefly catches Arrowsmith's eye. The story is certainly atypical in that it speaks for the important of scientific research over the healing arts that Hollywood usually associates with great doctors. "Arrowsmith" received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Writing (Adapted), Cinematography and Art Direction, and the score is by Alfred Newman.

good cinematography but not much else
You'd think that a movie where the director, two main leads, composer, screenwriter and writer combined for 15 Academy Awards, 2 Pulitzer prizes and a Nobel Prize for Literature would be a masterpiece, but this one isn't. The fact that John Ford was perpetually drunk when the movie was edited might help explain why the movie sometimes feels as if it was done by the numbers: the plot is a bit ridiculous at times, i.e. when Arrowsmith asks Leora to marry him after only knowing each other for a day, and the ending is just too sappy and deviates from the book too much. Futhermore, a lot of scenes just seem to drag on - it felt longer than it actually was - and the screenplay had some real clunkers in it.

In fact, the best part about the movie has nothing to do with the six aforementioned persons: it's the cinematography that makes this worth watching. The scenes of the research institute are pure 'Brave New World' and the shots from the West Indies are full of shadows and dry ice, adding a lot of atmosphere. It's only too bad that Arrowsmith's time in South Dakota wasn't filmed as well as the rest of the movie.

Unfortunately, good cinematography doesn't make up for the rest of the movie. This one only merits two stars. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Judge Priest
This is a great period film depicting life in Kentucky after the Civil War and Reconstruction Period. It still shows the stereotypes and prejudices which existed at that time in a somewhat humorous manner. Based on a story by the noted Kentucky humorist, Irvin S. Cobb, it presents life as one would have imagined it at that time period. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Ya daffy tomato!
I haven't much to add to previous reviews as far as this film's overall style and content. George Brent manages to inject a bit of sly humor into his "aw, shucks" character , and Barbara Stanwyck corners the market on pre-code sassy. Entertaining stuff. But let me confess: the real reason this film has earned its spot on our shelf is one of the classic movie lines of all time, "Ya daffy tomato, I'm bugs about ya!". Who could resist?

TAKE ME AWAY...................
That's the title of a song in which Joan Gordon (Stanwyck) sings in THE PURCHASE PRICE. In this one, Stanwyck is a nightclub entertainer who becomes tired of the big city and her bootlegger sweetheart (Lyle Talbot). Barbara decides to become the "picture bride" of Jim Gilson (George Brent) a North Dakota wheat farmer! A rough neighbor by the name of Bull McDowell offers to bail Jim out of his heavily mortgaged farm - if Barbara goes with it...........This little flick from 1932 was based upon a novel entitled THE MUD LARK by Arthur Stringer; it starts out snappy enough, but it gets rather silly and implausible during the second half. Brent has to play a very wooden character, but he does so with some stress on comedy. Stanwyck is always interesting to watch, even when she has to scream violently (which she does). This movie was made immediately after Barbara's triumphant performance (which was highly praised by the critics) in SO BIG, based upon the famous Edna Ferber novel. Her performance, in fact was so honest that the NEW YORK TELEGRAPH stated that "Miss Stanwyck offers a characterization worthy of the cinematic Hall of Fame. Her great talent as an actress never has been demonstrated more brilliantly. A sparkling performance; she is magnificent". It's ironic that lesser quality old movies can be found on video but SO BIG, for instance, cannot.

The Purchase Price
The first time I saw the movie, the purchase price, I was unsure of what was going on for I had been watching AMC and turned on the movie when it was near the end. Even seeing the bits and pieces of the film before I had actually seen it as a whole still left me in awe of what an amazing movie it is. This is a classic romantic movie that never lets you leave the room. The story of an attractive show girl running from her unwanted company and ending up with what seems like a loveless farmer may seem strange though turns out to be a fabulous plot. Throughout the movie you yearn for the two characters, Barbara Stanwyck and George Brent, to get together. I would hate to ruin the rest of the story so buy it. It will remain a favorite piece for generations whom appreciate a really great love story. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

i am a fugutive from a chain gang
In the movie I am a fugutive from a chain gang an individal is rivited by the injustice done to a war hero who was falsely accused of a crime. Although it is in black and white, the content, story and editing allows one to get into the moview and become James Allen, played by Paul Muni. As a war hero, James Allen returned home with a big dream of becoming an engineer but this dream was stiffled by the plans of his brother and mother who wanted him to return to his old life. Finally in a rage one day James decided to leave home and venture out into the world to seek his dream. Alas! it did not work out because at a very low moment he hooked up with a low life who decided to steal from a hamburger seller. James Allen who survived was placed into the chain gang which he escaped from persued his dream but was sent back to due to his wife. Once more he escaped and like the live of a theif -exactly what he was not. It is a wonderful film because it is a rarity since films around this period was made to show the good part of the war and led one to belief that nothing bad was happening.

An incredible film!
I considered Paul Muni amazing in Scarface (and consider that one of the best gangster films ever), but he knocked me on my ... with this performance. I was mesmorized from his speech to his father at the dinner table--explaining his dreams and desires, his frustrations at his mundane life. It's an absolutely incredible film. I'm not sure what I expected, I knew it was a film that was often banned for it's less than glowing portrayal of the chain gang system and especially the unfair justice system.
The Cinematography was especially compelling, it was so incredible to look it that I could care less if they reused the chain gang sets and guards. I loved the passage of time, with the calenders falling away to the beat of sledgehammers. And the final shot elevated the film to an even higher plane of achievment. Extremely gutsy to end the film on the line it ends on as Paul Muni backs into shadow, beautifully done, a perfect ending.

Tough Social Drama
Paul Muni is terrific in this story of a returned WWI soldier unable to find the kind of work he wants to do. When he is accidentally mixed up in a hold-up, he ends up being sentenced to ten years in a brutal chain gang. He escapes and starts a new life for himself, but can the hunted man ever really escape his past? There are a number of reasons for recommending this fine film. Muni, not always the most subtle of actors, really delivers with this performance. His wordless response to finding out he will not be pardoned is unforgettable. The story and dialogue are presented in a very frank way, not attempting to gloss over anything. The scenes in the chain gang and prison camp are riveting and disturbing. This is not a feel-good movie, but a tough social drama and character study that will involve you every step of the way. Muni is an Everyman, trapped by circumstance and driven by necessity, and his struggle is not one you will soon forget.

Unrelentingly grim, but real
Most of the other posters have dealt with the plot, so no need to re-elaborate. However, viewers should be warned that this film has no kind of levity whatsoever and if you don't like dark stories that deal with harrowing reality, watch a Disney flick and leave this alone. However, it provides a lot of insight into the corruption of some state governments as Paul Muni is persecuted for revealing the truth about the Georgia chain gangs. Since Chain gangs still exist in Alabama, this film may still be a relevant warning to the "Lock 'em up and throw away the key" school of thought.

Stark and compelling view into our recent history
I always find a viewing of "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" a soul wrenching experience and it never fails to leave me stunned and slightly uneasy that man could be so incredibly cruel to their fellow man.

The film without a doubt is one of the most significant and brutally honest depictions of life on the chain gangs of the 1920's and 1930's. I'm glad the film was made by Warner Bros in the early thirties bacause not only was the topic still fresh but Warners were expert at portraying gritty and emotional situations with all the surface verneer stripped off. Indeed "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" never glamourises the story of one man wrongly convited of a crime he didn't commit and who finds himself sentenced to the living hell of life in one of America's notorious chain gangs. Not only the lack of justice offered is explored but also the almost unspeakable brutality that all the prisoners are subjected to. The film never flinches from displaying the soul destroying and totally degrading de- personalisation that the men go through in the course of their backbreaking work on the mountains and highways they are clearing.

Paul Muni is nothing short of brilliant in the lead role of James Allen the man wrongly accused on a petty crime who experiences the unendurable nightmare of life on the gangs and who seeks to escape, seeing any existence as better than that he is living. Rarely has Muni been more suited to a role and his progression from naive innocent to a hardened member of the chain gang is both compelling and brilliantly portrayed. Muni had a way of actually getting under the skin of most of the characters that he played and here he expertly conveys the anguish of a man wrongly accused who seeks proper justice only to find that system betray him and sentence him to a second term on the gangs.

There are so many memorable and thought provoking moments in "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang". Notable scenes include the muster first thing in the morning of all the prisoners, the miserable rotten food they are forced to eat, the back breaking work that they perform day in day out, the ongoing cruelty by the guards towards the men, and the scenes during Muni's illfated attempts to escape and make a new life for himself.

So many other performers also shine in this production as well. Notable among them are Glanda Farrell as Marie who plays the conniving wife of Muni who eventually betrays him to the authorities after he has built a new life for himself. Hers is a vicious and despicable performance and indeed was one of the best Farrell ever did. Allen Jenkins also shines in the role of Muni's elderly pal on the chain gang Barney, a character that has seen it all and has basically resigned himself to a life time of suffering. His performance is tragic yet brutally honest at the same time and his eventual death is a heart wrenching experience to witness on screen.

As stated previously the movie has a harsh and gritty look and feel to it. Any sentiment is stripped to the bone and the production benefits greatly from the terrific on location photography that was employed, in particular in the scenes of the chain gangs working on the highways and on sides of mountains. It gives the film a dull and honest feel, as though we were almost there with the men. Theawe inspiring scope of the story really fills the viewer with a feeling of the awesome sense of hopelessness that these unfortunate men must have experienced.

I often wonder if such a confronting film as this released at the time it was did any good in getting the running of these gangs reviewed. One would certainly hope so as it shows quite clearly that it only brulaised men and didn't help to reform them and send them back to society as useful citizens.

I cannot recommend "I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang" highly enough. It is a splendid motion picture that really makes you think and stuns with its superb central performance by Paul Muni. It is one of the very best social justice films of the 1930's or of any decade for that matter.For Paul Muni's work alone in this film, of which he is the heart and soul, it is worth having in your film collection and it deserves multiple viewings. ... Read more

Description

As the mid-July sun sets on one of the summer's hottest days, little groups of people gather to discuss the newest neighborhood scandal. Standing in front of a rusty brownstone in Manhattan's West Sixties, they gossip about all the tenants of the building, but especially Mrs. Marrant, who has been seeing the local milkman behind her husband's back.When Mr. Marrant takes a trip out of town, the two lovers have a tragic meeting when her husband doubles back, catching them together. The confrontation will change everyone's lives forever, especially the Marrant's beautiful young daughter Rose (Sylvia Sidney, in one of her first starring roles), who is left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. Presented by Samuel Goldwyn and based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama by Elmer Rice, who also wrote the screenplay, director King Vidor (Duel In the Sun, Our Daily Bread) has fashioned a raw, harrowing and powerful film with striking camera work by Academy Award-winning cinematographer George Barnes (Rebecca) and musical direction by nine-time Oscar winner Alfred Newman (Camelot, The King and I). ... Read more

Reviews (4)

STREET SCENE: Sylvia Sidney Heats Up the Screen
Every so often heat becomes more than just a stifling rise in temperature designed to raise both a sweat and the tempers of the cast. Sometimes, heat acts as a metaphor to suggest the turmoil that often accompanies that heat rise. In STREET SCENE, director King Vidor took the Pulitzer Prize play by Elmer Rice and used Rice's own adaption to present a steamy day in a New York City tenement. A youthful Sylvia Sidney in one of her first starring roles shows the sloe-eyed sadness that came to mark her future screen persona. Sidney is Rose, a young girl who faces the double trauma of knowing that her mother has been carrying on an affair because her brute of a father radiates all the familial and paternal warmth of a vicious rat. Further complicating her life is her growing attraction for Sam (William Collier), a neighboring boy who suffers ostracism because of his Jewishness. The affair, the prejudice, the heat interact to produce an explosive climax that even today is remarkable in its jarring intensity. The technology of sound was in its infancy in 1931. Much of the dialogue and background auditory effects grate joltingly on the senses, which considering the frayed tempers exacerbated by the heat, is not necessarily a bad thing. STREET SCENE is the kind of unsettling film that makes you forget that film and sound technology need not be advanced for a superior script, fine acting, and first-rate directing to make you realize that you have just seen a gem of a film.

GREAT EARLY SYLVIA SIDNEY PERFORMANCE.
In a New York slum street on a hot, sweltering summer night, an adulterous woman is shot by her husband. Based upon Edgar Rice's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play about the lives of people who live on one West Side Manhattan street proved to have national appeal to movie audiences back in 1931. King Vidor wisely kept eight members of the original cast to insure realism. As Rose, Sylvia Sidney is outstanding. Originally, Nancy Carroll was to have played her (Erin O'Brien-Moore did the part on Broadway), but she was committed to Paramount. Vidor, never afraid of realism, insisted on the magnificently steamy, gritty street scene sets. Alfred Newman's evocative score is timeless piece of motion picture compositon: it's esteemed to this day. Beulah Bondi made her film debut here, and went on to become one of the finest and most respected character actresses in films. In her eighties, she won an Emmy for her performance in an episode of THE WALTONS.

A fine early Sylvia Sydney film
I bought this DVD as I'm a big fan of Sylvia Sidney and King Vidor. She looks wonderful, with a slightly different look from her more familiar late thirties incarnations. Vidor, on the other hand, is somewhat hampered by the constraints that were necessary in the early talkie period. When there is movement in the film it appears to have been shot silent (with added sound), otherwise the film is often rather static. Thus, although this film is similar in some respects to The Crowd, focussing on the lives of ordinary city dwellers, it cannot be said to be an advance in directoral terms. The story of the film is mature and adult, dealing with issues such as infidelity, prejudice and the damage of interfering gossip. There is not much glamour in this film and this makes it unusual for the period and certainly more serious. As with most early talkies, one of the problems with this film is the sound. At times one has to strain to hear the dialogue. The picture quality on the whole is fine, there are however some occassional jumps where a few frames have been lost. On the whole, this is a good example of an early talkie film and is well worth seeing. For Sylvia Sydney fans it is a must, even if she doesn't show up for nearly half an hour. Also for those obsessed with It's a Wonderful Life, it is worth noting the appearance of Belula Bondi (Jimmy Stewart's mother) in Street Scene. She looks much the same.

The BEST Movie Ever!!
This is just like the opera, only they don't sing which was a dissapointment. I played Willie Maurrant in Boston. I'm glad I watched this video because I didn't know they even HAD one!

It is just like the opera, (If you've seen it you might know what it is about) but if you don't Frank Maurrant goes away on some buissness when Mrs. Maurrant calls her secret lover the milkman Mr. Sankey. When Mr. Maurrant comes home he finds trhe two and Sankey and Mrs. Maurrant die. Their daughter Rose Maurrant is sad and can't bare it any more and leaves New York with her brother Willie. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

STREET SCENE: Sylvia Sidney Heats Up the Screen
Every so often heat becomes more than just a stifling rise in temperature designed to raise both a sweat and the tempers of the cast. Sometimes, heat acts as a metaphor to suggest the turmoil that often accompanies that heat rise. In STREET SCENE, director King Vidor took the Pulitzer Prize play by Elmer Rice and used Rice's own adaption to present a steamy day in a New York City tenement. A youthful Sylvia Sidney in one of her first starring roles shows the sloe-eyed sadness that came to mark her future screen persona. Sidney is Rose, a young girl who faces the double trauma of knowing that her mother has been carrying on an affair because her brute of a father radiates all the familial and paternal warmth of a vicious rat. Further complicating her life is her growing attraction for Sam (William Collier), a neighboring boy who suffers ostracism because of his Jewishness. The affair, the prejudice, the heat interact to produce an explosive climax that even today is remarkable in its jarring intensity. The technology of sound was in its infancy in 1931. Much of the dialogue and background auditory effects grate joltingly on the senses, which considering the frayed tempers exacerbated by the heat, is not necessarily a bad thing. STREET SCENE is the kind of unsettling film that makes you forget that film and sound technology need not be advanced for a superior script, fine acting, and first-rate directing to make you realize that you have just seen a gem of a film.

GREAT EARLY SYLVIA SIDNEY PERFORMANCE.
In a New York slum street on a hot, sweltering summer night, an adulterous woman is shot by her husband. Based upon Edgar Rice's Pulitzer-Prize-winning play about the lives of people who live on one West Side Manhattan street proved to have national appeal to movie audiences back in 1931. King Vidor wisely kept eight members of the original cast to insure realism. As Rose, Sylvia Sidney is outstanding. Originally, Nancy Carroll was to have played her (Erin O'Brien-Moore did the part on Broadway), but she was committed to Paramount. Vidor, never afraid of realism, insisted on the magnificently steamy, gritty street scene sets. Alfred Newman's evocative score is timeless piece of motion picture compositon: it's esteemed to this day. Beulah Bondi made her film debut here, and went on to become one of the finest and most respected character actresses in films. In her eighties, she won an Emmy for her performance in an episode of THE WALTONS.

A fine early Sylvia Sydney film
I bought this DVD as I'm a big fan of Sylvia Sidney and King Vidor. She looks wonderful, with a slightly different look from her more familiar late thirties incarnations. Vidor, on the other hand, is somewhat hampered by the constraints that were necessary in the early talkie period. When there is movement in the film it appears to have been shot silent (with added sound), otherwise the film is often rather static. Thus, although this film is similar in some respects to The Crowd, focussing on the lives of ordinary city dwellers, it cannot be said to be an advance in directoral terms. The story of the film is mature and adult, dealing with issues such as infidelity, prejudice and the damage of interfering gossip. There is not much glamour in this film and this makes it unusual for the period and certainly more serious. As with most early talkies, one of the problems with this film is the sound. At times one has to strain to hear the dialogue. The picture quality on the whole is fine, there are however some occassional jumps where a few frames have been lost. On the whole, this is a good example of an early talkie film and is well worth seeing. For Sylvia Sydney fans it is a must, even if she doesn't show up for nearly half an hour. Also for those obsessed with It's a Wonderful Life, it is worth noting the appearance of Belula Bondi (Jimmy Stewart's mother) in Street Scene. She looks much the same.

The BEST Movie Ever!!
This is just like the opera, only they don't sing which was a dissapointment. I played Willie Maurrant in Boston. I'm glad I watched this video because I didn't know they even HAD one!

It is just like the opera, (If you've seen it you might know what it is about) but if you don't Frank Maurrant goes away on some buissness when Mrs. Maurrant calls her secret lover the milkman Mr. Sankey. When Mr. Maurrant comes home he finds trhe two and Sankey and Mrs. Maurrant die. Their daughter Rose Maurrant is sad and can't bare it any more and leaves New York with her brother Willie. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Judge Priest
This is a great period film depicting life in Kentucky after the Civil War and Reconstruction Period. It still shows the stereotypes and prejudices which existed at that time in a somewhat humorous manner. Based on a story by the noted Kentucky humorist, Irvin S. Cobb, it presents life as one would have imagined it at that time period. ... Read more