I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG, 1932, Warner Bros., 93 min. Dir. Mervyn Le Roy. The inspiring social commentary-as-crime drama that transfixed America more than 75 years ago still packs a wallop! James Allen (Paul Muni) musters out of WWI, gets down on his uppers and becomes inadvertently involved in a robbery. Drawing 10 years in the unspeakable savagery of a Southern chain gang, Allen escapes to Chicago, financial success and the dubious charms of Glenda Farrell. Allen soon discovers that there is no escape from fate and a perverse legal system bent on retribution rather than justice.
THE PUBLIC ENEMY, 1931, Warner Bros., 83 min. Director William Wellman captures the zeitgeist of a violent, anything-goes-era plunged into financial chaos and goosed along into perdition by the government’s misguided attempts at Prohibition. As character Powers’ star rises in the bootlegging underworld, his hubris takes him beyond the pale.