|
By PNICK ZEGARAC
Mervyn LeRoy's "I Am a
Fugitive from a Chain Gang" (1932) is a film that
Alfred Hitchcock might have enjoyed making, for it
develops the wrong man scenario with impeccable
panache in vestiges of the human condition turned
on its end.
The film stars Paul Muni (a largely forgotten
actor today, but one of the greatest chameleons on
film) as a returning war hero, James Allen.
Rejecting his old position at a workhouse, James
soon discovers that other work is hard to come by.
Reduced to hobo status, he is accidentally framed
from a train robbery and put to work on one of the
most ruthless chain gangs. After much suffrage,
James manages to make a daring and successful
escape to Chicago where he embarks upon
transforming himself from unemployed bum into a
titan in the construction industry. But reality
intervenes his ascendance when former girl friend,
Marie Woods (Glenda Farell) discovers his secret
and threatens to expose James to the authorities
unless he marries and provides for her own
financial security. This latter complication is
further put to the test when Joe discovers that he
has fallen in love with Helen (Helen Vison)
instead. In keeping with director, LeRoy's
penchant for spinning yarns to the lovelorn, the
latter half of this would be gangster and police
flick is maudlin melodrama, built up with frothy
resistance to the corruption and hard-edged bite
of its preceding hour or so.
While this film has never looked great on home
video, there are marked improvements available for
the first time on this Warner DVD. The B&W scale
seems more refined than was previously available,
with subtler gradations. Flickering of the image
is persistent and a tad distracting in some
scenes. Age-related artifacts abound throughout.
There's more than a hint of film grain, and, while
I am not averse to having grain present, there is
way too much grain here to suit even my liberal
tastes in several key sequences. The audio is mono
but nicely balanced. Richard Jewell's commentary
is informative. Other extras include a couple of
theatrical trailers. |
