I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang

Green and Brown Holmes from Robert Elliott Burns's autobiography, I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy.
The film was controversial on its release because of its subject matter (it was banned in Georgia) and contributed to the elimination of forced labor in the penal system in the United States.
In 1991, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


Plot summary


Paul Muni as James Allen.

Sergeant James Allen (Paul Muni) returns to civilian life after World War I but has a hard time finding work.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.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.She asks, "Can't you tell me where you're going? Will you write? Do you need any money? But you must, Jim. How do you live?" In the chilling final line and shot, James replies ominously, "I steal" and backs away, disappearing into the dark.The composition and lighting of the final scene, considered to be one of the best in film history, was reportedly accidental. The studio liked what it saw and kept the ending.
Cast
Paul Muni as James Allen
Glenda Farrell as Marie
Helen Vinson as Helen
Noel Francis as Linda
Preston Foster as Pete
Allen Jenkins as Barney Sykes
Berton Churchill as The Judge
Edward Ellis as Bomber Wells
David Landau as The Warden
Hale Hamilton as Reverend Allen

Impact on the American Society


Paul Muni working on a chain gang.

Audiences in the United States who saw the film began to question the legitimacy of the United States legal system, and by January 1933 the film's protagonist, Robert Elliot Burns, who was still imprisoned in New Jersey, and a number of different chain gang prisoners nationwide in the United States were able to appeal and were released. In January 1933, Georgia chain gang warden J.