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I
Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932)
In this Warner Brothers crime/prison drama (with a
message) by director Mervyn LeRoy:
- the scene of WWI unemployed veteran James Allen
(Paul Muni), looking increasingly like a transient, penniless bum,
and his unsuccessful attempt to pawn off his war medal, a Belgian Croix
de Guerre, when the owner already had a drawer case full of
medals from other unemployed, vagrant veterans
- the sequence of Allen convinced to join vagrant drifter-tramp
Pete (Preston Foster) to go to a lunch-wagon/diner for a handout
of hamburgers: "What would I say to a hamburger? Oh, boy. I'd
shake Mr. Hamburger by the hand and say, 'Pal, I haven't seen you
in a long, long time.'" - but then Pete pulled a gun on the
diner cook and demanded Allen to "get that dough out of the
register" - the alerted police killed Pete, then arrested Allen
as he fled with $5 dollars in his pocket
- the dissolve/transition as the judge's (Berton Churchill)
gavel was brought down for sentencing of punishment in prison at
hard labor for ten years for a $5 robbery - a crime Allen didn't
commit (he was an unwilling accomplice in the theft of a lunch-wagon/diner)
- the judge's sentencing was harsh: "I see no reason for leniency
since the money was found on your person. Futhermore, upon detection,
you attempted to escape which would, of necessity, increase the seriousness
of your offense" - it was completed by the clanging sound of
a blacksmith's hammer pounding the chain on prisoner Allen's leg
- the scene opening at 4:20 am, when the prisoners (chained
together) were awakened and marched into the mess hall; during the
meal scene, Allen was disgusted by the tasteless
and abominable food, and told by a fellow prisoner that he would
have to get used to it: ("Grease, fried dough, pig fat and sorghum.
And you better get to like it, because you're gonna get the same
thing every morning, every year")
- during imprisonment, Allen's participation in hard
labor - breaking rocks with a pick; he was knocked down by one
of the guards for pausing to wipe the sweat off his brow (without
asking permission), as the guard mocked: "Ya got it knocked
off!"; fellow convict and lifer Bomber Wells (Edward Ellis)
told Allen: "You gotta ask their permission to wipe the sweat
off...And in the first place, you got to get their permission to
sweat"
- on a wall calendar, the impressive display of the
passage of time -- six months of pages were hammered away (June to
November)
- the scene of Allen grimacing as his shackles were
bent out of shape by powerful black prisoner Sebastian (Everett Brown),
who struck unerring blows at his shackles to bend their shape: "If
you can bend my shackles just a little, so I can slide them off my
foot"
- the exciting and memorable escape scene after serving
seven months of his ten-year sentence, when Allen was taking a break
in the bushes - and he slipped the shackles off his legs, grabbed
clothes from a clothesline and changed out of his uniform, ran through
the swamps, and outwitted guards and bloodhounds that were chasing
him by breathing through a hollow reed underwater
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Helen: "How do you live?"
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Jim: "I steal"
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- the visually impressive and chilling fade-out ending
when hunted, falsely-accused fugitive James Allen was asked by
his fiancee Helen (Helen Vinson) questions about how he lived after
he had again escaped: ("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?") he responded: -
"I steal" - as he receded into the shadowy darkness
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Pawn Shop - Case Full of War Medals
Jim: "What would I say to a hamburger?"
Jim Allen Arrested as an Unwilling Accomplice During a Theft
Hard Labor - Breaking Rocks and Reprimanded for
Wiping Sweat
Calendars: Passage of Time
Jim Grimacing as His Ankle Shackles Were Struck To Bend Them
Out of Shape
Escape Scene: Jim Breathing Through a Reed Underwater
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