:
Paul Muni,
Paul Muni,
Glenda Farrell,
more...
:
Mervyn LeRoy,
Mervyn LeRoy
see all cast/crew...
: Not Rated
: Warner Home Video
: Classics, Drama, Prison, Classic Drama, Classic Drama, Pre-Code, Precode
: 92 min.
: English
: English, Spanish, French
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Warner Bros.' hard-hitting chain-gang movie was a faithful adaptation of the similarly titled autobiography of Robert Elliot Burns. Paul Muni plays World War I veteran James Allen, whose plans of becoming a master architect evaporate in the cold light of economic realities. Flat broke, Allen is forced to pawn his war medals, which have become a glut on the market. When Allen is innocently involved in a restaurant holdup, the police don't buy his story that the robber (Preston S. Foster) had forced him to clean out the cash register, and Allen is sentenced to ten years on a chain gang. The brutal scenes that follow make the later chain-gang movie Cool Hand Luke (1967) look like a picnic in the country. Unable to stand any more, Allen escapes and heads to Chicago. Using an alias, he builds a new life for himself and within five years is the respected president of a bridge-building firm. His landlady (Glenda Farrell), learning about his past, forces Allen to marry her. When he falls in love with another girl (Helen Vinson) and asks for a divorce, his wife turns him over to the authorities. The real-life Robert Elliot Burns was still a fugitive when he wrote his exposé of the chain-gang system; the publication of Burns' book led to the abolishment of that system and an erasure of Burns' sentence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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| Born Under Punches
by randomcha
June 12, 2005 - 8:39 AM PDT
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3 out of 4 members found this review helpful
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| I can't imagine a film like this being released today, even as an indie: a raw, no-holds-barred muckracking drama that concludes with a sequence so jaw-dropping abrupt it takes your breath away. Even decades of rip-offs and parody haven't diminished its power. I think there's a case to be made that Paul Muni was the Sean Penn of the 30's. I'm so pleased it's finally on DVD! |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 7.73)
41 Votes
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