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Rating: James Allen is a young man full of hope, good for him that he returned safe and sound from the war (the first one, the World War).
He returns home, the factory is welcoming him back with open arms, but James Allen has changed because of the war, he no longer wants to be a worker, he wants to travel the States to make use of the engineering knowledge acquired in the military engineering corps.
And so he leaves, and in his wanderings, he finds himself, against his will, involved in an armed robbery and is arrested. The sentence amounts to 10 years of hard labor. In a stone-breaking colony, complete with chains and a blue-and-white striped suit.
Extraordinary film denouncing the American prison system and more generally - I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang - is a true anthem to freedom, a freedom that in reality does not exist. In war or in the factory, at home with mom or married, you always have chains on you, more or less painful, more or less tight.
James seems to understand this, in the extraordinary initial monologue that he passionately delivers to his mother and brother (a priest) who are trying to convince him to return to the little factory... come on, we even have a pre-packaged wifey for you, don't you see how she's grown? She's become quite the young lady!
Despite the running time sticking to the canonical 90 minutes (+3 for recovery) I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang has no dead times. We will see great things, and many of them, it's not worth spoiling; after 10 minutes of the film, he's already in prison but James is a fugitive...
Paul Muni, the protagonist, had just risen to fame with his masterful performance in Scarface, by Howard Hawks, for which he had received an Oscar nomination. Paul Muni would win the Oscar seven years later with his portrayal of Louis Pasteur in the film The Story of Louis Pasteur (1939). A great actor, physical, with a lively and determined stone face. In this film, he will fight like a lion against the adversities of life.
The film was shot just after the great crisis of 1929 and contains various sequences of absolute significance, from the wide shots of prisoners breaking stones under the sun, harassed and tormented by their overseers (they have to ask for permission even to wipe their sweat) to the action ones (the robbery, the chase) up to the last, unforgettable sequence (omitted) which will somehow be revisited by Fritz Lang in 1937 (You Only Live Once).
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