One of the great films of the '30s; a classic of social protest which played a role in ending the use of chain gangs in the US. Robert Burns (Paul Muni) is wrongly sentenced to hard labour by a corrupt and sadistic penal system. The film doesn't merely assert that this is an unjust destiny for an innocent man, but for anyone.
Burns returns from WWI to penury; one of the forgotten men. A bystander in a petty crime he is sentenced to ten years on a Georgia chain gang. He escapes to become a successful engineer, but having been tracked down to Chicago he agrees to return to jail on the understanding that he will be pardoned after 90 days.
The state, offended by Burns' public criticism, sends Burns to the foulest chain gang in the south and withdraws its promise. I can see Muni's face now, his pardon denied, sucked back into hell. Muni is magnificent. The support acting is variable, but mostly convincing and often very moving.
I Am a Fugitive... delivers a subtle appraisal of the purposes of the prison system. It's a gripping polemic about human dignity and the kindness of strangers delivered in the punchy, concise style of Warner Brothers in the thirties. The famous ending is a heartbreaker.
I would like to see this classic film, but it’s ‘ unavailable ‘, as are many other classic films from the 1930s