92 mins |
Rated
M
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
Starring Paul Muni, Glenda Farrell, Helen Vinson, Noel Francis
Playing as part of our 'Prison Break' Film Series January 3rd - 22nd!
Mervyn LeRoy’s uncompromising, timeless, starkly realistic 1932 drama about an innocent man driven by unemployment to a life on the road and then condemned to the hell of a Georgia chain gang still has the power to shock (it had a measurable impact on prison reform). The commanding authority of Paul Muni’s lead performance and the striking visuals (Muni’s haunted face is continuously moulded by the shadows in which, as a fugitive, he is forced to live) function as subtext to a script (based on a true story) that does not hide its anger at injustice and a vindictive legal system.
Read more...
Playing as part of our 'Prison Break' Film Series January 3rd - 22nd!
Mervyn LeRoy’s uncompromising, timeless, starkly realistic 1932 drama about an innocent man driven by unemployment to a life on the road and then condemned to the hell of a Georgia chain gang still has the power to shock (it had a measurable impact on prison reform). The commanding authority of Paul Muni’s lead performance and the striking visuals (Muni’s haunted face is continuously moulded by the shadows in which, as a fugitive, he is forced to live) function as subtext to a script (based on a true story) that does not hide its anger at injustice and a vindictive legal system.