Black Legion (1937)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Archie Mayo
(more)

Writers:

Robert Lord (story)
Abem Finkel (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

30 January 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Crime

Plot:

When a hard-working machinist loses a promotion to a Polish-born worker, he is seduced into joining the secretive Black Legion, which intimidates foreigners through violence.

Plot Keywords:

Foreman | Machinist | Chicken Farm | Machine Shop | Fear

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Humphrey Bogart	...	Frank Taylor
Dick Foran	...	Ed Jackson
Erin O'Brien-Moore	...	Ruth Taylor
Ann Sheridan	...	Betty Grogan
Helen Flint	...	Pearl Davis (Credits) / Pearl Danvers
Joe Sawyer	...	Cliff Moore (Credits) / Cliff Summers (as Joseph Sawyer)
Clifford Soubier	...	Mike Grogan
Alonzo Price	...	Alf Hargrave
Paul Harvey	...	Billings
Dickie Jones	...	Buddy Taylor
Samuel S. Hinds	...	Judge (as Samuel Hinds)
Addison Richards	...	Prosecuting Attorney
Eddie Acuff	...	Metcalf
Dorothy Vaughan	...	Mrs. Grogan
John Litel	...	Tommy Smith
Henry Brandon	...	Joe Dombrowski
Charles Halton	...	Osgood
Pat C. Flick	...	Nick Strumpas
Francis Sayles	...	Charlie
Paul Stanton	...	Barham
Harry Hayden	...	Jones
Egon Brecher	...	Dombrowski
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Don Barclay	...	Drunken member (scenes deleted)
Joseph Crehan	...	(scenes deleted)
Paul Graetz	...	(scenes deleted)
Robert Barrat	...	Brown (Black Legion official) (uncredited)
Ted Bliss	...	Radio announcer (uncredited)
John Butler	...	Jenkins (auto salesman) (uncredited)
Eddy Chandler	...	Motorcycle cop (uncredited)
Larry Emmons	...	Man in drugstore (uncredited)
John Hiestand	...	First radio announcer breaking Black Legion story (uncredited)
Robert Homans	...	Motorcycle cop (uncredited)
Milton Kibbee	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Frederick Lindsley	...	March of Time announcer (uncredited)
Wilfred Lucas	...	Bailiff (uncredited)
Fred MacKaye	...	Third radio announcer breaking Black Legion story (uncredited)
Dennis Moore	...	Reporter at jail (uncredited)
Carlyle Moore Jr.	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Jack Mower	...	Court clerk (uncredited)
Frank Nelson	...	Radio announcer (uncredited)
Lee Phelps	...	Guard at jail (uncredited)
Sam Rice	...	Extra on bus (uncredited)
Frank Sully	...	Truck driver's helper (uncredited)
Emmett Vogan	...	News commentator (uncredited)
Max Wagner	...	Truck driver in diner (uncredited)
Billy Wayne	...	Jim (diner counterman) (uncredited)

Directed by
Archie Mayo		(as Archie L. Mayo)
Michael Curtiz		(uncredited)

Writing credits
Robert Lord		(story)
Abem Finkel		(screenplay) and
William Wister Haines		(screenplay)

Produced by
Robert Lord	....	producer (uncredited)
Hal B. Wallis	....	executive producer (uncredited)
Jack L. Warner	....	executive producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
W. Franke Harling		(uncredited)
Howard Jackson		(uncredited)
Bernhard Kaun		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
George Barnes		(photography by)

Film Editing by
Owen Marks

Art Direction by
Robert M. Haas		(as Robert Haas)

Costume Design by
Milo Anderson		(gowns)

Production Management
Frank Mattison	....	unit manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jack Sullivan	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
C.A. Riggs	....	sound recordist (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Fred Jackman Jr.	....	special effects (uncredited)
Hans F. Koenekamp	....	special effects (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Gene Davenport	....	assistant camera (uncredited)
George Gordon Nogle	....	second camera operator (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Warner Bros. Pictures (as Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.)

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1937) (USA) (theatrical) (as Warner Bros. Pictures Inc.)
• Warner Bros. (1937) (France) (theatrical) (as Warner Bros-First National)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (VHS)
• Nothing's New Video (2005) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2008) (USA) (DVD)

Runtime:

83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:16 (1937) | Finland:(Banned) (1937) | USA:Approved (PCA #2507)

Filming Locations:

Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

When Frank lights a cigarette outside the pharmacy after his wife and child leave, an advertisement for Pabst Beer is visible behind him, only the P and the T have clearly been covered with white-out.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the Legion trusses Mike Grogan to the tree branch before flogging him, in the shot from the front both of his arms are fully extended from the branch. However, in the shot from behind, his right wrist is strapped to the branch with his arm bent at the crook of the elbow.

Quotes:

Cliff Moore: Read!
Frank Taylor: [reading the Black Legion oath] In the name of God and the Devil, one to reward and the other to punish, and by the powers of light and darkness, good and evil, here under the black arch of Heaven's avenging symbol, I pledge and consecrate my heart, my brain, my body, and my limbs and swear by all the powers of Heaven and Hell to devote my life to the obedience of my superiors and that no danger or peril shall deter me from executin' dere orders...
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in Warner at War (2008) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Fancy Meeting You

The scapegoats

While Hitler in Germany was doing away with the Jews,there were in other countries small groups whose leaders (the scene when Bogart attends the first meeting is revealing) yell " America just for the Americans!" Bogart portrays Frank ,a working man, a good husband, a tender father,a jolly good fellow,a nice guy.He's waiting for his promotion : to become a foreman will be the crowning a hard-working life .But there's just one problem: the job is given to a Hungarian,a self-made man who spends his days and nights in the books ,for he believes in the American dream.Frank's hatred will know no bounds.It will not be long till he falls into the hands of a KKK -like secret society,whose scapegoats are those aliens who take the bread out of our mouth,who steal our jobs ,our women and our land...

Archie Mayo's film is absorbing and Bogart is extraordinary: little by little,a good guy turning into a monster;but that's not all.Mayo also puts the blame on the wealthy educated people who work behind the scenes :the scene when they do their books (well how much for the revolvers?)makes your hair stand on end.

But what's fascinating in Mayo's movie is that it's still relevant today,and not only in America.In France ,in 2002,there was a man like THAT in the second ballot of the presidential election:a man who yelled "France only for the French!" and who is still yelling at my time of writing.