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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Robert Lord (story)
Abem Finkel (screenplay) ...
more
Release Date:
30 January 1937 (USA) more
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. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. more
User Comments:
Graphic Study of Nativist Violence more (17 total)
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | 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 |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
83 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
Norway:16 (1937) | Finland:(Banned) (1937) | USA:Approved (PCA #2507)
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
The location used for the machine shop is actually the real Warner Brothers machine shop, which still exists and can be seen today on tours. more
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. more
Quotes:
Cliff Moore:
Well, what's the matter? You afraid?
Ed Jackson:
So, you're afraid! Maybe they better change the name of your outfit from the Black Legion to the Yellow Legion.
more
Movie Connections:
Featured in Warner at War (2008) (TV) more
Soundtrack:
Fair and Warmer more
FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (17 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Black Legion (1937)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
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| For the Real Story on the Black Legion. | Diosprometheus |
| DVD Release-- March 25, 2008 | dnscal |
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| Fury | Crossfire | Bulldog Edition | Call Northside 777 | Babel |
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Related Links
| Full cast and crew | Company credits | External reviews |
| IMDb Drama section | IMDb USA section | Add this title to MyMovies |
At the time it came out Black Legion came from the B Picture Unit at Warner Brothers. Some of the players in it became A list stars later on. Nevertheless this was playing the second half of double features when first released. But it made a tremendous impact and viewing it almost 70 years later, still makes an impact.
Warner Brothers as the working class studio was the only one who could have made a film like Black Legion. Working class stiff Humphrey Bogart gets passed over for a promotion at a job, losing it to Polish American Henry Brandon. This makes him ripe for the propaganda of a nativist crew of nightriders who call themselves The Black Legion.
Another co-worker Joe Sawyer gets Bogart to join with a whole lot of bad consequences for just about every principal player in the cast.
Since this film was about ordinary people it had a great message to tell. We've had nativist outbreaks in America through out our history. The Twenties and Thirties with groups like the Ku Klux Klan and the Black Legion were particularly bad. Bad economic times usually bring out either the best or the worst in people.
Humphrey Bogart is joined by a whole bunch of people from his film debut in The Petrified Forest. Joe Sawyer, Dick Foran, Paul Harvey, Eddie Acuff, it must have seemed like a reunion film. For me this has always been Joe Sawyer's career role for the screen. In The Petrified Forest he was one of Bogey's gang. Here he's the evil influence on Bogart, a nice reversal. He had a similar part in San Quentin.
Dick Foran is the Mercutio/Benvolio part here, the good friend to Bogart. He was actually a bigger name than Bogey at the time this was made, as he was starring in a bunch singing cowboy films for Warner Brothers. This was one of the few times he was show he could do more than he was usually given.
Films back then had a whole lot of stern father figures like Lionel Barrymore and Lewis Stone who could deliver lectures like no other. Capping this film is Samuel S. Hinds as a trial judge telling the Black Legion defendants what Americanism and the Bill of Rights is all about. Words to live by still.