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11 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Graphic Study of Nativist Violence, 13 October 2005
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

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.

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10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
The scapegoats, 4 March 2007
Author: dbdumonteil

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.

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12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful :-
A good one, 30 March 2002
8/10
Author: frankfob from California

Humphrey Bogart is first-rate in this thinly disguised story of the Ku Klux Klan and how it plays on the fears and prejudices of the poor and uneducated (and how it's run by the well-to-do and educated, a point often missed by reviewers). Bogart plays a factory worker who was expecting a promotion, only to see it go to a "foreigner" (in this case, a Pole--and, by implication, a Jew, which is where the Klan gets involved). Angry, resentful and worried about his future, Bogart gets caught up in a racist, Klan-like group called the Black Legion, which, in the manner of all fundamentalist right-wing terrorist groups, proclaims its patriotism and its "defense of God and country" against "dirty foreigners." The interesting thing about this film is that it really doesn't blame Bogart's character for what eventually happens; he's just a pawn in the political agenda of the right-wing business and political interests who actually control the group. Warner Bros. was known for its muckraking films, and this is one of its better ones. It took guts for Warners to make this type of picture during this particular period in American history; there was a strong resurgence of Ku Klux Klan activity all over the country--there was even a Klan parade, with thousands of hooded marchers, that passed directly in front of the White House in Washington, DC--and lynchings and racial murders were skyrocketing, especially in the South. While maybe not as strong as some would have liked, the picture still radiates the Warner Bros. passion for the underdog, and they did a good job here. Strong performances by the principals, tight direction by Archie Mayo and the usual Warner Bros. grit make for a first-rate film. Highly recommended.

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9 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
One of the Best of Bogey's Early Films, 8 May 2000
7/10
Author: Brian J. Smith from Gloucester, Ontario, Canada

The Black Legion is significant in the career of Humphrey Bogart. This film is the first time he played the lead in an "A" feature. The film is also a great showcase for his acting talents.

In this film Bogey's character, Frank Taylor, moves from a happily married family man, to a man filled with hate and finally to a man remorseful for the trouble he has brought upon himself and others.

When Frank Taylor loses an expected promotion to a "foreigner", he becomes disillusioned and is coerced by a co-worker (Joseph Sawyer) into joining a secretive hate and Klu Klux Klan like organization called The Black Legion. Despite pleas from his wife (Erin O'Brien-Moore) and best friend (Dick Foran), Taylor continues his terrorist activities leading to the inevitable tragic consequences.

The subject of prejudice and hate organizations in a major studio production was quite daring for the 30s, given the introduction of the Production Code only a few years earlier. It still delivers a powerful message today.

The Black Legion remains one of the best of Bogey's early films.

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9 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Sensationalistic, but brave for it's day., 2 August 1999
7/10
Author: David Atfield (bits@alphalink.com.au) from Canberra, Australia

The opening credits of this film declare in large letters that the characters and institutions portrayed in the film are entirely fictional. It seems even the brothers Warner were afraid of the Ku Klux Klan. And why wouldn't they be in the Thirties when lynchings and other acts of terror were common - are they still? Bogart is fine in an early role as a young worker, dismayed at a Polish worker getting a promotion he was seeking, who joins the Klan (or the Black Legion as they call it here). It's interesting to see him before he was typecast as the tough guy - he is very vulnerable here but not entirely sympathetic.

The film wears its sincerity on its sleeve a bit and is never wholly believable, but it is a brave attempt to confront the racism that was rife in Depression era America, when getting and keeping a job was very tough.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
"What this country needs is bigger and better patriots.", 26 October 2005
8/10
Author: classicsoncall from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

As if to counterpoint the darker drama to follow, the initial scene of "Black Legion" opens to a factory setting with it's workers all dressed in bright white uniforms, with names neatly embroidered over each man's left pocket. Contrast that with the black anonymity of hooded members of the titled organization, and you have Warner Brothers take on another facet of injustice in pre-war America.

Humphrey Bogart portrays Frank Taylor, a disaffected employee passed over for a promotion to a book reading, intelligent Polish worker. While his work suffers his ego simmers, ripe for the pseudo intellectual babble of a disembodied voice on the radio clamoring for the rights of native white American workers. When the time is right, fellow employee Cliff Summers (Joe Sawyer) introduces Frank to an organization known as the Black Legion, championing the rights of workers, while engaging in night time raids on those they wish to eliminate. Taylor's induction into the Legion is conveyed with the utmost symbolism, vowing an oath to the death to protect it's secrets, while a gun points to his head to insure his allegiance.

Taylor's involvement with the group comes at the expense of his family, wife Ruth (Erin O'Brien Moore) and son Buddy (Dickie Jones). They attempt to keep him honest, as does friend Ed Jackson (Dick Foran), but before long, Taylor is in so deep he no longer recognizes himself. As Jackson learns of his friend's involvement in the group's local hostilities, the situation reaches a boiling point for Frank, and the legion kidnaps Ed for a traditional whipping. It's Taylor's own handgun that cuts Ed down as he attempts to break free, putting Frank over the edge and setting him up for capture by the authorities. As newspaper headlines proclaim "Jackson Killing Bares Black Legion", Taylor faces threats of harm to his family if he testifies against them while in jail.

In a scene reminiscent of James Cagney's breakdown at the end of "Angels With Dirty Faces", Bogey's character erupts a confession while on trial, bringing down the participants in his crime and exposing the Legion's secrets. In a follow up scene, the entire leadership of the organization involved in Jackson's murder stand trial and are sentenced to life in prison. The textbook speech by the judge (Samuel S. Hinds) to the defendants is a resounding affirmation of the American right to freedom and opportunity.

The Warner Brothers films of the era did a good, if sometimes melodramatic job of presenting the ills of society in an unfavorable light. More noted for their crime and gangster dramas, they also keyed in on the effects of poverty (1937's "Dead End") and wildcat truckers (1940's "They Drive by Night"); it seems there wasn't a subject they wouldn't touch. This film still resonates nearly seventy years following it's original release, presenting it's condemnation of a hate group characteristic of a "new Ku Klux Klan".

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A film with a mission, 1 January 2007
7/10
Author: Igenlode Wordsmith from England

I'm not sure "The Black Legion" is quite the searing issue movie it probably wanted to be; it bears more of a relationship to the post-war Ministry of Information documentaries in Britain (which were often very good). But considered purely as popular entertainment, it's pretty striking, with Bogart's performance hovering just this side of 'over the top' -- an amazingly youthful-looking Bogart, in comparison to his later starring roles...

The issue of anti-immigrant prejudice has of course taken on new life of late -- if ever it really left -- and Bogart portrays convincingly how the man on the street can become sucked into an otherwise preposterous world of blood-curdling oaths and death's-head regalia, at first through petty personal grudge and then through the surge of power that comes with group action. He depicts with equal conviction the disintegration of the man who finds himself pinned between that same power and what really matters in his life, and Erin O'Brien-Moore is excellent in the role of the wife whom another actress might have represented as too perfect to be true.

And the anti-feelgood ending still comes as a shock, after all these years. Justice is even-handed but implacable.

The message isn't always terribly subtle, the music likewise, and the acting occasionally veers a little too far into bravura territory, vindicated by a reassuring speech to the effect that actually, no matter what you may have seen in this movie, Americans are inherently nice, tolerant people (just in case the audience might feel bad about themselves, presumably) -- but it's a brave attempt at covering contemporary events, despite the standard disclaimer, and still stands up pretty well as a film in its own right seventy years later. To a modern viewer, the real period piece is the fascinating depiction of a live radio news broadcast, complete with a large cast of supporting actors voicing all reported dialogue with split-second teamwork, and a conductor and full instrumental section behind the microphones to provide the swell of background music as required!

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5 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
Over 60 years old but, sadly, still topical, 2 April 2001
9/10
Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) from United States

Frank (Humphrey Bogart), a factory worker, is passed over on a promotion that goes to a Polish man. In anger, he joins the Black Legion (basically the Ku Klux Klan) to punish all foreigners for taking jobs from "true Americans". The story has been done since, but this one is well-made, quick (82 min.), well-acted (Bogart is great and looks so young!) and still powerful. The film isn't perfect (I could have lived without the closing sermon) but still worth seeing. It's also real sad to realize that a film over 60 years old about racism is still relevant.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
The late thirties were much scarier than this., 20 September 2007
9/10
Author: jread-5 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

In the 1930s, many Americans thought that Fascism was just fine- a proper answer to the 'socialism' of the New Deal. In July, 1934, Fortune magazine ran a long adoring feature article with multi-color pictures extolling the virtues of Italian Fascism. The introduction concludes with the sentence "But the good journalist must recognize in Fascism certain ancient virtues of the race, whether or not they happen to be momentarily fashionable in his own country. Among these are Discipline, Duty, Courage, Glory, Sacrifice." In 1936, there was a serious attempt by the capitalist hierarchy to overthrow the government of Roosevelt with a military coup to be led by a popular Marine general, Smedley Butler. The coup only failed because Butler turned on his backers, much as Frank turns on the Black Legion in the movie.

This movie only touches on the motives of the sinister organizers of the Black Legion, the gray eminence in suits behind loony dupes like Frank. The implication is that they are just running the Black Legion to make money by selling black sheets and revolvers. I would have preferred to see the movie explore the true extent of the cesspool of interests that was behind American Fascism of the thirties. A bit much to expect, I suppose.

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Powerful, Punchy, Brave Tale., 1 March 2008
8/10
Author: gary-444 from United Kingdom

A wonderful example of how good writing and strong direction can tell a tale which stands the test of time. Director Archie Mayo enjoyed a career directing films spanning some 30 years, and 84 titles.This one was Directed 20 years in and was number 67. It shows.None of the 83 minute running time is wasted, and if some of the characters come across as caricatures,it is only in the interests of brevity and pace.

A youthful Bogart delivers a fine performance as an ordinary working man of his time seduced by the specious ideology of the Black Legion, whose ideals clearly reflect that of a Ku Klux Klan very much alive in the US at that time.Although carrying a UK PG certificate, Mayo portrays flogging and beating scenes in a manner that although are understated, leave you in no doubt as to what is going on.

Traditional family, friendship and civic values are naturally triumphed, but the insidious nature of xenophobia and the crippling effect of moral rectitude are skilfully played out in a sharp, pacey story.

An almost textbook example of how to tell a powerful, entertaining story with a message in less than an hour and a half, with a fine Bogard performance merely the centrepiece of a strong supporting cast.

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