Black Legion

Black Legion (1937)

*** (out of 4)

Pretty hard-hitting Warner drama about factory worker Frank (Humphrey Bogart) who loses a promotion to a Jewish man so a friend (Joe Sawyer) introduces him to the "Black Legion", a KKK-type group. Soon the men are pushing out those who they don't consider real Americans and Frank begins to lose control of his wife (Erin O'Brien-Moore) and best friend (Dick Foran). There's no question that this film has it's heart in the right place but at the same time you can't help but know the real history of things and have a hard time buying into this "equal" talk here especially when you know very well that things were a lot uglier in this country in terms of race issues. This film pretty much just talks about foreigners and never mentions the fact that groups like this were going after blacks so leaving this out, as if they were important enough to throw into the subject, is a bit misleading and really goes again the message of treating everyone equal. With that in mind, the rest of the film is pretty good and contains some very good performances and some dark situations. I wasn't shocked that a blue-collar studio like Warner would dig deep into the subject matter and try to give an honest look at the events. What did shock me is that the film stayed true to its dark nature and carried it out till the end. This might explain why the movie was banned all across the world but I give the studio credit for not weakening out towards the end. The Oscar-nominated story might leave out certain groups but it works outside of that one issue. I think the movie does a great job at making people understands Frank issues and I think the movie does a great job at making us side for Frank. I'm sure many Americans were feeling frustrated just like this character so the movie lets us feel for him but then it makes sure that people know violence in these types of groups isn't the way to correct things. The movie, except for the very end, never becomes preachy and instead it lets the story do all the talking and we're never constantly beat over the head with any type of message. We get to view the events that happen and I think most people will clearly get what the film is trying to say. Bogart turns in a wonderful performance and I was really surprised at how good he was in this type of role. I'd certainly say this is the best work I've seen from him in these pre-fame years as he really makes for a believable character. I think he really fits into that working class nature and he makes you understand everything Frank is feeling and fearing. Dick Foran is just as good as his best friend who tries to get him to quit the group and O'Brien-Moore and Ann Sheridan add nice support as the wives. Apparently Michael Curtiz stepped in when it came time to director the Black Legion scenes and I believe it as these sequences seem a lot different than everything else. That's certainly not a bad thing as they contain some nice drama and just contain an overall different feel. This is certainly an impressive film but at the same time I wish the "message" would have gone for everyone being effected by groups like this instead of it just limiting itself to those running the studio.

"Black Legion" was a very unusual role for Humphrey Bogart, but I think he got it because he was not yet an established star and Warner Brothers put him in many different sorts of parts. So, if you are looking for the tough and assertive sort of Bogart, this is NOT the film for you! No, Bogie plays a despicable sort of jerk--and a cowardly one at that.

The film begins at a machine shop. It seems that someone is going to be promoted to foreman and Bogart is sure it will be him. However, a Polish-American worker gets the job instead. While this man DID deserve it, Bogie is sullen and angry--and soon jumps at an opportunity to join a local hate club. The Black Legion is sort of like the KKK with its trappings but is more anti-foreigner in focus. So, to get back at the foreman, Bogart sicks his new 'friends' on them and he soon gets the job promotion. Where does all this new power lead him? See this powerful film and find out for yourself.

While I wish the film had taken a stronger and clearer stand against the Klan, it is a very powerful film for 1937, as many folks would have supported groups like the Legion. Groups like the American Bund and the popularity of antisemitic celebrities like Charles Lindburgh and Henry Ford (who wrote books espousing hatred of Jews, foreigners and the like) during this time could not be denied. In other words, this film might have alienated many potential viewers and the studio chose to take a deliberate stand for what is right. And, it's a strong film with a very good performance by Bogart in a VERY different sort of role. Well worth seeing--and probably a bit stronger in its message than the studio's "Storm Warning"--another anti-hate group film that was made a dozen years later.

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.

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.

1937's "Black Legion" tells a story of a man's involvement with what amounts to the Klan without coming out and calling it that. Humphrey Bogart stars as Frank Taylor, a working man who loses a bid to become foreman when a foreign-born man gets the job instead. The Legion is right up Taylor's alley, reinforcing his belief that his woes are all the fault of the foreign-born. He gradually gets more immune to the violence as he gets in deeper and deeper with the Black Legion. It really is a very good vehicle for Bogart's acting talent as his morality gradually unwinds. The sermon at the end seems a little tacked on, much like a similar scene in 1933's "Wild Boys of the Road", but it doesn't detract too much from the overall film.