Mon 16 Dec 2019
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: BLACK LEGION (1937).
Posted by Steve under Films: Drama/Romance , Reviews[12] Comments
BLACK LEGION. Warner Brothers, 1937. Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan, Dick Foran, Erin O’Brien-Moore, Joe Sawyer and Henry Brandon. Screenplay by Abem Finkel and William Wister Haines, from a story by Robert Lord. Directed by Archie Mayo and Michael Curtiz.
I hate it when a film like this becomes relevant again.
In its day, Black Legion was merely topical, based on the true story of a splinter group spun off of the KKK. Topical yes, but sometimes News becomes History, and you know what they say about those who don’t remember the past—they fail History Exams.
Humphrey Bogart was still an also-ran in 1937, with The Petrified Forest behind him, and Dead End coming up, but also plenty of things like Swing Your Lady and The Return of Dr X in his future. He seems to have realized early on that this was an important part and he gives it the most self-effacing performance of his career.
When Bogie plays Frank Taylor, the gullible working stiff, there’s no glimmer of intelligence behind his eyes, no imagination beyond the American Dream of a nice house with a white picket fence and a wife and child waiting there. And when an émigré (Henry Brandon) gets the promotion Frank was expecting and the dream is snatched from him, his expression of hurt and bewilderment is more than convincing: It’s scary.
Even more so when Taylor starts listening to radio commentators warning of the tide of foreigners flooding into our country, here to take our jobs and pollute our heritage. So when a co-worker (Joe Sawyer, masterfully cast here) tells him of a “group of guys†that aren’t going to stand for this anymore, we pretty much know where he’s headed—though I suspect few viewers will foresee the outcome.
This is because the writers do a fine job of keeping the Black Legion at the edge of silliness, with their preposterously grim oath (Bogie nearly chokes on it.) passwords and fake piety. But when the silliness turns grim and deadly, the laughter dies quickly.
It would be easy at this point to start drawing parallels. Damn night irresistible in fact. But I ain’t gonna do it. Nossir, not me. Over the years, Black Legion has drawn some criticism for not being explicit about the KKK and racism, but I find that lack of specificity brings us to universality.
Thus Black Legion is about bigotry, xenophobia and mob mentality, but it’s also about the ignorance in which they grow and the venality that feeds on them. And to me the parallels are just too plain to point out.
December 17th, 2019 at 8:29 am
Thank you for a good review!
I need to catch up with this film.
Good works I HAVE seen:
The Klan was denounced in some good movies:
The Mating Call (James Cruze, 1928)
Stars in My Crown (Jacques Tourneur, 1950)
The Cardinal (Otto Preminger, 1963)
And in comic books:
The “Spy” story “The Hooded Hordes” Detective Comics #17, July 1938.
The “Fox” story “Origin of the Fox” Blue Ribbon Comics #4, June 1940.
The “Sub-Zero” story “Scourge of the Knights of the Blue Flame” Blue Bolt Comics #23 (Vol. 2, #11) April 1942.
America has a wonderful cultural heritage. We need to remember all these outstanding works.
December 17th, 2019 at 11:57 am
My sense is, that among Bogart’s lesser known films — and I think this is one of them — this is his best performance.
December 17th, 2019 at 7:20 pm
You got it right Steve.
December 17th, 2019 at 8:19 pm
Solid performance by Bogart getting to play an ordinary Joe for one of the few times in his career. It almost plays as if Warner’s tried to slip a serious film through to the public by disguising it as a B programmer.
Sawyer had several of these roles at Warner’s, including in CONFESSIONS OF A NAZI SPY.
December 17th, 2019 at 8:49 pm
It wasn’t until after watching this film that I was able to match Joe Sawyer’s name with his face. And then I seemed to see him all the time. (I was watching a lot of Warner Brothers films around then.)
December 17th, 2019 at 10:34 pm
I was engaged in a long debate with someone once who insisted Bogart hated his entire career up until he was able to parody and scorn it, in ‘In a Lonely Place’.
December 18th, 2019 at 6:51 am
Laz’ your friend must have known Bogie very well to make that conclusion. I know him only from reading, but his attitude always seemed more self-deprecating to me.
December 18th, 2019 at 3:27 pm
We went back and forth over this idea, indeed. My assertion was that Bogart had quite a varied career rich in accomplishments and unusual parts; whereas my counterpart insisted that he was thoroughly dissatisfied at having had to play so many simplistic gangsters or toughs. I couldn’t part him from this strange conviction no matter how I tried. He was an adamant fan of Nicholas Ray and felt Bogie’s collaboration with him had yielded a masterpiece for both men.
December 18th, 2019 at 7:26 pm
Bogie actually played few gangsters and standard tough guys later in his career. He’s an idealistic lawyer in KNOCK ON ANY DOOR, a Cockney boat bum in THE AFRICAN QUEEN, a middle aged businessman falling in love with a younger woman in SABRINA, an unlikely angel in WE’RE NO ANGELS, and so on, and my understanding was that he liked his role in DESPERATE HOURS.
Even prior to his breakthroughs in HIGH SIERRA and the MALTESE FALCON he had a great role as the Irish horse trainer in DARK VICTORY, and this ordinary guy in BLACK LEGION.
But I have no doubt he got tired of being killed by Edward G. Robinson and James Cagney though in all those gangster films.
December 18th, 2019 at 7:29 pm
Steve,
For some of us Joe Sawyer was always the sergeant from RIN TIN TIN and the chief from the first season of VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.
December 18th, 2019 at 10:28 pm
The Chief from Voyage‘s first season was Henry Kulky (aka Bomber Kulkawicz), who died before season’s end.
December 21st, 2019 at 12:38 am
Mike, yup, sorry mis remembered.