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Black Legion

USA 1937
produced by
Robert Lord, Hal B. Wallis (executive), Jack L. Warner (executive) for Warner Brothers
directed by Archie Mayo
starring Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore, Ann Sheridan, Helen Flint, Joe Sawyer, Clifford Soubier, Alonzo Price, Paul Harvey, Dickie Jones, Samuel S. Hinds, Addison Richards, Eddie Acuff, Dorothy Vaughan, John Litel, Henry Brandon, Charles Halton, Pat C. Flick, Francis Sayles, Paul Stanton, Harry Hayden, Egon Brecher
story by Robert Lord, screenplay by Abem Finkel, William Wister Haines

review by
Mike Haberfelner

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Frank (Humphrey Bogart) has always enjoyed his job at the steel welding company he's working at, and he's always been a hard worker and anything but a troublemaker. So he thinks when promotion to foreman is up, he deserves it - but then, Polish-born Dombrowski (Henry Brandon), a relative rookie compared to Frank, is promoted in his place, mainly because he spent his lunchbrearks and the evening hours to educate himself on the steel welding process ... something for which Frank has actually defended Dombrowski against his colleagues who liked to tease the "bookworm". Still, Frank thinks Dombrowski's promotion should have been his. This makes him easy prey for Cliff (Joe Sawyer), a recruting officer for the Black Legion, a secretive racist organisation comparable to the Ku Klux Klan (even down to their ridiculous outfits). Frank has his reservations at first, especially when he hears their ridiculous (but hateful) vow of allegiance, and he doesn't like to be forced to carry a gun, either - but he does like when they (rather violently) drive the Dombrowskis out of town, and he likes to get Dombrowski's job as foreman ... as a bloody reward. However, when he tries to recrute new members for the Black Legion during working hours and has a worker leave his post unattended to talk him into joining, this causes minor disaster in the company and has Frank demoted. Frank feels so unfairly treated that he has his successor as foreman (Clifford Soubier) beaten up by the Legion, even if the man is the father-in-law of his colleague and best friend Ed (Dick Foran).

From here on, Frank's life is on a downward spiral: His wife (Erin O'Brien-Moore) leaves him, he starts drinking, starts running around with a local slut, Pearl (Helen Flint), he loses his job, and he gets into more and more fights with Ed - during one of which he confesses he's a member of the Legion in a drunken state of mind. He lets Cliff know what he has done immediately afterwards, and even though betraying the League means death, Cliff finds a way to get Frank out of the predicament ... but that leads to Frank having to shoot Ed dead. Frank does so but breaks under the pressure and is arrested almost immediately afterwards. The League finds a way to get him out of the predicament, has Pearl testify in his favour and turn his murder into an act of self defense - but when he's as good as off the hook, Frank's conscience kicks in and in courtroom, he confesses everything he knows about the League. Of course, that means he will be jailed for life, but at least he has done the right thing in the end.

 

A film that walks the fine line between crime drama and message movie - and for the most part successfully so, as it tells its story in a compelling and comprehensible way, is well-paced and doesn't bore or annoy the viewer by hammering home its point to violently and forgetting its story. Add to this a great cast and an elegant directorial effort, and you're almost there - but only almost, as the script at times seems a tad too blunt, at times oversimplifies things, and at times falls into old clichées to push its message along.

But still, while it's no masterpiece, it's at least an ok and totally watchable movie - that's actually also rather shocking considering how little has changed in the 75 years since it was made.

 

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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In times of uncertainty of a possible zombie outbreak, a woman has to decide between two men - only one of them's one of the undead.

 

There's No Such Thing as Zombies
starring
Luana Ribeira, Rudy Barrow and Rami Hilmi
special appearances by
Debra Lamb and Lynn Lowry

 

directed by
Eddie Bammeke

written by
Michael Haberfelner

produced by
Michael Haberfelner, Luana Ribeira and Eddie Bammeke

 

now streaming at

Amazon

Amazon UK

Vimeo

 

 

 

Robots and rats,
demons and potholes,
cuddly toys and
shopping mall Santas,
love and death and everything in between,
Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

is all of that.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to
-
a collection of short stories and mini-plays
ranging from the horrific to the darkly humourous,
from the post-apocalyptic
to the weirdly romantic,
tales that will give you a chill and maybe a chuckle, all thought up by
the twisted mind of
screenwriter and film reviewer
Michael Haberfelner.

 

Tales to Chill
Your Bones to

the new anthology by
Michael Haberfelner

 

Out now from
Amazon!!!