Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Fourty-Nine: The other fugitive

In previous posts I've talked about the 1930s studio system and how big stars were attached to them, during the dec

ade Warner Bros' biggest stars was a name that isn't well recognised today - Paul Muni. Muni was one of the only actors at the studio who was allowed to pick his parts and was probably one of the first actors who the term character actor could be attributed to. I've previously watched his Oscar winning performance in The Story of Louis Pasteur and he also features in 1938 Oscar Winner The Life of Emile Zola but at the 1934 ceremony he was also nominated for Best Picture contender I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang.

In the film Muni's James Allen finds himself constantly trapped. To start off with he is trapped in the army when he finally leaves he is taken into a job at a constricting factory something he hates. He starts to look for construction work outside but as he travels the country he cannot find anything. While travelling he meets a man in a hostel and is tricked into being an accomplice in a robbery and is sentenced to life on a chain gang. He eventually escapes and gets away where he gets his construction job and soon climbs up the ladder becoming a foreman and coming up with ideas about building a bridge. However he becomes trapped into a loveless marriage with his landlady after she finds out about his past through a letter from his brother. After James finds love with his secretary he asks for a divorce but his wife shops him in and he agrees to go back to prison as a deal is made for him to be pardoned after three months. However the pardon never comes and he is once again on the chain gang. He again escapes by using dynamite to blow up one of the bridges he helps to construct. The final scenes see him meet up with Helen and when she asks him what he does for money he tells her - 'I steal'.

This final scene is probably the film's most famous as the screen goes dark before James delivers the line. Apparently this was a mistake and the lights failed or were turned off earlier than they should've been but the studio was so impressed that it was kept in the film. Like many of these films Fugitive failed to win any Oscars as well as actor and picture it got nominated for its sound. But I have to say I very much enjoyed the picture with the central theme of if a man has done so much good is he bad. In fact James throughout the film really only wants to do good and it is the justice system that at the end forces him into a life of stealing. I was very much impressed with Muni's performance, more so than his Louis Pasteur, but I'm guessing it just wasn't his year. Meanwhile I think that maybe this was the biggest challenger to Cavalcade's winning status so far but I still think I enjoyed that more.