Black Legion
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
When passed over for promotion at work in favor of a foreign-born friend, Frank Taylor (Humphrey Bogart), a midwestern factory worker, joins the anti-immigrant Black Legion, a secret white vigilante organization portrayed as related to the Ku Klux Klan. Dressed in black robes and hoods, Taylor and the Legion mount a torchlight raid and burn down the friend's chicken farm, driving him out of town, so that Taylor can gain the job he believed was his. Soon, however, Taylor's recruiting activities with the Legion get in the way of his work, and he is demoted in favor of neighbor Mike Grogan (Clifford Soubier). The Legion takes action again, attacking Grogan.
Under the continued influence of the Legion, Taylor becomes a brutal racist, and alienates his wife (Erin O'Brien-Moore). He starts drinking heavily and takes up with a loose woman (Helen Flint). When his friend Ed Jackson (Dick Foran) tries to counsel him, a drunken Taylor tells about his Legion activities. Taylor reports the conversation to Cliff, a co-worker and fellow member of the Legion, who initiates a false rumor that Jackson is a woman-beater. On the pretext of punishing him for that offense, the Legion kidnaps Jackson, planning to flog him. Jackson tries to escape. As he is running away, Taylor shoots and kills him; breaking down afterward with guilt and remorse, he exclaims, "I didn't mean to shoot!"
Taylor is arrested for the murder, and the Legion threatens his wife and son to prevent him from implicating the secret group in the crime. Taylor finally tells the truth, resulting in all the members of the Black Legion being convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Review: 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.
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.
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..
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
Not a bad movie for its time, since it tries to show how otherwise well-meaning men like Frank Taylor (played by Humphrey Bogart)can become involved in vigilante activities against foreigners and immigrants.
A frustrated Humphrey Bogart joins the "Black Legion," a 1937 film directed by Archie Mayo.
The film also stars Dick Foran and Ann Sheridan.Bogart plays Frank Taylor, a husband and father who expects to get a promotion at the auto plant where he works.
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..
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).
That said, here we have Humphrey Bogart playing the role of Frank Taylor who has worked at his job for many years, is well-liked and happy.
Unfortunately, because a Polish immigrant gets a promotion he thought was rightfully his, he angrily joins a secret society known as the Black Legion.
I was horrified, but it did exist: "The Black Legion was a secret vigilante terrorist group and a white supremacist organization in the Midwestern United States that splintered from the Ku Klux Klan and operated during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
Black Legion (1937), a feature film, starred Humphrey Bogart.
Archie Mayo and Michael Curtiz co-directed this hard-hitting drama that stars Humphrey Bogart as Frank Taylor, a machinist in a factory who loses a promotion to a "foreigner", and has his disappointment turn to bitter hatred when he is coaxed on by a co-worker(played by Joe Sawyer) to join a secretive organization called the Black Legion, which preaches violence against all foreigners.
"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.
The National Board Of Review named Humphrey Bogart as best actor & voted "Black Legion" as their favorite movie of 1937.
However Bogart's first successful "acting" role dates back to 1936 when he was given a very demanding leading role of Frank Taylor in Black Legion.
Bogie was chosen for the lead in Black Legion because Warner Bros needed an actor that looked "American" due to it's controversial subject matter.
Critics believed Black Legion would catapult Bogie to stardom & this movie was also in the top 10 list of best films of 1937.
But despite all the excitement this movie generated in 1937 it did not elevate Bogart to stardom, despite the success of Black Legion the major stars would outgross him every time.
Black Legion is as good as any film Bogie did later if not better.
When Black Legion was first being sold the studio promoted the film by saying "there is no Robinson or a Muni in the film but there is Humphrey Bogart".
Black Legion was inspired from true events from an organisation of the same name despite the film's false opening disclaimer.In Black Legion Humphrey Bogart plays the role of Frank Taylor, a family man who is a far cry from the likes of Rick Blaine or Phillip Marlowe.
He feels empowered by it and develops a false sense of security as he plays it tough to bolster his lack of confidence as rarely does Frank ever look totally comfortable within in the Black Legion itself.Frank Taylor is drawn to racial hatred and later to joining the Black Legion after he loses a job promotion of factory foreman to Joe Dombrowski, a foreign-born worker.
Likewise the comments later given by Ann Sheridan's character in relation to the idea of the Dombrowski's setting their own house aflame for an insurance payment in that they are "honourable people" and that "they wouldn't do a thing like that" gives the impression that they are pillars of the community and that the locals do not look on at them as foreigners.Essentially the factory in the film operated as a meritocracy and employed the best person for the job ("They will fill it the way they always have, move the best man up"); the essence of the American Dream - study hard and you will be rewarded.
Likewise the scene in which Frank first attends a secret meeting held by the Black Legion in which a Hitler-esque speaker who overtly finger points gives a riveting yet at the same time ridiculous speech in which he speaks of ethnic nationalism and delves in conspiratorial nonsense on how foreigners "Now enriched with the jobs they have chiselled away from Americans and drunk with the power of their stolen prosperity, they are plotting to seize and control our government".With movies such as Black Legion and others from the mid to late 30's you can't help but ask would it be better if it were made before the code?
Likewise Black Legion does distinguish itself as an interesting beast of a film in that it feels like it is in between being a B picture and an A picture.Interspersed between the main story is a love triangle subplot between Ann Sheridan, Helen Flint and Dick Foran.
"Black Legion" is one of the more controversial films from "Warner Bros" and it should have made Humphrey Bogart a star.
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).
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.
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.
Fine Warners muckraking, with Bogie in an atypical good-average-Joe-gone-wrong role, as an assembly line worker in a typical middle American town who is passed over for a promotion and grows quickly to resent the smart Polish guy who got the job.
It's a plausible story, still relevant in these days of teabaggers and Palinistas, and Bogie is ably supported by Dick Foran (as his more conscientious best friend), Erin O'Brien Moore (as his sad, increasingly desperate wife), and a young Ann Sheridan (whose character seems a bit too calm and forgiving in the final reels, considering what's been done to her loved ones).
When immigrant Dombrowski gets the promotion instead, Frank suffers deep humiliation making him vulnerable to Legion propaganda that blames foreigners, like Dombrowski, for taking good "American" jobs.
Some picture pre-war and after-war in Hollywood have this problem the Ultra-nationalism and damage the movie,here have Humphrey Bogart before became a star in a role of an American who loose your job's position for a stranger...so he joint a kind of gang called black legion taking he to help to pressing people and even committing murder to clean up the way for native American workers..l don't know if it was happened or it was one more a political movie propaganda from the 30'.
Humphrey Bogart, lean and mean in an early starring role, plays a factory worker in small town America who joins an organization not unlike the Ku Klux Klan--this after a foreign co-worker gets the promotion Bogie wanted.
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.
And although this is a year after "The Petrified Forest", I have to rate this film and Bogart's performance here as far superior.Humphrey Bogart's acting as a simple factory worker who gets wrapped up in the Black Legion (a sort of KKK organization) is remarkable.
And then, when he murders his own friend (Dick Foran) he becomes a humbled and scared man who -- in the end -- stands up in court and names names, exposing the secret society, but also results in putting himself in prison for life.Dick Foran is good here, as in Bogart's wife Erin O'Brien-Moore.
**SPOILERS** Shocking exposer of a dreaded Klu Klux Klan like hate group using its dislike of, mostly non English speaking, foreigners then its usual dislike of blacks Jews and Hispanics to take its wrath out on.In the movie we have a happy go lucky Frank Taylor, Humphrey Bogart, who hasn't a mean or racist bone in his body get corrupted and radicalized by this shadowy group of dangerous troublemakers called the Black Legion.
It's when Frank lost out at being made foreman at his machine factory job to a son of Polish immigrants Joe Dombrowski, Henry Brandon, that he became rip picking for the Legion in it exploiting his frustrations of being skipped over for what they called a non-American.
That radical opinion on Frank's part soon lead to him losing his job at the factory in him trying to recruit fellow "All Americans" like himself into the Black Legion instead of doing his job.
Frank's radical and racist views also lead to his wife Ruth, Erin O'Brien, leaving him together with their 8 year-old son Buddy, Dickie Jones.With nothing to look forward to Frank descended into his own living hell that was the Black Legion whom its existence and members he was sworn to secrecy at the cost of his and his family members lives if he ever exposed them to the pubic or police.
As for Frank he'll never see the light of day in being giving a life sentence for the murder of his good friend Ed Jackson but he'll at least know that he, by putting the Black Legion out of business, in some way made up for it.P.S As it turned out "Black Legion" was in fact the first movie that Humphrey Bogart got top billing in.
It's enough to say that Bogart becomes embittered, joins an organization called The Black Legion that looks a lot like the KKK, and winds up murdering Dick Foran, his best friend, the son of an Irish immigrant who subscribes to "da Roman hierarchy".
Bogart plays Frank Taylor, a factory machinist that loses a promotion to a supervisory position to a harder working Polish immigrant(Henry Bradon).
A co-worker(Joe Sawyer)convinces Frank to join the secret society of the Black Legion, who believes in "American for Americans" driving away immigrants and racial minorities with ruthless violence.
An interesting scene - when they come out of the movies - one of the posters advertises "Public Enemy's Wife", a Dick Foran movie of 1936!!!Frank is becoming increasingly dissatisfied with life and troublemaker Cliff Moore (Joe Sawyer) introduces him to a secret society - the Black Legion.
Several examples are provided in this film.First, the promotion of a foreign-born worker(Joe)to shop foreman over the general consensus that Frank(Humphrey Bogart) deserved the promotion resulted in a night raid on Joe's house, burning his house and his father's chicken coup, and breaking things up.