Black Legion (film)

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Black Legion
Theatrical poster to Black Legion (1937)
Directed by	Archie Mayo
Produced by	Robert Lord Hal B. Wallis (executive producer)
Written by	Robert Lord (story) Abem Finkel William Wister Haines (screenplay)
Starring	Humphrey Bogart Erin O'Brien-Moore Dick Foran Ann Sheridan
Cinematography	George Barnes
Editing by	Owen Marks
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	January 30, 1937
Running time	83 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
IMDb profile

Black Legion is a 1937 movie, starring Humphrey Bogart and Erin O'Brien-Moore in a fictionalized story about the real-life Black Legion of the 1930s.

[edit] Film summary

Bogart plays Frank Taylor, a Detroit factory worker who joins the "pro-American" (i.e. anti-immigrants and "foreigners") Legion when he is passed over for promotion by a foreign-born friend. Taylor feels pressured by the Legion, by his family's growing needs, and by his increasingly marginal status at his job, to turn against his new boss. When Taylor is ultimately (but regretfully) fired during a cutback, the Legion insists he get revenge, with their help – in return for his silence about them.

The movie, while still presenting Bogart in a negative role, allowed him a sympathetic one, and his performance drew praise, as did the movie itself for its dramatization of a social phenomenon. Black Legion still holds up well, years after its first release.^[who?]