One Paragraph Movie Review: I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang

Two hundred and forty-fifth film: I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang, a 1932 movie about a man who is a fugitive from a chain gang. For a film made ninety years ago there’s a surprisingly familiar and contemporary hey-what’s-up-with-the-inhumane-brutality-of-the-penal-system theme, as the wrongly-accused veteran Allen works his way in and out of imprisonment peppered with black and white striped pyjamas. This thing is a cracking, pacey ride with just the right levels of everything including sweat, dastardliness, sexy suggestion, sledgehammers and social justice messaging, but slightly too few incredible frocks. We learn how good men can go bad, and how bad men can, with the right escape plan and engineering training, literally build a bridge and get over it (and blow it up). Oh! I just got that — the bit where he spends most of the movie wanting to build bridges but ends up exploding one. Nice. A good movie. Three and three-quarter fried dough and pig fat breakfasts out of five.