How sad is this?

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

"Black Legion" is one of the more controversial films from "Warner Bros" and it should have made Humphrey Bogart a star. The film's premise is daring for the times, especially after the American Film Censors had clamped down pretty hard on Hollywood films in general. Bogart plays a factory worker who has had the same job for many years. He is a married man with a son and has an ordinary existence. At the beginning of the film, Bogart has the chance of being promoted to that of shop steward at the factory. However, he is passed over by a young worker who is from an Eastern European background. Angry and resentful, Bogart is coerced by a work colleague into joining a secret society that tries to rid America of all citizens who aren't born and bred Americans. The society is a thinly veiled version of the Klu Klux Klan, as aggressive and violent means are employed. Before long, Bogart is in over his head and it's not long before tragedy occurs. This is the kind of film that reflects the old fashioned kind of Republican politics and is disturbing because of that. The cast of talented actors do full justice to some excellent dialogue. The violence is quite stark and unflinching. I wouldn't be surprised if "Black Legion" ran into Censorship trouble. The film turns into a human interest story about how American society is reflected and portrayed via the politics from the secret society. Humphrey Bogart does very well in the leading role. If only "Warner Bros" had found more films like the above for him, Bogart wouldn't have been stuck in a rut the way he was until 1941. The climax is what you would expect from a film like this but it rounds up a fine film.

The Black Legion was a real Depression Era terrorist organization: an offshoot of the Ku Klux Klan, with similar purposes and tactics. Their targets included immigrants, Catholics, Jews, African Americans, and labor organizers. It was most concentrated in lower Michigan, especially the Detroit area, and Ohio. Their methods included prejudicial hiring and firing, boycotting businesses, property destruction, intimidation, physical mistreatment, as well as occasional murder. 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. After that night, the two weren't seen in that area again... In another example, they smashed the glass window for a store display. In a 3rd example, Bogie loses his new job as foreman, due to his distraction trying to recruit new members from among his fellow workers, as dictated by the Legion brass. His replacement, Mike Grogan, another foreign-born neighbor, is kidnapped at night, tied to a limb by his hands, and whipped on his bare back. He's left there until someone finds him half dead.Bogie's wife now tells him she suspects he's involved in these several incidents. He slaps her, and she leaves with their son for her mother's. Bogie gets drunk and accidentally implicates himself and the organization to his friend Ed(Dick Forman), who tells this to a coworker, who is a Legion member. The Legion plans to kidnap Ed, and whip him, as they did Grogan, hopefully scaring him so he wouldn't notify the authorities. Bogie now wants out of the Legion, but they remind him that he swore an oath never to quit, and there will be dire consequences for him and his family if he does. So, he goes along with the abduction of Ed, which doesn't go as planned. Before they can tie him to a limb, he unwisely makes a dash for it, and Bogie fires several shots at him, hitting him fatally. Bogie is distraught at what he has done. He stays behind the others, tears off his Legion garments and makes his way through the woods to an all night coffee shop, looking disheveled and suspicious. He asks for water, then 2 police enter for a coffee. When the shooting is mentioned on the radio, Bogie gets hysterical. The police arrest him for questioning, and soon he's in jail. I leave the remainder of the story for you to see. This includes the climactic courtroom scene, in which Samuel Hinds delivers a stunning speech about how true American patriots think and act. Hinds was a frequently-used character actor of usually elderly authority figures in films of the 1930s & '40s.Erin O'Brien-Moore played Bogie's wife. After she moved out of his house, she was seldom seen until the trial. Dick Foran played Ed, Bogie's friend who was shot dead. He had a relationship with Betty Grogan(Ann Sheridan), who was the daughter of Mike, who was whipped. The Grogans were friends of Bogie and his wife.The kidnapping and murder of Ed was based upon an actual incident, in which one Legion member testified against the whole 12 members involved. The film doesn't bring out the sometimes widespread involvement if Legion members in local government. It was probably prudent to ignore this subject. The film was banned or heavily censored in various European countries and Australia.I don't know why the Legion chose black as the color for their robe and hood. Perhaps simply because that made them more difficult to see at night. They had a skull and crossbones emblem on their hoods. Perhaps this was in mimicry of the black flags of pirates and anarchists. Or perhaps it was in mimicry of the Italian and British Blackshirts: the paramilitary branch of the Fascist Parties.

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. They resemble the Ku Klux Klan, and Frank gets sucked into this violent world, that turns him mean even to his own wife. When his friend and neighbor Ed Jackson(played by Dick Foran) becomes a target, Frank tries to get out, but it is too late... Compelling film is surprisingly potent for its time, and uncompromising in its content. A bit predictable and obvious at times, but remains most prescient and worthwhile viewing.

1937's "Black Legion" tells a story of a man's involvement with what amounts to the Klan without coming out and calling it that. 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. The Legion is right up Taylor's alley, reinforcing his belief that his woes are all the fault of the foreign-born. He gradually gets more immune to the violence as he gets in deeper and deeper with the Black Legion. It really is a very good vehicle for Bogart's acting talent as his morality gradually unwinds. The sermon at the end seems a little tacked on, much like a similar scene in 1933's "Wild Boys of the Road", but it doesn't detract too much from the overall film.