| Warner Bros. | Release Date: November 19, 1932 | CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION | ||
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Positive:
11
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews
A stinging indictment of official injustice, done with muck-raking urgency and timeless compassion, adapted from Robert E. Burns' autobiographical novel (set in Georgia). With Paul Muni, superb as the fugitive. [25 Jul 1997, p.J]
There's still incredible power to this real-life story of a decent man tricked into assisting a crime, sentenced to hard labor on a Southern chain gang, and betrayed into further misery after he escapes and rehabilitates himself. Paul Muni is superb as the tortured hero. [18 Feb 1994, p.14]
With masterly directing by Mervyn LeRoy of "Little Caesar" fame, the film sparked protests against prisoner abuse and actually led to changes in the penal code. [15 May 2005, p.E10]
One of the best of the social-protest films--naive, heavy, artless, but a straightforward, unadorned story with moments that haunted a generation.
An uncompromising and frightening film that depicts the sadistic brutality and dehumanizing violence with which chain-gang inmates were treated in the South. [21 Nov 1993, p.59]
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