La légion noire

"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. So, if you are looking for the tough and assertive sort of Bogart, this is NOT the film for you! No, Bogie plays a despicable sort of jerk--and a cowardly one at that.

The film begins at a machine shop. It seems that someone is going to be promoted to foreman and Bogart is sure it will be him. However, a Polish-American worker gets the job instead. While this man DID deserve it, Bogie is sullen and angry--and soon jumps at an opportunity to join a local hate club. The Black Legion is sort of like the KKK with its trappings but is more anti-foreigner in focus. So, to get back at the foreman, Bogart sicks his new 'friends' on them and he soon gets the job promotion. Where does all this new power lead him? See this powerful film and find out for yourself.

While I wish the film had taken a stronger and clearer stand against the Klan, it is a very powerful film for 1937, as many folks would have supported groups like the Legion. Groups like the American Bund and the popularity of antisemitic celebrities like Charles Lindburgh and Henry Ford (who wrote books espousing hatred of Jews, foreigners and the like) during this time could not be denied. In other words, this film might have alienated many potential viewers and the studio chose to take a deliberate stand for what is right. And, it's a strong film with a very good performance by Bogart in a VERY different sort of role. Well worth seeing--and probably a bit stronger in its message than the studio's "Storm Warning"--another anti-hate group film that was made a dozen years later.

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 goes instead to a young, hard-working man named Dombrowski. When Frank doesn't get the job, he's furious. That night on the radio he hears the head of the Black Legion railing against foreigners taking American jobs, and he decides to join them.

The Black Legion, of course, is the Ku Klux Klan, with the sheets and the whole deal. Their methods are brutal - fires, flogging, beatings, etc.

It appears all you needed was a foreign last name to qualify as a victim of this group. Back in the '20s and '30s, Italians, Irish, and other immigrant groups could only get menial jobs like sweeping floors, the prejudice against them was so great.

It was quite a forward step to make a film about this back in 1937, and it's a good one. Bogart at the time was about 37, and we're so used to seeing him older that he looks like a baby here. He's terrific as a loving father and husband who becomes a new, violent person under the influence of the Legion. He loses more than he gains. It's a great example of how easily people can find a scapegoat for their troubles.

Ann Sheridan has a supporting role -- she's very young but recognizable from her voice! Good movie.

In order to fully appreciate this movie, a person needs to understand what the United States was like back in the 1930s. America was in the midst of the most severe depression it had ever known, with approximately 25% of the workforce unemployed at one time. 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. He is fortunate to have a good wife named "Ruth Taylor" (Erin O'Brien-Moore) and an adoring son. Unfortunately, because a Polish immigrant gets a promotion he thought was rightfully his, he angrily joins a secret society known as the Black Legion--and things take an immediate turn for the worse after that. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this turned out to be a pretty good movie with Humphrey Bogart beginning to establish himself as the superstar he eventually became. One interesting aspect of this film is that he got to deviate from his typical "tough guy" role and showed a bit more emotion in this film. Additionally, even though Ann Sheridan (who played Ruth Taylor's next-door neighbor) gets more credit, I thought Erin O'Brien-Moore gave a truly excellent performance. The film was well-directed, had a decent supporting cast, and the original story was nominated for an Academy Award. Not only that, but the National Board of Review selected it as the best film of 1937. In short, this was a very good movie for its time, and I think anyone who gives it a chance will be glad they did.

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.

The Black Legion is significant in the career of Humphrey Bogart. This film is the first time he played the lead in an "A" feature. The film is also a great showcase for his acting talents.

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. It still delivers a powerful message today.

The Black Legion remains one of the best of Bogey's early films.