White Bondage

White Bondage is a very good little movie from the Depression era concerning an agent from the agriculture department who comes to the aid of tenant farmers in the Deep South. It's surprisingly well acted by a cast of relative unknowns, and directed by Nick Grinde, not the first name that comes to one's mind when thinking of great film-makers. He does a fine job with this movie, though, which, contrary to the belief of many in our time shows that government can be a force for good, and actually help poor people rather than merely take their tax dollars in order to support fat-cat Washington bureaucrats.

Besides Native Americans, America was populated in the 17th and 18th centuries by tens of thousands of indentured servants, virtually slaves, sent across the Atlantic in horrific conditions, fatal for nearly half the passengers. The prisons and streets were swept by "transporters" and both children and adults from England, Ireland, and Scotland harvested tobacco and sugar for "masters," who whipped, branded, starved and mutilated their "servants." "White Bondage" seems to refer to this history in its depiction of southern sharecroppers during the Great Depression, worked and robbed by the "planters" year after year. Posses, bloodhounds, shotguns and lynching are part of this familiar story, too familiar for the hopelessly poor. Harry Davenport, the best Hollywood "oldtimer," this side of Charley Grapewin, stars, along with Jean Muir, apparently the sole blacklisted actor, and suave Gordon Oliver, soon to become a successful producer. Although not on "The Grapes of Wrath" level, this engaging melodrama offers, nonetheless, a vivid portrait of class conflict in rural America.

"White Bondage" is a reworking of the script for "Cabin in the Cotton" and it's most unusual because it's actually BETTER than the original film...even if the original starred Bette Davis!

As for the plot, it's a sort of film only Warner Brothers would have made, as they were a studio that favored making films about working class people and real world problems...something many other studios of the day (particularly MGM avoided). It fits in fine with other Warners products of the 30s such as "I Was a Fugitive From a Chain Gang", "Crime School" and "Wild Boys of the Road"...all films intended to address social issues of the day.

This story is set in the rural south and is all about how the local landowners are robbing the poor sharecroppers. Mis-weighing cotton, company stores that charge exorbitant prices and one-sided contracts are all being used in order to squeeze every dime from the sharecroppers...and a newspaper reporter is there undercover to expose the racket. The problem is that the land owner and his family are clever and evil...and most of the sharecroppers are ignorant and poor...and are easily manipulated. How does this happen? And, what becomes of this form of bondage?

I loved this film. It was very well made, the script was right on target and the film is among the best Bs I've ever seen. A very intelligent film that holds up amazingly well today.