Black Fury (1935)

Joe Radek (Paul Muni) is a simple-minded, hardworking immigrant coal miner who dreams of buying a farm and settling down with his girl, Anna (Karen Morley). But when Anna leaves him for another man, Joe falls apart and takes to drinking. In Joe's current state of mind, he's manipulated by a union buster (J. Carrol Naish) into revolting against the mining company. This has disastrous results for the laborers but Joe determines to set things right by any means necessary.Paul Muni's only film with director Michael Curtiz. As was often the case with Muni, his performance can be seen either as brilliant or 100% ham. Whichever it is, I enjoyed it a lot. The cast is full of reliable Warner Bros contract players that are always fun to watch, especially great character actor J. Carrol Naish. It's not surprising this is from WB, the 1930s home of movies about the working class. Certainly interesting from a historical and sociological perspective as a view of labor issues in Depression-era America. It's also fine dramatic entertainment. Based in part on a true story of a 1929 incident at a mine in Imperial Pennsylvania.

Never realized that Paul Muni, (Joe Radek) played in a film concerning miners in Pennsylvania and gave such an outstanding performance beyond anything I realized he had accomplished in his long career on the silver screen. In this film Joe Radek is an immigrant to this country, however, he is very clever in many ways and seeks justice for his fellow workers in the coal mine in which the town people work. Karen Morley,(Anna Novak) gives a great supporting role to this film and really loves Joe Radek and what he is trying to accomplish. The town is controlled by the coal mine owners and Barton MacLane,( McGree )along with William Gargan,(Slim Johnson/Company Police bully the people in the town along with J Carrol Nash,(Steve Croner) who all work against the miners and control their living conditions. There is a big problem trying to establish a Labor Union and there is a constant battle between the very poor and rich people of the community. Paul Muni gave the best performance I have ever seen in this Classic 1935 film, don't miss this picture.

Paul Muni, David Thomson once wrote, was the '30s' idea of a great actor: He never looked the same twice. Here he's a hail-fellow-well-met Eastern European immigrant coal miner in a dreary Pennsylvania burg, deceived by union busters and weighed down by a ten-ton accent. Indeed the screenplay seldom rises above a fifth-grade literacy level, the better to illustrate the goodheartedness of these poor but honest laborers. But five minutes of Muni, and you've seen the whole performance -- a Zorba-the-miner "life force" who yells all his lines and sounds unfortunately like Steve Martin's wild-and-crazy-guy character from Saturday Night Live in the '70s.Warners does come up with a convincingly grimy set and a capable stock-company supporting cast, but the dramaturgy is connect-the-dots. One miner shouts and sways the whole crowd, then another, then another -- what a gullible bunch this must be. The evil cops and management figures are so absurdly evil that nuance is lost. The third act does whip up to an exciting blow-up-the-mine climax, but then it's resolved in headline montages, as if Warners suddenly ran out of money, or film. And Michael Curtiz -- I didn't think this fine director was capable of this -- stages the crowd scenes clumsily, shifting point of view confusingly and slapping the mise-en-scene together hard, with loud music. Certainly the studio is on the side of the angels, arguing for a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and as a '30s sociological curio the movie is not without interest. But Muni's monotonous bluster and an elementary script combine to create a cinematic cave-in.

This is one dreary movie. It reminds one of the images conjured up in Upton Sinclair's "Jungle". The art direction is very much early Warner Bros with emphasis on dirt and grime.It has to do with the personal descent of an ignorant bohunk miner in Coaltown. His girl runs off with a company cop, he's conned by an agitator into sabotaging the union, and when he's finally on his own personal skids, his best friend is beat to death by the goons. Geez, whatever you do, don't watch this if you're depressed. After what seems like a lifetime of self loathing, he is redeemed. His girl comes home, he avenges his best friend, and all is right with the world. Dreck.Try to imagine Paul Muni's natural accent enhanced by an affected Eastern European accent. The result sounds like Yiddish with a mouth full of marbles. Add to that his over the top acting and plenty of dirt. The usually agreeable Karen Morley just looks depressed and bored. If I were in this movie, I would be depressed and bored. The only stand out in the movie is the irrepressible Barton MacLane. I think he is one of the few actors that would have been able to get through this without some kind of medication. Of course he gets his in the end.I have the greatest respect for Michael Curtiz. In my opinion, he is one of a small club of truly gifted directors - despite his brutal reputation. He was able to create some really memorable stuff. Historical costume epics, mysteries, human dramas, and anything else they threw at him. He has never disappointed me - until now.