Good story, Not enough for a whole film

best movie i've ever seen.

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Directed by Michael Curtiz, with a screenplay by Abem Finkel and Carl Erickson that was inspired by Harry R. Irving's play Bohunk and an account by Judge M.A. Mussmano of the real-life case of Pennsylvania coal miner Mike Shemanski, this above average drama earned chameleon actor Paul Muni his third (of seven) Best Actor Academy Award nominations. He would go on to win his only Oscar the following year playing the title role in The Story of Louis Pasteur (1935).Like in many of his (and Warner Brothers') films, Muni's protagonist is fighting against a societal injustice - in this case, the working conditions and wages of coal miners. The highly recognizable cast includes Karen Morley, William Gargan, Barton MacLane, John Qualen, J. Carrol Naish, Vince Barnett, Henry O'Neill, Joseph Crehan, Sara Haden, Willard Robertson, Ward Bond, and Akim Tamiroff, among others. Mike Mazurki also appears, uncredited, as a security force applicant.Joe Radek (Muni) is a lovable lug of a coal miner who boasts that one day he'll marry Anna Novak (Morley), whom he greets every day on his way to the mines. He's saving his money in order to buy Sokolsky's (Tamiroff) farm, where they'll raise pigs. Radek currently boards in the mining company home of the soft spoken local union representative Mike Shemanski (Qualen) and his wife Sophie (Haden). But not everyone is happy with their pay etc. under the union's current agreement with the mining company's management. Newcomer Steve Croner (Naish) is the most outspoken about the unacceptable conditions. Unbeknownst to the other miners, Croner is really an antagonist paid by a manpower company to cause unrest and force a strike.Even though the illiterate Radek claims to be on the verge of an engagement with "his" Anna, she is really in love with a mining company policeman, Slim Johnson (Gargan, in nothing more than a cameo; Bond plays another policeman), who she sees as her ticket out of an environment and way of life she finds suffocating. Slim, a friend of Radek's, isn't as committed to Anna as she is to him, but agrees to take her with him when he's reassigned to another mine in Pittsburgh. Radek has finally saved enough to buy Sokolsky's pig farm when he learns that Anna has gone. He is heartbroken and Croner exploits Radek's pain, his subsequent drunkenness, and his natural leadership ability to split the union. The miners side with the Croner influenced Radek, against Mike and union leader Johnny Farrell (Crehan), to strike. This leads to a falling out between friends Radek and Mike, who evicts Radek from "his" home.At the time the mining company president John W. Hendricks (O'Neill) learns of the strike, he is unknowing with the responsible manpower company leaders, including McGee (MacLane), who promise to help him by supplying all the workers (e.g. scabs) and security he needs to keep the mine operational. Hendricks hires them; McGee then fulfills this new labor agreement by hiring a bunch of thugs to work with him on the security detail. Radek is disillusioned with it all when Croner disappears and he's expected to step into a role he's completely unprepared and unsuited to perform. He becomes a regular drunk until Kubanda (Barnett) finds him in a bar to tell him that Mike is being beaten up by McGee and company (including Bond's character). Even though Radek tries to prevent it, Mike is killed in the scuffle.Distraught and disillusioned by love lost herself, Anna returns "home" to find changes in the mining town. She then finds Radek, who's been inspired by Mike's death to keep his former friends from ending the strike by returning to work, which Mike would not have wanted. Radek reluctantly shares with her his plan to rig the mine's entrances with dynamite to prevent the miners from working. Anna insists on helping Radek and eventually becomes his voice to persons outside the mine after Radek blows up a couple of the mine's openings and holds up inside it. Mr. Welsh (Robertson) becomes the company's negotiator with Radek; they use a mine telephone to communicate. Meanwhile, McGee is determined to find a way in to Radek. However, once he's inside, Radek dynamites the entrance (miraculously killing no one lest the film's ending would have to be different). McGee then becomes Radek's hostage as he keeps the mine closed for days, surviving by eating the bread he'd stolen beforehand.Meanwhile, the government gets involved; their investigation exposes the manpower company and their illegal tactics such that mining company and union officials agree to restore to the original pre- strike agreement. This successful result from Radek's efforts, especially given his methods, is one reason this film was banned in mining towns around the world.

"Black Fury" was the second film Paul Muni made after signing a lucrative and very unusual contract with Warner Brothers that essentially allowed him script approval and a great amount of creative control. Muni had been fascinated by the true story of a miner's strike in Philadelphia, and did extensive research, including meeting with a judge who had presided over the case.I've seen all of Muni's films repeatedly and this is unquestionably one of his most accomplished and most unusual roles. For an actor who wast trained on the Yiddish stage and often played old men (even as a juvenile), it's remarkable that during the height of his film career, Muni never played a Jewish character. Joe Radek, a Hungarian immigrant, is probably the closest Muni ever came to playing a character that he "could have been" in real life -- he, too, was an Eastern European immigrant, of working-class stock, and had his parents been laborers instead of itinerant performers, he could easily have wound up like Radek. Radek is a child-like, life-of-the-party type who speaks in broken English, often in the third person ("Everybody love Joe Radek!") For students of acting history, it's the type of performance that you might expect from a "method" actor of a generation later; indeed, those who cite Brando's Stanley Kowalski as "breaking the rules" by speaking with a mouth full of food in a realistic fashion would do well to note Muni's performance here, as his speech is sometimes imprecise and in an early scene he breaks up a fight and makes a speech while gnawing his lunch.The script is fairly decent -- although politically problematic, as it seems to go a bit far to get Joe elected as president of the new union, and presents unions as ineffective or corrupt (and management as greedy and uncaring, of course). At the time of its release, the film was well-reviewed, but the "controversy" over unionization meant that it was censored or banned in some areas, so it was not a box-office success. Still, Muni's performance was powerful enough that he received a "write-in" nomination for Best Actor -- a practice that has since been discontinued by the Oscars (Muni and Bette Davis, for "Of Human Bondage," were the only actors to receive write-in nominations).It's also worth seeing for the excellent, uncompromising direction of Michael Curtiz; supporting performances (and they are ALL supporting in a Muni film -- he is unquestionably the star) are all well-played. Karen Morley is understated as Joe's would-be girl; John Qualen, who has one of the saddest faces in movie history, is excellent as Joe's best friend. The film's ending is a bit hackneyed from today's perspective, but quite effective."Black Fury" is one of about four dozen films from before 1936 that "should" be available on DVD, but isn't, and it's a shame. It is occasionally aired on cable and well worth a look if you are a fan of Muni or socially conscious films of the depression era (in the vein of "I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang," "The Grapes of Wrath," etc.)

If you can't understand what the lead actor is saying half the time, it's kind of hard to enjoy the film! That's what I encountered trying to watch this as Paul Muni, as a Polish coal mine worker, speaks in such a heavy accent I couldn't decipher what he was saying. It gets to be a frustrating experience. If this would come out on DVD with English subtitles, I'd be glad to give it another look.Muni, almost always a fascinating actor, plays good-guy Joe Radek, a Pennsylvania coal miner who is used by his bosses to help them break the union. (This film is very pro-union, pro-working man.). They got Barton MacLane to play the heavy, something he was always good at doing. MacLane played the company boss. I always laugh at how these billionaire film makers always try to make management or the rich guys the evil ones. Maybe it's a guilty conscience from all the money they have made, but I see them more as big hypocrites.However, I find no fault in any movie trying to help the coal miners who did, in fact, had it bad and deserved better. It was dirty job and a dangerous one. It still is, as far as I know, but conditions have to be a whole lot better than a hundred years ago so don't misinterpret what I said earlier: in many cases, management was "the bad guy" way back then. It's just that, in most cases, it has been the opposite case the last 50 years and now it's tough to be sympathetic to union causesAnyway, Muni plays an interesting guy who you have to root for....if you can understand what he is saying with that accent.

In 'Black Fury', Paul Muni gives one of his best performances, and also appears on screen in one of his more plausible make-ups. This time he plays a Slavic immigrant, uneducated but keenly intelligent, working in an American coal mine. Muni's hair is dyed blond, yet looks realistic, and his own Eastern European facial features work with this characterisation ... not against it, as they did for some of his other roles. The film also features a fine performance from John Qualen, a prolific character actor whose film appearances were often marred by unconvincing and unnecessary foreign accents of the "yumpin' yiminy!" sort. In 'Black Fury', Qualen's flavour-of-the-month accent is less obtrusive than usual, and it actually works for the character he plays: a Polish-American miner.Joe Radek (Muni) is a miner in a 'company town', where all the labourers are poorly-paid and live in squalid shanties. Radek and his fellow miners work in extremely dangerous conditions. The company that owns the mine also owns all the local businesses, and the local police force also work for the mining company. The cops have no interest in justice: they're bullies whose only concern is to keep the locals quiet and subservient to the company. The head cop is a slimy sadist named McGee, well-played by Barton MacLane. Radek's buddy Shemanski (Qualen) gets drunk one night and makes the mistake of criticising company policy: staggering home that night, he has a fatal 'accident' arranged by McGee's goons.To call attention to various grievances, Radek fills the mineshaft with dynamite. He packs several days' worth of food for himself, then he takes McGee hostage at gunpoint and brings him into the mine. Radek chains McGee to the pit face, slightly out of reach of Radek's food supply. If Radek's demands aren't met, he's going to blow up the mine ... with himself and McGee inside. After they've been in the mine for several days, there's one harrowing shot of the starving McGee chained to the wall, begging Radek for food. The film ends with one of those slam-bang action climaxes that Warner Bros did so well, spiced with some social commentary that doesn't get too preachy.The film boasts an excellent supporting cast, filled with actors who are (mostly) more obscure than usual, which helps us to immerse ourselves in the action. Karen Morley, quietly beautiful, gives a fine performance, and Michael Curtiz (a very underrated director) does his usual superlative work.'Black Fury' is based on a story by Michael A. Musmanno, a Pennsylvania lawyer of Italian descent. Late in his life, Musmanno devoted several decades to writing a book called 'Columbus *WAS* First' (his emphasis), which purported to prove that no European explorers reached the Americas before Columbus. Musmanno's claims for Columbus have long since been disproven, but 'Black Fury' is an excellent film. I'll rate this movie 9 points out of 10.Trivia note: Shortly after this movie was released, Warner Brothers released a Loony Toon starring Porky Pig as a hunter who had a dog named Black Fury. What a shameless plug!