Black Legion (1937) on Netflix
A promotion at the Midwestern factory where Frank Taylor works goes instead to a young Polish immigrant. Frank joins the Black Legion, a secret group that uses violence against foreigners.
- Netflix4.3/5
- IMDb7.0/104,273 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
At a Midwestern factory, Frank Taylor is a hard-working machinist who expects a promotion, but the job goes to a young Polish immigrant. Frank has a wife, Ruth, and a son, Buddy, and a friend and co-worker in Ed Jackson. A secret hate group called the Black Legion, which takes violent action against foreigners, recruits Frank into its ranks. Its members wear black hoods and robes, and Frank rides with them on a torchlight raid that drives the Polish worker and his family out of the town. The promotion Frank wanted comes to him once the man is gone. The Legion is based on a white terrorist group that was active in Michigan in the 1930s.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Black Legion (1937)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Ku Klux Klan sued Warner Bros. for patent infringement over the film's use of a Klan-like insignia, a white cross on a red background with a black square, but a judge threw the case out.
- The plot is based on the May 1935 kidnapping and murder in Detroit of Charles A. Poole, a Works Progress Administration organizer. Twelve men were tried and 11 convicted, all sentenced to life, and another 37 men were prosecuted for related crimes, breaking up the Legion.
- Executive producer Hal B. Wallis wanted Edward G. Robinson for the lead, but producer Robert Lord thought Robinson was too foreign looking and wanted a "distinctly American looking actor" in the part instead.
- Because United States libel laws had recently been broadened by court rulings, Warner Brothers underplayed some aspects of the Black Legion's political activities in the film to avoid legal repercussion.
