Yesterday I watched Black Fury (1935) starring Paul Muni. I recorded it off TCM without reading the description. I thought it was about a Klan-like society. No, it's about a union struggle in the Pennsylvania coal mines. I hadn't seen it before.
Muni plays Joe Radek who is devastated when his fiancee runs off with another man. His drunken antics lead to him being manipulated by an outside agitator to break up the union. Joe comes through in the end and wins his fiancee back.
I love the gritty look of Warner Bros. films about unions, secret societies, juvenile delinquents, and gangsters. It was fun to check out the Warner Bros. contract players such as Barton MacLane, Ward Bond, and Henry O'Neill. Plus I recognized John Qualen (but had to check where I had seen him--Berger in Casablanca); Vince Barnett (from Scarface); Willard Robertson from Torchy Gets Her Man, and an uncredited cameo from Addison Richards from another Torchy Blaine film, Smart Blonde.
The Man Who Played God (1932) The story was so nice, George Arliss made it twice (sorry): a silent version in 1922 before this version. Arliss plays a brilliant concert pianist who loses his hearing in an explosion. Davis is his protegee in her sixth film that probably salvaged her early career in Hollywood. It was hard to get beyond the fact that Arliss looked like a wax figure, but it was a good movie.
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