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''Black Legion'' is a 1937 American melodrama film, directed by Archie Mayo, with a script by Abem Finkel and William Wister Haines based on an original story by producer Robert Lord. The film stars Humphrey Bogart, Dick Foran, Erin O'Brien-Moore and Ann Sheridan. It is a fictionalized treatment of the historic Black Legion of the 1930s in Michigan,〔 a white vigilante group. A third of its members lived in Detroit, which had also been a center of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. 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 of his murder; all were sentenced to life. Authorities prosecuted another 37 men for related crimes; they were also convicted and sentenced to prison, breaking up the Legion. Columbia Pictures had made ''Legion of Terror'' (1936) based on the same case.〔 ''Black Legion'' was praised by critics for its dramatization of a dark social phenomenon. It was one of several films of this period relating anti-facism to opposition to fascist and racist organizations.〔 A number of reviewers commented that Bogart's performance should lead to his becoming a major star. Warners did not give the film any special treatment, promoting it and Bogart in their standard fashion. Bogart's breakthrough would come in ''High Sierra'' in 1941.〔 ==Plot== When passed over for promotion at work in favor of a foreign-born friend, Frank Taylor (Humphrey Bogart), a midwestern factory worker, joins the anti-immigrant Black Legion, a secret white vigilante organization〔 portrayed as related to the Ku Klux Klan. Dressed in black robes and hoods, Taylor and the Legion mount a torchlight raid and burn down the friend's chicken farm, driving him out of town, so that Taylor can gain the job he believed was his. Soon, however, Taylor's recruiting activities with the Legion get in the way of his work, and he is demoted in favor of neighbor Mike Grogan (Clifford Soubier). The Legion takes action again, attacking Grogan. Under the continued influence of the Legion, Taylor becomes a brutal racist,〔Tatara, Paul. ("Black Legion" (TCM article) )〕 and alienates his wife (Erin O'Brien-Moore). He starts drinking heavily and takes up with a loose woman (Helen Flint). When his friend Ed Jackson (Dick Foran) tries to counsel him, a drunken Taylor tells about his Legion activities. Taylor reports the conversation to Cliff, a co-worker and fellow member of the Legion, who initiates a false rumor that Jackson is a woman-beater. On the pretext of punishing him for that offense, the Legion kidnaps Jackson, planning to flog him. Jackson tries to escape. As he is running away, Taylor shoots and kills him; breaking down afterward with guilt and remorse, he exclaims, "I didn't mean to shoot!"〔Allmovie ("Black Legion plot synopsis" ), Allmovie website〕 Taylor is arrested for the murder, and the Legion threatens his wife and son to prevent him from implicating the secret group in the crime. Taylor finally tells the truth, resulting in all the members of the Black Legion being convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.〔TCM (Full synopsis )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Black Legion (film)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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