I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Mervyn LeRoy's 1932 chain gang drama. Paul Muni plays James Allen.
Paul Muni came from the Yiddish theatre, where he played old men as a teenager, and brought an approach built on complete physical transformation and heavy makeup.
Scarface and I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang are the pre-Code films that last, the latter ending with a line delivered from darkness that is among the bleakest in American cinema. He won Best Actor for The Story of Louis Pasteur and was nominated five times.