Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Cathardincu Surprisingly incoherent and boring

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

blanche-2 Edward G. Robinson here is a victim of "Blackmail," a 1939 film starring Robinson, Ruth Hussey, and Gene Lockhart.Ingram (Robinson, his wife (Hussey) and his son (Bobs Watson, known as the "Crybaby of Hollywood") live in Oklahoma, where Ingram fights oil fires He's considered one of the best. But he has a secret - nine years earlier, under another name, he was on a chain gang for something he didn't do, and he escaped.All is well until William Ramey (Lockhart), someone from his past, shows up and blackmails him, using the promise of getting Ingram cleared, since it was he who committed the crime. However, he double crosses Ingram, who ends up back on a chain gang. Ingram decides that this time, he will do his full sentence. Things happen to change his mind. Gritty drama with Robinson suffering as only he can. Like Bogart, he could be mean as dirt or a sympathetic character. Here he's tough, caring, and sympathetic. Ruth Hussey gives a lovely performance as his wife, and I admit that Bobs Watson was so pathetic when he cried that I cried. He became a Methodist minister but kept acting as well.Though the acting is effective, this is a routine drama. The actors keep you involved.

id247 Fun Edward G Robinson vehicle to pass the time with, in which he plays a respectable family man, John Ingram, an oil industry fire fighter, with a dark secret, only to be blackmailed by his original nemesis, sent back to a chain gang prison for a crime he didn't commit, and eventually escaping once more, seeking vengeance.Gene Lockart steals the film as Robinson's enemy, Bill Ramey, a slimy piece of work on a mission to ruin Ingram's life, and if you add hideous performances from Guin Williams, as a moronic family friend called Moose, yes I kid you not, and Bobs Watson playing the most nauseating brat of all time, as Ingrams son, you have the perfect B movie.Loved the boiled egg and toast gag in the opening sequence!

howdymax All chain gang movies take us on a journey. We start with a nice guy, usually innocent, being brutalized on a chain gang until he becomes a seething mass of controlled rage out for vengeance. This movie is no exception.Edward G Robinson has been victimized before so his situation here is no real surprise. The surprise is the object of his rage. A total psychopath named Ramey, played by non other than Gene Lockhart of all people. The casting director in this movie was a genius. Who would have ever thought of this perennial nice guy as a villain. Crybaby Bobs Watson does his bit as EGR's kid Hank. Big Boy Williams is his loyal affable self. It is no wonder he stayed busy for decades. Only Ruth Hussy drops the ball in this one. She just doesn't seem gritty enough for this kind of melodrama.It may sound crazy, but there is something comforting about the savage routine of a chain gang when compared to the terror of escaping and becoming a fugitive. You would think that every police force in the country has nothing to do but search for this guy.I won't get into the ending - it's a little hard to swallow, but I think it's worth waiting for. Just remember, this takes place long before the Miranda decision. This is a little programmer that gets lost between "I Was a Fugitive From a Chaingang" and "Cool Hand Luke", but as chain gang movies go, this is a winner.

Jim Tritten Poor title for what is a movie patterned on "I Was A Fugitive From A Chain Gang." It would appear that some of the shots were either taken from that masterpiece or re-done virtually identically with new cast. Edward G. Robinson is presented in the Paul Muni role but this time the hero has been willfully framed -- not wrongfully convicted. This framing is necessary for the rest of the story line and the plot unfolds as believable. Gene Lockhart steals the show in his portrayal of the villain. Robinson never looks as gaunt as Muni and is less convincing as someone who has suffered on the chain gang. Watching Robinson's rotund body run through the swamps just doesn't hack it. If given a choice, see the Muni movie but this one will serve for those who prefer a different ending. A better title might have been "Vengeance."