Based on real-life events, Black Fury brings viewers deep into Depression hard times... and into the heart of Joe Radek, a simple, hardworking coal miner used and thrown away by racketeers eager to muscle in on the unions. Paul Muni, who personified 1930s anguish as the doomed hero of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, makes Joe an unforgettable character: likeable, headstrong, too easily led and finally a towering force for justice as he takes on company goons single-handed. As sinewy and visceral as the overworked men it celebrates, Black Fury pulls no punches, which may explain why it was banned in Pennsylvania, the state where this classic from Casablanca director Michael Curtiz is set.

In BLACK FURY, a working-class drama adapted from Henry Irving's fact-based play, a hardworking Polish-American coal miner becomes involved in a dangerous labor struggle. Paul Muni plays Joe Radek, an easygoing man whose popularity among fellow miners thrusts him into a position of leadership during the struggle. He is coerced into leading a walkout that ruins the fragile relations between union and management. Scab workers and police are brought in, and suddenly Muni's livelihood--and his life--are in jeopardy.

Muni is tough as nails in this patented Warner Bros. social problem picture, and director Michael Curtiz (ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES) does a brilliant job re-creating the horrible conditions of the workers' coal town with an impressive display of drills, mine shafts, and tattered shacks. The film manages to expose corruption while preaching the need for compassion and moderation. Inspired by the story in which a Pittsburgh miner was murdered by three company policeman, the film was originally banned in Pennsylvania.