I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang

The most powerful of Warner Brothers’ early 1930s ‘social problem’ films, this indictment of organised cruelty remains potent, hard-hitting melodrama.

The inhumanity and soul-crushing horrors of slave labor in the penal system, where the gruesome punishment didn't fit the crime, is neatly interwoven into a highly gripping plot that still holds up today.

...the movie has held up well. Its themes remain relevant and its depictions of brutality, while not on par with what one can see today, retain an edginess often absent from Golden Age Hollywood pictures.