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So much average

Sadly Over-hyped

People are voting emotionally.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Joe Radek (Paul Muni) is a simple-minded, hardworking immigrant coal miner who dreams of buying a farm and settling down with his girl, Anna (Karen Morley). But when Anna leaves him for another man, Joe falls apart and takes to drinking. In Joe's current state of mind, he's manipulated by a union buster (J. Carrol Naish) into revolting against the mining company. This has disastrous results for the laborers but Joe determines to set things right by any means necessary.Paul Muni's only film with director Michael Curtiz. As was often the case with Muni, his performance can be seen either as brilliant or 100% ham. Whichever it is, I enjoyed it a lot. The cast is full of reliable Warner Bros contract players that are always fun to watch, especially great character actor J. Carrol Naish. It's not surprising this is from WB, the 1930s home of movies about the working class. Certainly interesting from a historical and sociological perspective as a view of labor issues in Depression-era America. It's also fine dramatic entertainment. Based in part on a true story of a 1929 incident at a mine in Imperial Pennsylvania.

The fabulous Paul Muni gives another wonderful performance in this 1935 film.With a genuine Slavic accent, Muni is superb as a coal miner who loses his girl (Karen Morley) to a company Policeman and goes on a drinking binge as a result. It is at this point that a gangster organization tries to create chaos within the union and Muni becomes their perfect foil.J. Carrol Naish is excellent as the worker who works for this unholy organization.Naturally, Muni's best friend is killed in a clash with company police and Muni, now sober, vows revenge.Morley returns to Muni just in time as he goes down into the mine and starts blowing the place up. It's at this point that the film starts to go down, but with Muni's performance and the problems shown of what the coal miners had to endure plus the dishonesty in trying to break the union, all make for a very good film.

Rather standard working-class drama of the sort that Warner Brothers was turning out, though with more emphasis on the issue of unions and union-breaking than was usual. The usual stalwart support is present, such as Ward Bond and even Akim Tamirov.Maybe part of the reason it doesn't have more impact on viewers these days is that the working class audience, living on the edge of poverty, doesn't really exist as a social consideration anymore.The people who made this movie and the audience who lived this kind of life are now all dead. Far fewer people know what existence was like when it was constantly overcast by the threat of imminent poverty. In the Great Depression, during which the generation described by Tom Brokaw in his book "The Greatest Generation" grew up, unions were still controversial and there was a good deal of violence involved in the development of collective bargaining. Goons might bash in your head. A union organizer might be (and at least in one case was) castrated and murdered. And a miner might blow up a mine. One third of the nation was unemployed and there was no Social Security or Unemployment Benefits.Well, no time for a history lesson here. And it's just as well because I know practically nothing of the history of industrial relations.Considering it as a film, I can only echo what another reviewer, "Howdymax", in still another of his unusually perspicacious comments, has already said. The movie is Dreck.Try to think of it as an historical artifact, like a Leni Lenape tomahawk or a Roman coin. It's no longer useful but it's oddly fascinating to see and handle. That may help you get past Mr. Paul Muni's outrageous overacting. If he could do it, he would chew up not only the scenery but the walls of the mine shaft, the Miner's Bar, his supporting players, the script, the director, the camera, and the viewer.

This is one dreary movie. It reminds one of the images conjured up in Upton Sinclair's "Jungle". The art direction is very much early Warner Bros with emphasis on dirt and grime.It has to do with the personal descent of an ignorant bohunk miner in Coaltown. His girl runs off with a company cop, he's conned by an agitator into sabotaging the union, and when he's finally on his own personal skids, his best friend is beat to death by the goons. Geez, whatever you do, don't watch this if you're depressed. After what seems like a lifetime of self loathing, he is redeemed. His girl comes home, he avenges his best friend, and all is right with the world. Dreck.Try to imagine Paul Muni's natural accent enhanced by an affected Eastern European accent. The result sounds like Yiddish with a mouth full of marbles. Add to that his over the top acting and plenty of dirt. The usually agreeable Karen Morley just looks depressed and bored. If I were in this movie, I would be depressed and bored. The only stand out in the movie is the irrepressible Barton MacLane. I think he is one of the few actors that would have been able to get through this without some kind of medication. Of course he gets his in the end.I have the greatest respect for Michael Curtiz. In my opinion, he is one of a small club of truly gifted directors - despite his brutal reputation. He was able to create some really memorable stuff. Historical costume epics, mysteries, human dramas, and anything else they threw at him. He has never disappointed me - until now.