I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (1932), the film that marked the beginning of Warner Bros. Studios' Depression-era style of message filmmaking, is based on the true-life story of Robert Elliot Burns, who in 1920, burglarized a store of $5.29 on which to eat. He was sent to a Georgia chain gang, escaping two years later. He became a highly respected Chicago citizen and magazine editor. After his estranged first wife informed on him, he was eventually extradited back to Georgia to serve out the remainder of his original prison term.

Burns escaped the brutal prison farm again in 1930, surfacing in New Jersey as a tax expert. He wrote a series of articles later collected in the book I Am A Fugitive From a Georgia Chain Gang, which created a nationwide sensation. Both studio chief Jack Warner and production head Darryl Zanuck had been interested in Burns's autobiographical story when it was serialized in True Detective Mysteries from January through June 1931. In early 1932 Warner and Zanuck decided to go after the project, eventually securing Burns's story for $12,500.

by Scott McGee