I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang was not the first prison film to come out of Hollywood. Recent prison pictures at the time included The Big House (1930), Up the River (1930), Numbered Men (1930), The Convict's Code (1930), Ladies of the Big House (1931), The Criminal Code (1931) and Hell's Highway (1932). I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang did influence later prison films, especially those dealing with prison farm systems. The escape through the swamps was duplicated by Edward G. Robinson in his flight from justice in Blackmail (1939) and by Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis as the handcuffed prisoners in The Defiant Ones (1958). The escape by truck was later used as a plot device in Cool Hand Luke (1967) starring Paul Newman.

The true life story of Robert Elliot Burns, on which I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang is based, was later recreated in the television movie, The Man Who Broke a 1,000 Chains (1987), starring Val Kilmer.

It was rumored that stolen prints of I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang surfaced in Russia where it became a resounding hit. In fact, it was the biggest American hit up to that time in the Soviet Union.

Woody Allen parodied I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang and other convict dramas in his 1972 comedy, Take the Money and Run (1972).

Soul singer Sam Cooke had a pop hit in the early sixties with "Chain Gang," a catchy tune with a backup chorus lamenting the backbreaking work of the prison laborer and his isolation from his loved ones.

by Scott McGee & Jeff Stafford