"Dust be my Destiny" -1939 (the Immigrant Influence on Hollywood)

this is a poignant film for reasons beyond the storyline. Tho the storyline is riveting. This was probably considered a minor film in the golden age of hollywood. It is never mentioned in John Garfield's canon.
Melodramatic title and all - it is piece with its time. No film historian, I see this artwork as another triumph of the immigrant influx (due to the prewar exodus from fascism in Europe) into the film business in this era.  A distrust of the "American way" whose caprice and cruelty routinely unjustly imprison the "disadvantaged" and "working stiffs" is a theme in this film, with its motif of cruel and inhuman authoritarian figures.
Another gift to our culture was the cinematographer, the sublime James Wong Howe. It took an immigrant from China to encapsulate the film noir look that is pure americana. His black and white photography is beautiful and a major component in making this film superior.
The good guys in this film are the Italian shopkeepers and other immigrants who show mercy on the unjustly persecuted working man hero - whose only dream is to have a decent job and a home to live in.
Lastly, John Garfield, who died at the young age of 39, was the son of Russian immigrants, was blacklisted during the McCarthy era for refusing to give names of Communist sympathizers even tho he himself was not a party member. He never worked in Hollywood again and died at age 39.