"Black Legion" tells a tale of terrorism and character degeneration which is gripping in its realism and frightening in its truth. Founded on the Michigan scare of some months age, if relates the story of Frank Taylor (Humphrey Hogart), a typical poorly educated machine shop worker in a large industrial town.

When a foreigner is promoted over his head to the position of plat foreman, Frank joins the legion. Once he becomes involved the cannot back out try as he may. Disgusted and frightened, he goes from bad to worse, losing first his wife and then every vestige of self-respect. Finally, tortured almost to madness, he shoots his best friend to whom he has blurted out his connection with the Legion.

Behind the scenes are portrayed the profiteers and instigators of the Legion, who are making a tidy sum selling hooded gowns and guns. In the end, when the dupes are all rounded up and sentenced to life imprisonment, there is no indication that those rally responsible are caught.

The film is often ponderous and slow in its effort to drive home its principal point--that misled patriotic groups, who try to take law and order into their own hands, are often the most dangerous. But withal, it is an intensely dramatic, gripping account, doubly forceful through its bluntness.

The companion picture, "The Hory Terror" is a foolish little comedy staring Jane Withers--that pudgy young she-devil. If it does nothing else, it explains Freddie Bartholomew's preference for Shirley Temple.