Paul Muni plays Joe Radek, a Polish immigrant working in a Pennsylvania coal mine, whose life philosophy is “Work and shut up.” However, when his fiancee runs off with another man, Radek, in a moment of personally--rather than politically--motivated fury, becomes the inadvertent catalyst to a company strike. Although the miners have real grievances, the strike is portrayed as playing into the hands of a strike-breaking agency, providing work for its “scabs” and police. When Joe's best friend is murdered by company police (based on an actual incident), Radek begins to see things straight, and stands up for the miners' rights. Unusual in its depiction of labor struggles, Black Fury nonetheless fell back on an individual solution to a social problem. Although the politics are a muddle, with one reviewer of the time remarking on the films' ability to “be in several editorial places at the same time,” under Michael Curtiz's direction the grim realities of a mining strike--hungry families, bitter splits between friends, violent clashes between strikers and company police--are depicted with dramatic flair.