Upper and Lower

In Alfred J. Goulding’s frantic 1920 short, Lee Moran portrays a fugitive propelled by sheer panic into a grotesque masquerade of identity. Evading the relentless pursuit of the constabulary through the dubious artifice of burnt cork, he infiltrates a Pullman Porter Employment Agency, only to find himself ensnared in a web of industrial strife. The narrative pivots from a simple chase into a harrowing exploration of involuntary labor, as Lee is coerced into the role of a strikebreaker during a volatile labor dispute. It is a kinetic, often uncomfortable ballet of desperation set against the steel backdrop of the American railway system, where the protagonist's attempts at camouflage lead him into a far more perilous social furnace than the one he fled.