Fury (1936)

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

Bartlett Cormack (screenplay) and
Fritz Lang (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

29 May 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

TWO LOVERS...VICTIMS OF MOB VIOLENCE! (original 1936 window card poster)

Plot:

When a prisoner barely survives a lynch mob attack and is presumed dead, he vindictively decides to frame the mob for his murder.

Plot Keywords:

Mob | Murder | Lynch Mob | Money | Revenge

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win

Cast

Sylvia Sidney	...	Katherine Grant
Spencer Tracy	...	Joe Wilson
Walter Abel	...	District Attorney Adams
Bruce Cabot	...	Kirby Dawson
Edward Ellis	...	Sheriff Thaddus Hummel
Walter Brennan	...	'Bugs' Meyers
Frank Albertson	...	Charlie Wilson
George Walcott	...	Tom Wilson
Arthur Stone	...	Richard Durkin
Morgan Wallace	...	Fred Garrett
George Chandler	...	Milton Jackson
Roger Gray	...	Strike Breaker Stranger
Edwin Maxwell	...	Will Vickery
Howard C. Hickman	...	Governor Burt (as Howard Hickman)
Jonathan Hale	...	Defense Attorney

Also Known As:

Mob Rule (USA) (working title)
The Mob (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Canada:14A (video rating) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Argentina:13 | Finland:(Banned) (1937) | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #2229) | Spain:13 | Germany:12

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

This was actress Sylvia Sidney's only film for MGM, and according to the papers of director Fritz Lang, he stipulated that she be cast in the part before he signed his contract with the studio.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: When the newsreel of the attempted lynching is run during the trial scene, the frame of the newsreel is frozen several times, in order to show the defendants as having taken part in the crime. But while the newsreel projector is supposed to have stopped, the ticking of the projector continues in the background, as if the film were still running.

Quotes:

Katherine Grant: [to Joe] If those people die, Joe Wilson dies too; you know that, don't you? Wherever you go, whatever you do.

Movie Connections:

Featured in A Night at the Movies: The Suspenseful World of Thrillers (2009) (TV)

Tracy hits his stride

In what was his fourth film on his new MGM contract Spencer Tracy finally broke through the ranks and became an A picture star. Tracy had been in Hollywood for six years five of them with Fox. Most of his work there was relegated to B picture second features. In this, the first American film by Fritz Lang, Tracy emerges with a powerhouse performance of a man who nearly destroys himself in a quest for vengeance against the mob that nearly kills him by setting a jail on fire where he's being held on a suspicion of kidnapping.

Remember that this was the 30s with news of the Lindbergh baby kidnapping trial fresh in the minds of the movie-going public. Probably the most hated man in America was Bruno Hauptman, the Lindbergh kidnapping suspect. That's a dimension that can hardly be appreciated by seeing the video today. But Lang's direction of the mob scenes still retains the power to frighten.

Sylvia Sydney registers well as Tracy's fiancé and Bruce Cabot stands out as the local town bully who whips up the mob in the first place against the innocent Tracy being held in the town jail.

In the first of many climactic monologues Tracy comes forward and redeems himself from the twisted personality his victimization by the town mob has left. The speech is simple, direct, profound; pure Spencer Tracy. And that's as good as it ever gets.