Fury (1936)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

Fritz Lang

Writers:

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

Release Date:

29 May 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

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 | Money | Murder | Lynch Mob | Newsreel

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
Walter Brennan	...	'Bugs' Meyers
Frank Albertson	...	Charlie
George Walcott	...	Tom
Arthur Stone	...	Durkin
Morgan Wallace	...	Fred Garrett
George Chandler	...	Milton Jackson
Roger Gray	...	Stranger
Edwin Maxwell	...	Vickery
Howard C. Hickman	...	Governor (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:

Additional information in the Fritz Lang papers indicates that Walter Brennan, who played "Bugs" Meyers, had an extended illness that necessitated a transfer of some of his "courtroom business" to George Chandler, who played Milton Johnson.

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: At end of movie when Spencer Tracy is standing in front of judge, the wide shot shows nothing above his head but when he shares the shot with Sylvia Sydney the boom mic is shown just above their heads.

Quotes:

Joe Wilson: I'll give them a chance that they didn't give me. They will get a legal trial in a legal courtroom. They will have a legal judge and a legal defense. They will get a legal sentence and a legal death.

Movie Connections:

Version of The Sound of Fury (1950)

lynch victim comes back from the dead to torment his killers

A mob forms to take justice into its own hands when a stranger is wrongly accused of kidnapping a young girl. The small, friendly town becomes a seething cauldron as normally decent people get caught up in the gossip and rabble rousing. While the viewer's sympathies are with Spencer Tracy as the unfortunate prisoner, Lang's portrayal of social breakdown is disturbing enough, with the mob assembling at night and the camera going from one crazed face to the next. But there is much more, as the ensuing trial of the ringleaders, both men and women, proceeds, as well as the transformation of Tracy from likable to vengeful, so much so that he scares his own brothers. His reappearance, covered with the ashes of the fire, in the doorway of his brother's apartment is a classic scene. The trial of the ringleaders is beautifully done and dramatically closes out the film.