Fury (1936)

Good movie but grossly overrated

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Directed by Fritz Lang, who co-wrote the screenplay with Bartlett Cormack that was based on Norman Krasna's story, this essential drama, an indictment of "mob rule", features Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney, and Walter Brennan (among others). Krasna received an Academy Award nomination for his Original Story. The film was added to the National Film Registry in 1995.Tracy, with fiancée Sidney, is suspected of kidnapping and arrested by Brennan. An angry mob, led by Bruce Cabot, is incensed and storms the jail where Brennan can't stop them from burning it down. Sidney and the others assume Tracy was killed in the fire, but he wasn't. He shows up at his brother's (Frank Albertson) and learns that the real kidnappers have been caught. So, he wants the mob prosecuted for "lynching" him. Walter Abel is the DA who pursues a conviction against a couple of dozen from the crowd.The problem is, of course, Tracy wasn't actually killed, even though everyone (save his brother) thinks he is. Can he be convinced not to go through with his revenge which may mean the execution for murder of many people?

Curiously titled, there are two lots of "fury" to consider in this film as an angry mob burn down the jail where an innocent stranger is being held on circumstantial evidence, while subsequently the stranger survives and in a fit of anger decides to keep his survival a secret in order that the lynch mob can be prosecuted for first degree murder. It is an interesting premise and Spencer Tracy is superb in the lead role, playing a character who becomes ever-so-slowly less sympathetic with his increasingly bloodthirsty desire for revenge. Walter Abel also provides good support as the district attorney in charge of the case who maintains a sense of humour in court, while Sylvia Sidney is effective as Tracy's girlfriend, shown in striking close-up at several key points. The completely silent scene in which she rushes to see the jail alight is an utterly breathtaking sequence and with Fritz Lang at the helm the film looks as good as one would expect. For all its virtues, 'Fury' is not a subtle film though, and it is hard to say what comes off as more detrimental: the loud thunderstorms that only start up as Tracy argues with his brothers near the end, or Tracy's preachy speech in the final scene. The plot is also a little hard to buy at times (would Tracy really be locked up over such sketchy evidence?), but if nothing else, 'Fury' will definitely make you think twice about carrying salted peanuts in your pocket. The intense scenes of the angry mob in action also offer a stark reminder of just how irrational we, as human beings, can be in the wrong set of circumstances.

I just finished reading the section of the new Spencer Tracy biography which discusses the making and success of "Fury", long one of my favorite Tracy films. In fact, before this early MGM film of his, his only truly notable films had been "The Power And The Glory" and "Dante's Inferno". The shooting schedules for Tracy's "Fury" and Tracy and Gable's "San Francisco" overlapped. Apparently, Fritz Lang was a pain in the patutty...a virtual tyrant directing this film, to the point where Tracy and Lang barely spoke. Nevertheless, the results then (much bigger box office than MGM had anticipated) and now (as this is seen to be an early Tracy milestone) speak for themselves.The story begins easily enough -- a guy (Tracy) and a gal (Sylvia Sydney) are hoping to marry, but to earn more money (this was in the middle of the Great Depression) they separate temporarily (which turns out to be over a year). He does all right, opening a gas station. He buys a car and goes to meet and marry Sydney.Then things turn dark. He is picked up on suspicion of kidnapping, which of course he was not guilty of. Placed in jail, while a hick deputy sheriff (Walter Brennan) blabs around the community. A mob develops, but instead of lynching him, they burn the jail down, with Tracy and his little dog in it. Burned to death as his fiancé watches.Or was he? Tracy suddenly appears as a dark, malevolent specter before his brothers...alive...and ready to exact his justice simply by letting the leaders of the lynch mob be found guilty and condemned to death in a court room. But, through an excellent trial sequence, Tracy slowly goes nearly mad with revenge, and ultimately his brothers begin to turn against him. But meanwhile, the guilt of 22 men and women is pretty much proved through newsreel footage. And then, when a surprise (and clever) bit of evidence is brought forward, Sydney realizes Tracy is still alive. The question is, will Tracy come forward, or remain silent. Apparently Lang was very angry over the edits MGM made to the film, particularly the final scene...and perhaps a kiss in front of the judge was taking it just a bit too far...perhaps embracing would have been enough.Tracy is superb here. No longer a "junior" actor, but a calculated actor who masters his role. Sydney is just as wonderful.Walter Abel performs well as the district attorney trying the men leading the mob. Bruce Cabot is fine as the worst of the mob leaders. Edward Ellis is excellent as the hard, but fair sheriff battling against overwhelming odds. It's unlikely you'll recognize many of the other supporting actors here, but they all play their parts well and lend a believability to the story.A part of my DVD collection, and one of the rare films I will award an "8" to. A must if you love cinema.

...produces monsters. I remember this Fritz Lang classic from my youth and wondered if it could match up to my memories and capture me as it did those 30-40 years ago. I'm a huge fan of Lang's work, especially his unjustly overlooked, in my opinion, Hollywood movies, where he benefited from the advances in film technology, star actors and of course the relative freedom to make the films that he wanted without Nazi persecution.I've never marked a film "10" on IMDb before but cannot deny "Fury" this score. Like before, it just blew me way with the bravery and topicality of its subject matter (I've read up on the source-story of the Brooke Hart lynching in the US of only a few years previously), the imagination and verve of the cinematic devices that Lang employs to get his story across and last but not least some superb acting, most obviously from Spencer Tracy as the "ordinary Joe" (his name has to be deliberately chosen), but also from the greatly underrated Sylvia Sydney as his girl and in the nick of time, his redeeming conscience.The narrative is taut-tight, albeit with just a few humorous injections to keep the story on a human level. Lang wields his large cast with consummate ease, particularly the mob scene itself and the extensive courtroom scene which follows it. Tracy conveys his transformation from in-love happy-go-lucky journeyman Joe to hate-consumed avenging angel brilliantly with Sydney the calm to his storm who brings him back to reason just in time for the fates of the lynch mob on trial. The ensemble acting is great too, no character overplayed.There are so many memorable scenes to relate which demonstrate the maestro's sure touch - just a few amongst many - the juxtaposition of the rumour-mongering townsfolk with cackling hens, the use of close-ups particularly on Sydney's sad but honest face, the shot of a grizzled, hardened, transformed Tracy in the doorway before his grieving brothers are just some which come to mind but there are so many other Expressionist touches to savour.Some might argue the banality of Tracy's tell-tale giveaway which exposes the truth or the speed of the change of mood from dark to light right at the end, or even the plot similarities to his earlier, epochal "M" but I'll afford Lang all the cinematic licence he needed to put across this potent anti-lynching message (with obvious overtones of the Nazi thuggery then prevalent in his native Germany).For me then, this film is what great cinema is all about and as you can tell I just can't praise it highly enough.