Fury (1936)

★ 7.5 1h 32m IMDb

Drama Crime

Joe, who owns a gas station along with his brothers and is about to marry Katherine, travels to the small town where she lives to visit her, but is wrongly mistaken for a wanted kidnapper and arrested.

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Cast

Sylvia Sidney as Katherine Grant Died 1999 · The Bronx, New York, USA Sylvia Sidney (born Sophia Kosow, August 8, 1910 – July 1, 1999) was an American stage, screen and film actress whose career spanned over 70 years. She rose to prominence in dozens of leading roles in...

Spencer Tracy as Joe Wilson Died 1967 · Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA Spencer Bonaventure Tracy (April 5, 1900 – June 10, 1967) was an American actor, noted for his natural style and versatility. One of the major stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Tracy won two Academy Aw...

Walter Abel as District Attorney Died 1987 · Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA Walter Abel (June 6, 1898 – March 26, 1987) was an American stage and film character actor. His eyes were brown and his (adult) height was five foot ten inches. Abel was born in St. Paul, Minnesota,...

Bruce Cabot as Kirby Dawson Died 1972 · Carlsbad, New Mexico, USA Bruce Cabot (April 20, 1904 – May 3, 1972) was an American film actor. Tall and athletic looking, he is best remembered as Jack Driscoll in King Kong (1933). He is also well known for his roles in fil...

Edward Ellis as Sheriff Died 1952 · Coldwater, Michigan, USA Character actor in films, often portraying strident types, he is best remembered cast as "The Thin Man" (actually, "Wynant") of the hit 1934 MGM film. He Ellis was active on Broadway as an actor, pr...

Walter Brennan as Bugs Meyers Died 1974 · Lynn, Massachusetts, USA Walter Andrew Brennan (July 25, 1894 – September 21, 1974) was an American actor and singer. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performances in Come and Get It (1936), Kentucky...

Director Fritz Lang

Cast Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot, Edward Ellis, Walter Brennan, Frank Albertson, George Walcott, Arthur Stone, Morgan Wallace

John Chard 9/10 Dec 16, 2015

Tormentors and the tormented given Lang's gifted touch.

Out of MGM, Fury is directed by Fritz Lang and stars Spencer Tracy and Sylvia Sidney and features Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot, Edward Ellis and Walter Brennan in support. It's adapted by Lang and Bartlett Cormack from the story "Mob Rule" written by Norman Krasna. Loosely based around the events that surrounded both the "Brooke Hart" murder in 1933 and the "Lindbergh" kidnapping/murder case in 1932, the story sees Tracy as Joe Wilson, an innocent man who is jailed and apparently killed in a fire started by a rampaging lynch mob. However, as the lynch mob go on trial for his murder, Joe surfaces but is twisted by thoughts of revenge on those who happily watched him burn.

Widely and rightly considered a classic, this first Hollywood outing from director Fritz Lang is a remarkable look at mob violence and one man's limit pushed to its breaking point - and then some. That Lang survived studio interference to craft such a penetrating study of injustice is a minor miracle. Fury is neatly put together as a story, the calm before the storm as Joe & Kath are brought to us as the happy face of Americana. Then it's the middle section as rumours run out of control, the dangers of idle prattling rammed home as things start to escalate out of control - culminating in the savage assault on the jail (a gusto infused action sequence indeed). Then the fall out of mob rule actions, the court case and Joe's malevolent force of vengeance, that in turn comes under scrutiny.

The film was said to have been Lang's favourite American film, which is understandable given it bares all his trademarks. The expressionistic touches, shadow play dalliances and supreme cross-cutting between tormentors and the tormented, for sure this is prime Lang, with no frame wasted. While it's no stretch of the imagination to think that Lang, having fled Nazi Germany, was pondering what he left behind as he moulded the picture together. Of the cast, Tracy is majestic as our main protagonist, while Sidney is brightly big eyed and hugely effective as the moral centre of Joe's universe.

Controversial at the time, the film has naturally lost some of that controversial power over the decades. However, as the film points out with the lynching statistics, there was once a time when inhumanity was able to rear its ugly head in the blink of an eye. Fury serves to remind two-fold that not only is it a potent social commentary, but also that it's a damn fine piece of skilled cinema. 9/10