Fury (1936)

Spencer Tracy is an icon for a reason. His film career spanned over four decades and in that time he portrayed every type of character imaginable: priest, fisherman, politician, father, newspaper man, lawyer...and, perhaps most beloved, male lead opposite Katharine Hepburn in a string of fantastic comedies.

In Fury, Tracy stars as Joe Wilson, a decent, hardworking young man of modest means living in Chicago. He and his fiancee, Katherine (Sylvia Sidney), haven't enough money to marry straightaway, so Katherine takes a better-paying job on the west coast while Joe remains in Chicago.

Months pass and finally their hard work pays off. Joe and his two brothers, Tom (George Walcott) and Charlie (Frank Albertson), purchase a gas station which the three will operate together.

Ecstatic that he's finally reached his goal, Joe hits the road to meet Katherine and bring her home. On the way there he drives through a small town where he is apprehended by the local police and brought into the police station for questioning. Apparently there has been a recent local kidnapping and the police and townspeople are eager to find the culprit and save the abducted young woman.

Of course, Joe had nothing to do with the kidnapping, but circumstantial evidence and being in the wrong place at the wrong time lead to his arrest. He maintains his innocence throughout the interrogation, but since he's the only viable suspect the police have they hold him in a jail cell while the investigation continues.

Word gets out that the police have a suspect in custody and the news quickly spreads through town, losing accuracy with each re-telling. Add booze and a loudmouthed rabble-rouser to the mix and the situation quickly escalates into a mob of angry townspeople gathered outside the police station with lit torches in hand.

A confrontation ensues until, inevitably, the police station is set ablaze...with Joe still locked up inside. Katherine learns of Joe's arrest and arrives just in time to see the horrible scene unfold. She, and everyone else, believes Joe died in that fire.

Of course, not long after, the real kidnapper is apprehended and Joe's name is cleared, but...there's something no one knows. Joe is alive. His brush with death has changed him into an angry, embittered man hungry for revenge.

He meets with his two brothers and persuades them to convince the district attorney (Walter Abel) to take the case to court. In Joe's mind, dead or alive, that mob is guilty of his murder and he won't rest until he sees every last man and woman fry...


Fury is director Fritz Lang's first American film and it's a powerful one, which uses a fictitious story to criticize and condemn anyone who has participated in or supported a real-life lynching. The script is fantastic and I really enjoyed Spencer Tracy's performance. He brings something so raw and so real to his portrayal as poor Joe.

I truly think this is a great movie (despite the cringe-worthy depiction of small-town women as bloodthirsty busybodies, which I'm choosing to overlook) and I have every intention of re-visiting it again someday.

P.S. I LOVE reading original movie reviews and found the New York Times' review of the film quite fascinating!