Classic Film Guide

Fury (1936)

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 (The Richest Girl in the World (1934)) 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?

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