Fury (1936)
Runtime: 1 hr 36 mins
Synopsis: In Fritz Lang's first American film, a young engaged couple, Joe (Spencer Tracey) and Katherine (Sylvia Sydney), are saying a sad good bye, parting for as long as it will take them to save up enough money to start a life together. Eventually the day arrives when the two are to be reunited, but... In Fritz Lang's first American film, a young engaged couple, Joe (Spencer Tracey) and Katherine (Sylvia Sydney), are saying a sad good bye, parting for as long as it will take them to save up enough money to start a life together. Eventually the day arrives when the two are to be reunited, but en-route to see Katherine, Joe is picked up by an ornery police officer in search of a kidnapper. Among bizarre extenuating circumstances and circumstantial evidence, all signs point to Joe as the culprit, and he is immediately taken to jail. The news of the kidnapper's capture spreads quickly through town, and soon an angry mob gathers outside the jail. The mob quickly becomes violent and burns down the jail with Joe apparently inside. Shortly thereafter, the real kidnapper is captured, and the local citizens fall under the scrutiny of the law, which accuses them of Joe's murder. Lang's favorite themes-- media and the masses--come to play as the film follows the strange story to its unusual and astonishing conclusion. Stunning visuals and a crisp narrative combine to create an aura of paranoia and madness, as each character is forced to confront his own morality. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney, Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot, Edward Ellis
Screenwriter: Bartlett Cormack, Fritz Lang
Story: Norman Krasna
Producer: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Composer: Franz Waxman
DVD Info
Release:
May 10, 2005
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Reviews
Probing mass psychology, mob violence, and corrupt politicians in a small-town, Lang's first American film expresses his fatalistic and pessimistic view of human nature that began with his German pictures and would define all of his American ones.
Fury offers a striking portrait of the structure of society; its assorted classes, organizations and technologies, and methods of law and order...
Lang's first English language film seemed to anticipate the horrors at Abu Ghraib as far back as 1936.
While marred by a pat ending, Fritz Lang's examination of lynch mobs is still terrifying.
Fritz Lang's first American film since leaving Nazi Germany is an eye-opener about a lynch mob in a small town.

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