Fury (1936)

Directed by Fritz Lang. Starring Spencer Tracy, Sylvia Sidney, Edward Ellis, Bruce Cabot, Walter Abel, Walter Brennan, Frank Albertson, Arthur Stone, George Walcott, George Chandler, Morgan Wallace, Gwen Lee, Jonathan Hale.

Dramatic depiction of injustice, mob rule, insidious gossip, and the crippling influence of vengeance remains relevant today despite dated milieu and gullibility. Tracy is innocent man passing through a small town to see his fiancée (Sidney) when circumstantial evidence makes him a suspect in a child kidnapping; after escaping during the chaos of an attempted lynching at the hands of angry locals, his bitterness and drive for retribution blinds him to all other concerns, including his otherwise discarded romantic relationship. Riveting enough to look past its flaws and gaps in credulity, with Tracy contributing a rare portrayal outside of his comfort zone that seethes with the rage promised in the title, and Sidney smartly staving off the tedium of the “wounded lover” role that’s usually so thankless. Director Lang’s first Hollywood film, a difficult transition that was eased a bit thanks to producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz being fluent in German.

75/100