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In director Fritz Lang’s first English-language film, Spencer Tracy stars as a man nearly lynched and presumed dead for a crime he didn’t commit. His grieving fiancée, played by Sylvia Sidney, soon learns he’s not only still alive, but seeking revenge. Through his brothers (Frank Albertson and George Walcott), he’s seeking the death penalty for the twenty-two mob members who burned and dynamited his jail cell. Can she convince him to forgive his would-be killers, or will vengeance consume him?
Fury is a fast-paced, surprising and provocative film with an always-terrific performance from Tracy and some of Lang’s German-expressionist stylings. The first half is the strongest, showing how small-town gossip and rage can get terrifyingly misdirected. The town’s angst leads to a community raid on the police station and Tracy’s near-death. (His little dog Rainbow does, in fact, perish in the event.) Tracy, playing a dutiful, hardworking citizen up until that point, then shifts to villain mode — cold heartedly determined to see his persecutors hang. The second half is only slightly less engrossing, only because the outcome is predictable and a tad sentimental. Up to that point, however, Fury is a well-acted social drama with bite — one of the finest ‘wrongfully accused’ films to come out of Hollywood.
With Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot, Edward Ellis, Walter Brennan, and music by Franz Waxman.
Oscar Nomination: Best Writing / Original Story (Norman Krasna)