Blu-ray Review Fury (1936) Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Matt Hough]

Fritz Lang’s coruscating examination of mob mentality at its most venal has lost none of its power in 1936’s Fury, one of the director’s most powerful films and certainly one of the best movies he made after coming to America.



Fury (1936)



Released: 05 Jun 1936
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 92 min




Director: Fritz Lang
Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir



Cast: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, Walter Abel
Writer(s): Bartlett Cormack, Fritz Lang, Norman Krasna



Plot: When a wrongly accused prisoner barely survives a lynch mob attack and is presumed dead, he vindictively decides to fake his death and frame the mob for his supposed murder.



IMDB rating: 7.9
MetaScore: N/A





Disc Information



Studio: MGM
Distributed By: Warner...

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[Robert Crawford]

Thank you for your review as I will be watching my Blu-ray before December 1st.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Seems like a film more timely than ever.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Seems like a film more timely than ever.

It sure is....

 

[Matt Hough]

I could not agree more!

 

[benbess]

Matt Hough wrote: "Fritz Lang’s coruscating examination of mob mentality at its most venal has lost none of its power in 1936’s Fury, one of the director’s most powerful films and certainly one of the best movies he made after coming to America after escaping the Nazi regime. Spencer Tracy was given one of his earliest big chances at establishing the same kind of galvanizing power and presence that he displayed on the stage with this movie, and he took full advantage of the opportunity. Sylvia Sidney, top-billed and just as solid as her co-star, justified her presence above the title...."

I've never seen this movie, but after reading Matt's review I've just ordered the blu-ray of Fury. I've been a Spencer Tracy fan since the 1980s, plus I've been impressed with the Warner Archive blu-ray releases since they started several years ago. I'm glad for the past couple of years they've been including bonus materials with their blu-rays.

 

[mskaye]

Matt Hough wrote: "Fritz Lang’s coruscating examination of mob mentality at its most venal has lost none of its power in 1936’s Fury, one of the director’s most powerful films and certainly one of the best movies he made after coming to America after escaping the Nazi regime. Spencer Tracy was given one of his earliest big chances at establishing the same kind of galvanizing power and presence that he displayed on the stage with this movie, and he took full advantage of the opportunity. Sylvia Sidney, top-billed and just as solid as her co-star, justified her presence above the title...."

I've never seen this movie, but after reading Matt's review I've just ordered the blu-ray of Fury. I've been a Spencer Tracy fan since the 1980s, plus I've been impressed with the Warner Archive blu-ray releases since they started several years ago. I'm glad for the past couple of years they've been including bonus materials with their blu-rays.

It is not a perfect movie and even Lang in interviews stated that he made many compromises and that he had to come to terms with what American audiences and producers expected from him. But this is a film with several sequences of unparalleled cinematic vision and mastery. And like others have said, a painfully relevant message.

 

[mskaye]

It is not a perfect movie and even Lang in interviews stated that he made many compromises and that he had to come to terms with what American audiences and producers expected from him. But this is a film with several sequences of unparalleled cinematic vision and mastery. And like others have said, a painfully relevant message.

Viewing it now. A huge improvement over the DVD. Damn! Lang was a prophet. I'm just shaking my head in astonishment over Lang's genius and the relevancy of this film. And the commentary by Peter Bogdanovich is essential too - to the understanding of the film and the worldview and career of Lang.

 

[Robert Crawford]

It is not a perfect movie and even Lang in interviews stated that he made many compromises and that he had to come to terms with what American audiences and producers expected from him. But this is a film with several sequences of unparalleled cinematic vision and mastery. And like others have said, a painfully relevant message.

Viewing it now. A huge improvement over the DVD. Damn! Lang was a prophet. I'm just shaking my head in astonishment over Lang's genius and the relevancy of this film. And the commentary by Peter Bogdanovich is essential too - to the understanding of the film and the worldview and career of Lang.

I'll be watching my Blu-ray in the next 7 or 8 days. No, it's not a perfect movie, but not many movies are perfect. With that said, I think it's an outstanding movie that is very relevant today after 85 years since it's release.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Thank you for your review as I will be watching my Blu-ray before December 1st.

I watched my Blu-ray today and it is a huge improvement over the 2005 DVD. Yes, a movie about a subject matter that is still relevant today.

 

[benbess]

Although Fritz Lang and Spencer Tracy didn't get along while making Fury, they both bring a lot to this movie.

Lang and cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg create an expressionist style in some scenes with dutch angles, things seen in reflection, behind bars, and so on. The mob scenes are a bit shocking even today, and were influenced in part by this real life event....

Murder of Brooke Hart and the lynching of Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Ruttenberg was the DP for a lot of films before 1936, and in the 40s photographed The Philadelphia Story, Waterloo Bridge, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Random Harvest, Gaslight, etc.

Joseph Ruttenberg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

In the audio commentary in the blu-ray Lang himself talks about how he didn't know he had to give lunch breaks on a movie set, and that in Germany they might work until 1 am if they had to. And so Spencer Tracy apparently told Lang that it was time for lunch, but when Lang refused, this is what happened according to imdb's trivia on the film....

Fury (1936) - Trivia - IMDb

Fury (1936) - Trivia on IMDb: Cameos, Mistakes, Spoilers and more...

m.imdb.com

"This was Fritz Lang's first film in Hollywood, and he wasn't accustomed to labor laws that require meal breaks. Shortly after filming began, Lang ate a quick lunch between set-ups and resumed filming. Some of the crew members wondering about their lunch break asked Spencer Tracy, who in turn pointed out to Lang that it was "1:30 pm and the crew had yet to take their break". Lang replied that it was his set and that "I will call lunch when I think it should be called." Tracy then smeared his make-up with his hand, knowing that it would take at least 90 minutes to fix it, yelled "Lunch!" and promptly walked off the set with the crew."

And if the dog in the movie looks familiar, well....

"Terry, better known as Toto from "The Wizard of Oz (1939)", appears in this film as the dog that Spencer Tracy takes in from the rain at the beginning of the movie, becoming his traveling companion into small-town America."

I've sometimes wondered why after Metropolis Fritz Lang didn't do any more "epic" films, but in the interview on the blu-ray with Peter Bogdanovich Lang says he avoided that kind of movie, seemingly because he didn't feel he could do something as serious with an "epic."

This movie is somewhat stagey in places, but still effective. I like the ending, which apparently was not what FL wanted. But Fritz Lang's M

Spoiler

creeps me out too much.

Picture quality on Fury is quite good for a movie of this era, but not great. I'm guessing the OCN no longer exists, but I really don't know.

The movie was a reasonable hit, and according to wikipedia "The film earned domestic rentals of $685,000 and $617,000 overseas.[3] According to MGM records, the final profit was $248,000.[2][12]

One last thing. I learned a new German word from Fritz Lang in the commentary: Kadavergehorsam, which means something like authority that is so strong, and subjects who are so obedient, that even their cadavers obey. Creepy! I remember learning the word Weltshmerz way back when I was in college in the 1980s and thinking, "Oh, that's what I've been feeling!" lol

 

[Santee7]

I saw this decades ago I think on WGN out of Chicago on a night when the skip was in, (late at night some tv stations you didn’t really get would skip into your neighborhood and if you held the turning knob just right you would get a snowy picture!)

In my little town of Onalaska Wis. At that time we only got three channels and great late night movies were few and far between. I had read about this movie in a little paper back called the Celluloid Muse and had long been wanting to see it. At that time due to the snowy picture at 2 am I had a vague idea that it kinda lived up to it’s reputation. But wasn’t quite sure. Not as good as a Bogart movie though. I thought.

Last night I saw it for real. My God I was blown away. I thought I had actually just watched this play out in real life. And it sure seemed more powerful now then it did in the thirties.

I was totally mesmerized.

I stayed up and watched it twice. And never was Spencer better.

I had also read in one of those old film books that no one had “Cinematic eyes” like Sylvia Sydney. I never forgot that quote but didn't understand it. I do now! That author was so right.

Just an amazing film. To think I thought I had “seen it” on that snowy 19 inch picture screen way back in ’75, ( punctuated by Burt Wienman Ford commercials).

Thanks again to Warner Archives.

 

[benbess]

At the moment this one is $8.90 from amazon.

 

[mskaye]

At the moment this one is $8.90 from amazon.

Along with Fritz Lang's two great noirs - Scarlet Street and The Big Heat, FURY is his greatest American film. This is a bargain price for one of the great singular works of the 1930's, and still powerful today. The fact that it was made by MGM (it plays more like a WB film) makes it even more special. There is one sequence that should be taught in film school. Forgive the hyperbole but it's great and retains much of Lang's style from the time of M and Testament of Dr. Mabuse.