Blind Fury (1936)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title Blind rage
Original title Fury
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1936
length 89 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Fritz Lang
script Bartlett Cormack
Fritz Lang
production Joseph L. Mankiewicz
music Franz Waxman
camera Joseph Ruttenberg
cut Frank Sullivan
occupation

Blinde Wut (Original title: Fury ) is an American drama film directed by Fritz Lang from 1936 based on a story by Norman Krasna with Sylvia Sidney and Spencer Tracy in the leading roles.

action

Katherine Grant and Joe Wilson are engaged. But Joe doesn't earn enough to support a family. As a result, Katherine accepts a post as a teacher in Illinois. As a result, the couple has to split for a year because Joe stays in Chicago. Lively correspondence takes place and the day of our reunion is approaching. Joe makes his way to Katherine, but is arrested on the way in the town of Strand and is accused of kidnapping a girl. Without the possibility of justification, the sheriff locks him up and forbids him to have contact with his brothers or Katherine.

The only clue is the peanuts found in his pocket; The police also found some at the crime scene, as well as a $ 5 bill that could have come from the ransom. Rumors spread like wildfire in the city that one of the kidnappers has been caught. Despite the lack of evidence, a man who describes himself as a strike breaker stirs up the city's residents and creates a mob . The angry crowd gathers in front of the prison and finally overwhelms the sheriff and his assistants. But since they still can't get to Joe, they burn the building down. Katherine, who accidentally found out about the arrest, arrives just in time to see Joe at the cell window of the blazing building.

Shortly afterwards, the real kidnappers are caught, Joe's innocence is certain. 22 alleged members of the mob are brought to justice and charged with the murder of Joe. In fact, Joe survived the fire. He was able to escape unnoticed through a rain gutter with burns. Completely bitter and full of vengeance, he now hides with the help of his brothers. These take part in the process as his relatives. During the trial, it becomes clear that the city's residents stick together. They give each other alibis and even the sheriff suddenly can't identify any of the accused. The prosecutor then tells the court that lynching has killed 6,010 people in America over the past 49 years. Only 765 of the tens of thousands involved in these murders would have come to court because fellow citizens refused to identify the perpetrators. Just to point out this shameful fact, he would have called all the pointless witnesses. He would now brand her a liar.

What neither the townspeople nor their defense had known: the cameraman of a newsreel had filmed the scenes in front of the prison. The screening of the film also shook the mob participants. The defense now doubts that there has been a murder because Joe's body was not found. Katherine's description of her observations is not yet convincing. Joe sends the judge an anonymous letter with a partially melted ring and a message that he is a citizen of Strand and that he found the ring while cleaning up the prison. Katherine identifies the ring as Joes. The proof is there.

However, Katherine has meanwhile also had doubts about the death of her fiancé, as she discovered, among other things, a spelling error in the anonymous message that she knew from Joe's letters to her. She secretly follows his brothers to Joe and tries to persuade him to give up his revenge. But Joe is full of hatred and wants revenge for a mob trying to burn an innocent man in prison. Katherine leaves him. Soon Joe realizes that he has gone too far. The thought of losing Katherine almost makes him lose his mind. The judgment is read out the next day. Many of the accused are found guilty and thus sentenced to death. During the riot that followed, Joe shows up in court. Speaking to the court, he said, “The law doesn't know that many things were important to me - silly things like believing in justice, the notion that all people are civilized, and feeling proud of my country, that is different from all the others - the law does not know that these things burned inside me that night. ”He is not here to save the lives of the accused because they mean absolutely nothing to him. He was here because of him, so that events would no longer haunt him and he could be happy with Katherine. Katherine overhears Joe's speech, forgives him and they kiss.

background

Blind Fury was Fritz Lang's first film made in Hollywood after he emigrated to the United States in 1934. Lang had left Germany in 1933 when the Nazis came to power, but had first moved to France. The film is based on the story Mob Rule by Norman Krasna , who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Story .

Lang originally wanted to make a film about a black victim of a lynch mob. However, MGM did not allow him to do so. The kissing scene at the end - a typical Hollywood "happy ending" - was added because the head of production insisted on it. Lang never liked this scene.

Rainbow, Joe's dog, is a Cairn Terrier named Terry . However, after the bitch became famous as Toto in The Wizard of Oz , she was renamed to her local role name.

In 1995, Blind Fury was included in the National Film Registry .

Reviews

  • Lexicon of International Films : A vehement attack against social and psychological grievances, rigorous except for the conciliatory end. Staged in dense, oppressive scenes .
  • Prisma Online: Fritz Lang's first US film is as oppressive as it is consistent accounting for the consequences of mass hysteria. To this day, the remarkable work has hardly lost its relevance.
  • Evangelischer Filmbeobachter (Review No. 262/1969): In terms of photography and aesthetics, only comparable to a limited extent with Lang's works of art from the silent film era, stylistically overloaded and out of date, thematically but worth considering.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Blind Fury - Trivia on imdb.com
  2. ^ National Film Registry on the Library of Congress website