THE SOUND OF FURY

US, 1950, 85 minutes, Black and white.
Frank Lovejoy, Lloyd Bridges, Kathleen Ryan, Richard Carlson, Adele Jurgens.
Directed by Cyril Enfield.

The Sound of Fury is a surprising film - even many decades later. It is based on a true story, the lynching of two prisoners in San Jose in 1933. In 1937, soon after this incident, Fritz Lang made the film Fury about lynching in an Atlanta town. The Oxbow Incident, directed by William Wellman in 1942, had a lynching theme in the old west.

The film focuses on an ordinary citizen, a good man, out of work, pressurised at home, his wife pregnant again. He cannot get a job. He meets, by chance, a vain young man who has plans as a thief. Reluctantly, he agrees to be his driver. This eventually leads to a kidnapping plan, the young man brutally killing the man abducted.

Frank Lovejoy is very good as the earnest citizen who lets himself be manipulated. Lloyd Bridges is excellent as the preening and arrogant and violent young man. Kathleen Ryan, the Irish actress, plays Lovejoy's wife and Richard Carlson plays a journalist. Adele Jurgens is Bridges' girlfriend.

The film changes in tone when the Lovejoy character feels guilty and eventually confesses and is arrested, enabling Bridges to be arrested as well. Stirred up by articles by the Carlson character, a mob assembles outside the prison, lynch law takes over and the two men are killed. Even within the rather more restrained standards and styles of the 1950s, the final half hour of the film is very powerful, a comment on mob mentality, lynch law, the urgings of the yellow press.

The film was directed by Cyril Enfield, who was blacklisted and moved to the United Kingdom where he made films in the 1950s and 60s, pre-eminently Zulu.

1.A 1950s film? Strong in its time? Now? The work of the director, his being blacklisted?

2.The black and white photography, the California locations, town, homes, the streets, the square outside the prison, the prison interiors? The musical score?

3.The title, the echoes of Macbeth? The echoes of the title of Fritz Lang's film, Fury? Based on a true story, 1933, San Jose?

4.The 1950s style, film noir, sharp dialogue, the dialogue of the period, the message and some preaching?

5.The introduction to Howard, the ordinary man, decent, wanting a lift, unable to get a job, Judy and her being pregnant, needing hospital care, his son, giving him the fifty cents, feeling harassed by his wife, going out, the beer, the encounter with Stanton, going to the bowling alley, Jerry and his success, Jerry talking to him, using and manipulating him to hand him things ...? Going home with him, the offer, Jerry's different moods, Howard accepting?

6.Jerry and his style, the mirror, self-centred, combing his hair, using and manipulating Howard, at home, going out?

7.Stanton, the journalist, introduction to him in the bar, his trying to be fair, the role of the press? The status of his paper?

8.The thieving jobs, the headlines, the ease of carrying them out? The example shown? The police and papers giving them too much credibility? Judy and her reaction to the money, watching the TV with her son, the buying of the TV, shoes, clothes, games? The continuing of the robberies? Howard and his concern?

9.The plan of the kidnapping, the fact, Howard wary, Jerry and his brutality, bashing the victim, rolling him down the rocks, the cliff? The car later being found, the kids? The dramatic headlines?

10.Howard, moral collapse, his drinking, Judy, his son with the gun, going out, staying away two days, the double-date, his going with Hazel, at the restaurant, the dancing, his eyes blurring, his almost collapsing? Going back to Hazel's, sleeping, waking, the news on the radio, confessing to her, the relief, going to jail, his letter to Judy, wanting her to forget him, Jerry's anger in the jail, Stanton going to see him, their talking, the lynching?

11.Jerry, the information for his arrest, his anger in the cell, fear, the lynching?

12.Judy, her support, her arrival at home and finding Howard arrested, the son, at court, the journalists harassing her, her going to Stanton, the reading of the letter?

13.Stanton, the story, headlines, the authorities' attitude to the criminals, the police, the editor? The professor warning him? Stanton as self-righteous, the journalists, the challenge? The meeting with Judy? His change of heart? Acknowledging his responsibility? Going to see Howard? Watching the mob in dismay?

14.The public, their anger, gathering, becoming a mob, inflamed, the university students, the loudspeaker pulled down, the attack on the jail, the door, the keys? The film cutting away but communicating the horrendous mood of the lynching?

15.The intended message about mobs, guilt of criminals, responsibility, the role of the press in inciting mobs?