Spencer Tracy is generally considered one of the greatest classic Hollywood actors. He was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won it twice. He was a huge star throughout his life and remains beloved by fans across the world.
I’ve enjoyed nearly every movie I’ve seen him in, and he’s always great, even in the films I don’t love. Yet Tracy is not an actor I have ever gravitated toward. I don’t ever seek his films out. And unlike other actors like Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, or James Stewart, Tracy’s name alone on a film won’t make me want to watch it. I’m not entirely sure why that is, but sets like this one sure bring me closer.
Buy Spencer Tracy 4-Film Collection Blu-ray from MovieZyngThe four films included in this set give a nice overview of his career and demonstrate how versatile an actor he really was. From serious dramas with a political message to epics, and slapstick comedy, Spencer Tracy could do it all and do it well.
Fury was the first Hollywood film directed by Fritz Lang after fleeing Germany from the Nazis (they say he left right after Joseph Goebbels invited him to become the head of the German film studio UFI). It feels like a film made by a man who knew how easily crowds of people could be rallied into mob mentality.
Spencer plays everyman Joe Wilson, who gets stopped by the police on his way across the country to see his fiancée, Katherine Grant (Sylvia Sidney). A group of kidnappers recently nabbed a child, and since Joe is traveling solo along backroads, he seems suspicious. When they find a five-dollar bill on his person that matches the numbers on the ransom money, he finds himself in jail.
He didn’t do it, and the evidence is flimsy at best, but the small-town gossip mill starts, and the menfolk, strengthened by lots of hard liquor, start beating their chests as protectors of the children, and soon enough, a mob has formed at the jailhouse demanding Joe’s head.
They nearly get it, too. They light the place on fire and throw dynamite at it, blowing the entire jail to smithereens. But somehow Joe survives and is able to sneak off without anyone noticing. Since everyone thinks he’s dead, he talks his brother into demanding justice for the lynchers. The movie moves from a romance to a noir and finally into a courtroom drama.
That last part isn’t nearly as good as the rest of it, and one wonders how different the film would feel if the protagonist had been a Black man (as Lang originally wanted it to be) rather than a white guy, but mostly this is a terrific thriller that still feels entirely current.
Libeled Lady (1936) is a wonderful screwball comedy where Spencer Tracy takes a back seat to the antics of William Powell and Jean Harlow, who are exceptional together. They make the entire movie. Tracy plays Warren Haggerty, a fast-talking newspaper man who’s been engaged to Harlow’s Gladys Benton for years. Every time they start to walk the aisle, some newspaper business comes up, and Haggerty has to split.
This time the paper has accused Connie Allenbury (Myrna Loy), a rich socialite, of breaking up a marriage when she was nowhere near the happy couple. She sues for libel to the tune of $5 million, and it is up to Haggerty to fix it. His idea involves Bill Chandler (Powell) marrying Gladys and then having Chandler get caught cheating on her with Connie.
Lots of silliness ensues. Gladys is none too excited about this plan, and Connie immediately knows something is up. The film spends most of its time with Chandler attempting to soothe Gladys and woo Connie, while Haggerty spends most of his time wringing his hands over the entire situation.
Northwest Passage (1940) is an epic adventure story that tells the true story of Robert Rogers and his Rangers and the infamous St. Francis Raid during the French and Indian War. Spencer plays Rogers, who is tasked to march his Rangers (including Walter Brennan and Robert Young) through miles of arduous wilderness to avoid the numerous French soldiers stalking the grounds, and to destroy the Indian settlement of St. Francis.
Historically, there is some dispute over what actually happened. Rogers reported that he killed hundreds of savage Indians, captured a few of the women and children, but let most of them go. The French declared that he slaughtered all the women and children (burning many of them alive as they were hiding inside the houses and cellars when the rangers put them to the torch).
The film spends little time on the raid. They take the settlement easy, hitting it before dawn while everyone is asleep. Rather, it spends most of its runtime following the men on that arduous journey leading to the settlement and the long trek back to civilization. They are starving for most of it. Getting there entails wading through miles of mosquito-infested swamp so they will not leave a trail, and afterward, all they have are handfuls of corn to eat. Both times they are too afraid that hunting will alert the French of where they are.
I found the entire thing to be a bit of a snooze. It was unclear to me why they were raiding the settlement in the first place, and the journey, while certainly arduous, just seemed kind of pointless. Tracy plays Roberts like a man hell-bent on his path. Numerous times, he leaves sick or injured men behind to die because he has no time to stop. But the film isn’t quite ready to make him out to be a full-on villain, which makes the entire thing feel rather limp.
Bad Day at Black Rock is the film that makes this set worth every ounce of your money and time. Spencer Tracy plays John Macready, a one-armed veteran who steps off a bright silver and modern train into an old Western town. The townsfolk all look at him with suspicion. They have no idea what he is doing there. Somebody says the train hasn’t stopped in that town in four years. He doesn’t understand why the townsfolk are acting so strangely towards him.
The town is filled with a veritable who’s who of great character actors, including Walter Brennan, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, and Robert Ryan. They fill the town with menace and suspicion and do their best to scare Macready away. The mystery slowly reveals itself, and director John Sturges uses the western genre (with heavy doses of film noir) to peel back the layers of American society and reveal its corrupt, decrepit base.
Tracy is terrific as a good man who has been defeated by life but, when pushed into a corner, finds he has some spark left. He’s my favorite kind of action hero in that he speaks softly, prefers to back away from trouble rather than jump headlong into it, but when push comes to shove, he knows how to bring it. With a runtime of just over 80 minutes, the film has zero flab. It does exactly what it needs to, and rolls credits. I was thrilled for every single minute.
Like all these four-film sets being released by Warner Archive, these films have been previously released as standalone discs. All specs and extras have been ported over. As an avowed physical-media collector, I always feel a little guilty buying this type of set. True collectors get the individual discs, the better to display them with, and not boxed sets at bargain prices. But the realist in me, the one who has to balance the checkbook, is thrilled with these sets.
Buy Spencer Tracy 4-Film Collection Blu-rayI wasn’t particularly fond of Northwest Passage, but the other three films make great additions to the collection, and the price makes it more than worth one not as good film.
