Try and Get Me! (AKA “The Sound of Fury”)
Directed by Cy Enfield
Written by Joe Pagano from his novel “The Condemned”
1950/USA
Robert Stillman Productions
First viewing/Amazon Prime Instant Video
[box]The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in it. ― Terry Pratchett, Jingo [/box]
Though it drifts over the top in places, this “B” film noir has an irresistible raw energy.
Howard Tyler (Frank Lovejoy) has had no luck finding a job in California. He can scarcely afford to give a quarter to his son for a movie and there is another baby on the way. At the bowling alley he gets to talking with Jerry Slocum (Lloyd Bridges) a preening stud who is obviously quite fond of himself. Jerry says Howard can earn big bucks simply by driving his car. Of course, it’s a getaway car – Jerry makes his living by sticking up small businesses on the interstate – but Howard is so desperate by this time that he takes the job. He starts hitting the bottle to cope with his guilt.
Things go south when Jerry wants to hit the big time by kidnapping a millionaire’s son. The crime doesn’t go as billed and Howard descends into an alcoholic miasma of guilt and fear. Then things get much, much worse. With Richard Carlson as a muckraking journalist.
The story is based on the same true incident that inspired Fritz Lang’s Fury (1936). Unfortunately, by 1950 the public was not as receptive to messages about the dangers of mob rule and yellow journalism. HUAC particularly denounced this movie as being un-American and Endfield was blacklisted and driven to England to find work.
The movie starts out with an unrelated scene of a blind fundamentalist preaching fire and brimstone on the street while people run as if fleeing a natural disaster. Groups of people in motion are used throughout building up to the impressive climax with hundreds of extras. I thought this was quite effective. Although both actors overdo it when the going gets especially tough, Lovejoy is convincing and Bridges has the ego-maniac character perfected. The film does suffer from the inclusion of the character of Dr. Simone, a European scientist, who delivers several speeches making explicit the message inherent in what we can see for ourselves.
BAFTA nominated Try and Get Me!/Sound of Fury as Best Film from Any Source and for the UN Award.
Clip – the kidnapping (spoiler) – cinematography by Guy Roe
