Fury *****

Somewhere in the early 1950s, I’m drinking Cutty Sark with Pat O’Brien and Spencer Tracy at Toot Shors and we’re all breaking up because we just heard a new “Method” story.

Method acting was pretty new at the time and mostly New York stage guys used it. Only a handful of film actors were trained that way (John Garfield, Monty Clift, Rod Steiger, Brando, Karl Malden, off the top of my head), so they were certainly in the minority, but guys like Brando were getting so much press that everyone thought it was the next big thing.

Some of the old-timers got offended by the kid gloves treatment that the kids got from reviewers, but others were just amused. That was pretty much the way O’Brien and Tracy looked at it. But there was one thing about the Method for which they took great pleasure – the stories about the ridiculous extremes that some Method actors would go to prepare for a role.

On that day at Toots, I was telling Pat and Spence about two Brando stories I just heard. One took place during the filming of Viva Zapata. There was one scene where Brando was supposed to be drunk, so of course he got drunk. So fall-over drunk that he couldn’t function and the shoot had to be postponed until the next day. During that shoot, he got drunk again and it got postponed again, and so on. Don’t bother to look for the scene in the film, they ended up scrapping it. (“It’s very important for these Method kids to learn how to hold their booze,” Tracy said after hearing the story.)

The second story had the two great Irish actors nearly on the floor. I can’t remember during what shoot it took place, but there was one scene where Brando was supposed to be suffering from severe burns. Marlon read somewhere that burn victims felt a freezing sensation. Being the Method actor that he is, Brando covered himself in ice. Problem was he stayed in the ice too long and got frost bitten.

This reminded Pat of something that Jack Barrymore said after being asked about the Method. “Method acting? There are quite a few methods. Mine involves a lot of talent, a glass and some cracked ice."

Being the good reporter that I am, I asked Pat and Spence how they would describe their acting styles. “I always think of my dead mother,” O’Brien said.

“Your mother’s not dead,” Tracy said.

“That’s why I’m not a very good actor. All good Method actors need a dead mother.”

Tracy’s answer to the same question was a little simpler. “I remember my lines and try not to hit the damn furniture.” It’s that simplicity that made him so wonderful.

Of all the great performances that Tracy has given, my two favorites were ones where he wasn’t even nominated for Academy Awards. The first was The Last Hurrah where he played a roguish mayor of a large eastern city (read Mayor James Curley from Boston). Even though the guy would cheat or rob anyone to get his way, Tracy was so likable in the role that you found yourself rooting for him. In that movie it was the simple things he did, almost unnoticeable, like when he was trying to intimidate an opponent and in the middle of the grilling, Tracy patted and rubbed the guy’s arm and with that trademark Tracy growl said, “Oh, you don’t want to do that” before his eyes widened and he got to the threat.

He was great in The Last Hurrah. He was better in Fury.

Fury was made 20 years before The Last Hurrah, but Tracy, unschooled and working off natural talent, was the same actor he would be in his later years.

The movie was about a regular guy whose car broke down in some god forsaken small town. It just happens that as this poor schlep was looking for help, word leaks out that there was a kidnapping and rape in the town. Of course, the new face becomes suspect number one for a variety of reasons. The police toss him in jail, almost for his own protection, but the town storms the jail and burns it down. All the residents and Tracy’s fiancé and brother believe Tracy died in the fire, but the town tries to cover it up. The fiancé and brother press the issue hard and charges are filed against some leaders of the mob. When the trial starts random and incriminating evidence begins to appear against the mob leaders. Unbeknownst to anyone, the evidence is being leaked by Tracy who actually survived the fire and is hell-bent on getting revenge.

This is one of the more interesting roles I’ve ever seen in a film because the Tracy character is acting like a villain would, but his actions are justified in the minds of the audience because of what the mob put him through. This is another movie that ends up having a theme and a point, but once again this movie works because it is so entertaining. I don’t care how peace-loving you are. I guarantee that you will be frothing at the mouth and rooting on Tracy in his search for revenge by the middle of this one.

I am convinced that this movie would have failed if anyone other than Tracy did this part. He is the best at justifying his actions on screen while staying within character, so the audience can understand and still like him, no matter what he does.

Looking back at all the great actors during that era, the Bogarts, the Cagneys, the Tracys, the Grants, I always laugh at the acting schools today and wonder what they could have done with giants like that. These guys all learned on the job. There was only one great old-time actor that tried to learn the Method, Marilyn Monroe, and it ruined her because it took away her natural ability.

You can’t argue with the quality of the work that guys like DeNiro, Pacino, Hackman, Garfield and, yes, Brando, have produced. But when I see Tracy in Fury, it makes me think that the job just isn’t that complicated.