Captain Fury (1939)

 

Captain Fury is, essentially, a traditional western that happens to be set in Australia. However, other than a few shots of emus and kangaroos, the film doesn’t really depend very much on its alleged setting. You can tell that most of it was shot on a studio lot; the images of emus and kangaroos seem to be stock footage. Brian Aherne plays Michael Fury, the title character, who fought for Irish independence but is now a convict sentenced to hard labor in Australia. After they arrive in New South Wales, the convicts are distributed among the rich landowners, and Fury winds up under the oppressive rule of Arnold Trist (George Zucco, frequently guilty of scenery chewing). Trist has his men abuse the convicts, and he also wants to get rid of the neighboring settlers so that he can consolidate what he calls “an empire within an empire.” Fury is about to be beaten for his inept shearing of sheep when he escapes with the help of another convict, Coughy (John Carradine, perfectly suited for playing a consumptive). However, he isn’t free for long, as June Lang’s Jeanette Dupre, a settler’s daughter, takes him prisoner with plans to collect the $100 reward for returning escaped convicts. When he realizes that Trist is trying to frighten away the settlers so that he can take the land (much like he has already taken their money in taxes), Fury takes up their cause and even rescues some fellow prisoners from Trist’s control. They begin retaliating against Trist’s men, who are systematically destroying the settlers’ farms. Jeanette’s father, Francois Dupre (Paul Lukas, speaking with an accent that inexplicably sounds like no one else in the film), a very religious man, doesn’t approve of Fury or his friends or their tactics, even when they help to save his own farm. He certainly doesn’t want his daughter to fall in love with Fury, of all people, so you know how that’s going to turn out if you’re familiar with classical Hollywood plotting. Captain Fury has a few aspects worthy of attention. Victor McLaglen plays Blackie, a convict who knew of Fury’s escapades back in Ireland, gets to have a series of humorous moments in the film. Despite his large size—he’s a bit of a brute visually—McLaglen was able to demonstrate more than just strength here. Carradine is also quite good in the role of the dying romantic who’s always rhapsodizing about the beauty of the clouds and stars, often at the oddest times. Frankly, they’re more intriguing that the bland leads of Aherne and Lang. Speaking of odd, there’s a scene where the convicts and settlers (minus Papa Dupre, of course) have a dance even though all of them are under constant threat of attack by Trist’s men. While I don’t think that the art direction for Captain Fury is particularly award-worthy—its sole nomination was for its art direction—some of the details are nicely done: the scars from the ankle chains, for example, or the rats near the bowls and spoons that the exploited convicts use for meals. Its message is certainly a solid one: how once you’ve been convicted of a crime, it’s almost impossible to have people see you as anything other than the worst that you might have done, no matter how much good you might have done since. What might be most surprising is that the film was directed by Hal Roach, more noted for his work on the Our Gang comedy shorts. This is quite a departure from those films, but Captain Fury is a competent film overall.

Oscar Nomination: Best Art Direction