Fury is a 1936 American crime film directed by Fritz Lang that tells the story of an innocent man ( Spencer Tracy ) who narrowly escapes being burned to death by a lynch mob and the revenge he then seeks. The film was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and stars Sylvia Sidney and Tracy, with a supporting cast featuring Walter Abel , Bruce Cabot , Edward Ellis and Walter Brennan . Loosely based on the events surrounding the Brooke Hart murder in San Jose, California , the film was adapted by Bartlett Cormack and Lang from the story Mob Rule by Norman Krasna . Fury was Lang's first American film.