AKA Try and Get Me

1080p version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PONF3WrZPQ

Released under the lurid title Try and Get Me!, The Sound of Fury springs out of an infamous real event when a lynch mob attacked a police station in 1930s California. The film seems to take place in 1950, but the characters are definitely working (or not working, as it were) in Depression-era America. Frank Lovejoy is a family man down on his luck, roped almost against his will into pulling off small jobs by brazen crook Lloyd Bridges (who gives a fun, spicy performance here). Hey, I would turn to crime too if I had that nasty little boy at home. And then someone dies and everything goes to hell. First, they make one of the criminals sympathetic - if you were on a jury, you'd recommend leniency for sure - and then they switch gears and take us back to a subplot about a journalist fanning the flames of public outrage over a supposed "crime wave". We know fear sells papers. The movie attacks the media and its responsibility in maintaining democracy - an issue that's very much with us today - though it does get rather preachy when it tries to make bigger blanket statements. At its best, it presents interesting character psychologies, but ultimately, it's all in service of its polemic, which is weaker.