The Warner Archive Collection has packaged Fury, Libeled Lady, Northwest Passage, and Bad Day at Black Rock together in the Spencer Tracy 4-Film Collection. All of the packaged films have previously been released on Blu-ray.

Warner Archive has been rather busy releasing Blu-ray collections with some of the stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Other collections include Errol Flynn, Gene Kelly, James Cagney, Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper, Elizabeth Taylor, Clark Gable, Doris Day, James Stewart, Robert Taylor and Fred Astaire. Upcoming collections include Humphrey Bogart and Tennessee Williams. Many of the included films have been previously released on Blu-ray, but it’s nice to have them all together in one set.

I’ve only seen one of the four films, but it goes without saying that the Spencer Tracy 4-Film Collection is a must-own collection for any fan of the actor.

Fury

Synopsis

Joe Wilson, a wrongly jailed man thought to have died in a blaze started by a bloodthirsty lynch mob, is somehow alive…but dead to all he ever stood for and perhaps ever will be, because Joe aims to ensure his would-be executioners meet the fate that he miraculously escaped. Spencer Tracy is Joe, Sylvia Sidney is his bride-to-be, and Fury lives up to its volatile name with its searing indictment of mob justice and lynching. In his first American film, director Fritz Lang combines a passion for justice and a sharp visual style into a landmark of social-conscience filmmaking. In the 49 years before this movie’s release, some 6,000 people in the U.S. were victims of lynch mobs. The Fury over those tragedies — and over other injustices to come — remains.

Bonus Features

• Commentary by Peter Bogdanovich with Fritz Lang
• Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR: Fritz Lang
SCREENWRITERS: Bartlett Cormack and Fritz Lang
CAST: Sylvia Sidney, Spencer Tracy, with Walter Abel, Bruce Cabot, Edward Ellis, Walter Brennan, Frank Albertson, George Walcott

Libeled Lady

Synopsis

Bill Chandler (William Powell) is one of America’s great anglers, a sports fisherman without peer, doom in waders to the wiliest trout. And that isn’t the only fish story Chandler tells. Four of Hollywood’s greatest stars — Powell, Jean Harlow, Myrna Loy and Spencer Tracy — reel in this whopper of a screwball romantic comedy classic nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. It all starts when society diva Loy slaps newsman Tracy with a libel suit. Tracy enlists fiancée Harlow and down-on-his-luck Powell in a counter maneuver involving a rigged marriage, a phony seduction, a fabulously funny fishing scene, fisticuffs, broken promises and hearts, and, eventually, true love for all. This Lady is one fine catch.

Bonus Features

• Warner Bros. Short: Keystone Hotel
• MGM Short: New Shoes
• MGM Cartoon: Little Cheeser
• Leo Is On the Air: Libeled Lady Radio Promo
• Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR: Jack Conway
SCREENWRITERS: Maurine Watkins, Howard Emmett Rogers and George Oppenheimer
CAST: Jean Harlow, William Powell, Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, with Walter Connolly

Northwest Passage

Synopsis

Spencer Tracy and a stellar supporting cast grab muskets , gun powder and knives, and head out for adventure in Northwest Passage, a lavish Technicolor retelling of French and Indian War heroics, based on Kenneth Roberts’ best seller. Tracy plays a true-life explorer Major Robert Rogers, the intrepid leader of the celebrated Roberts’ Rangers fighting force that took on one of the most challenging expeditions in military history. Tracy’s portrayal brilliantly captures the American pioneering spirit, but he had to muster up his own will to carry it off. “It isn’t exactly fun to work in bitter cold and be sloshing through mud all day” he said. For twelve grueling weeks of location shooting, he endured trapsing through swamps, crossing rapids, and climbing mountains. Of this rousing epic (released shortly after Gone With the Wind), The New York Times wrote, “Now that the Wind has stopped ruffling your hair, you can have it lifted, scalp and all in Northwest Passage.”

Bonus Features

• Vintage Featurette: NORTHWARD, HO!
• Original Theatrical Trailer

DIRECTOR: King Vidor
SCREENWRITERS: Laurence Stallings and Talbot Jennings
CAST: Spencer Tracy, Robert Young, with Walter Brennan, Ruth Hussey, Nat Pendleton

Bad Day at Black Rock

Folks in Black Rock have their own way of welcoming mysterious, one-armed stranger John J. Macreedy. He’s welcome to leave. Or they’ll make sure he leaves in a pine box. Two-time Academy Award winner* Spencer Tracy (a 1955 Best Actor Oscar nominee for this film) plays World War II veteran Macreedy, who keeps his own counsel about why he’s come to Black Rock and who keeps his wits about him when confronted with threats and violence. Director John Sturges (The Great Escape) ramps up the tension while revealing Macreedy’s mission and the town’s grim secret. Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin are among the town’s thugs and lap dogs. “I’m half horse, half alligator,” one says. They’ll find Macreedy is even tougher stuff.

Bonus Features

• Commentary with Dana Polan
• Trailer

DIRECTOR: John Sturges
SCREENWRITER: Millard Kaufman
CAST: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, Russell Collins, Walter Sande

The Spencer Tracy 4-Film Collection is available on Blu-ray.

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