Lawyer Gregory

It's Maycomb, Alabama at the height of the Depression. Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) is a widower with two children Jeremy "Jem" (Philip Alford) and Jean Louise "Scout" (Mary Badham). He's a lawyer who is surviving the Depression; he receives his payments in kind from his poor neighbors. Well respected in the community, he's asked to take on an impossible case - a local African-American handyman, Tom Robinson (Brock Peters) is accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell (Collin Wilcox). Atticus agrees to defend Tom, and the lives of the Finch family are deeply affected. We'll be discussing To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), the most recent TCM Presents: Fathom Events.

That To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the all-time great films is not a statement with which most people would argue. A moving portrait of one man's attempts to combat racism in his small town, it is a timeless film. Gregory Peck is incomparable as Atticus Finch, the lawyer who cannot say no when asked to take on a difficult and controversial case. It's a part that won him the Academy Award, and has been voted as the #1 Greatest Heroes in AFI's list of Heroes and Villains in the Movies.

I'm not going to discuss Go Set a Watchman (which I refuse to read. It's likely it was a first draft of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, and should not have been published as a sequel to To Kill a Mockingbird ) or the Broadway play of To Kill a Mockingbird by Aaron Sorkin (which I've not seen, but hope to one day). Suffice it to say, in my opinion To Kill a Mockingbird is a film (and book) that should stand apart from these two later portraits of Atticus.

It's hard to believe that Mr. Peck was not Harper Lee's first choice for Atticus - she initially wanted Spencer Tracy (New Yorker article). In fact, several other actors were approached BEFORE Mr. Peck, including James Stewart ( Hank and Jim: The Fifty-Year Friendship of Henry Fonda and James Stewart by Scott Eyman) and Rock Hudson. Bing Crosby, in fact, campaigned to get the part.  Today, it's next to impossible to imagine anyone else in the role, Mr. Peck so makes it his own. His portrait is a series of nuances that build up to a man - a widower who sits on the porch swing with his arm across the bench, seemingly embracing his late wife; a father who gently rocks his sleeping daughter as he carries her from their car; a now-nearsighted man who must toss his eyeglasses on the ground to accurately fire a rifle. According to Mr. Peck, he managed to win over Harper Lee. He recalled shooting a scene in which he noticed the author's "cheeks were glistening"  Sure he had moved her with his acting, he asked her about the tears: "Oh Gregory, you got a little pot belly just like my daddy" (AFI interview). She would later say "when Gregory Peck played Atticus Finch, he played himself and touched the world" (TCM tribute by Mary Badham to Gregory Peck). For a substantial biography of Mr. Peck, see the chapter on the film in Why To Kill a Mockingbird Matters: What Harper Lee's Book and the Iconic American Film Mean to Us Today By Tom Santopietro.

Neither of Philip Alford nor Mary Badham had long film or television careers. They are both excellent as the Finch children; Ms. Badham was nominated for an Oscar, but lost to Patty Duke in The Miracle Worker. Mr. Alford would eventually become a businessman (he lives in Mississippi); Ms. Badham was an art restorer. Of late, she has become a spokesperson for the film and it's message of tolerance. She was close to her onscreen father until his death in 2003 (and always called him Atticus). Also remarkable is Robert Duvall as Arthur "Boo" Radley. Though only in the film for a few minutes, it is a characterization you will long remember. Kim Stanley as the adult voice of Scout is also excellent (TCM article).

The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards (in a year that featured Laurence of Arabia, The Music Man, The Miracle Worker, and The Manchurian Candidate); it won three: Actor, Screenplay for Material from Another Source, and Black & White Art Direction (AFI catalog). Brock Peters was the first African American to receive the All-American Press Association of New York Award for Best Supporting Actor. Mr. Peters had spent the better part of his career up til this film playing villains; his trajectory changed after this - he would appear in several Star Trek movies and played Benjamin Sisko's father in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  He died in 2005, two years after delivering the eulogy at the funeral of his friend and colleague, Gregory Peck.    

The film has appeared on several of the American Film Institute's greatest film lists: #17 Greatest Film Scores, #25 100 Greatest Films of All Time: Anniversary Edition (#34 on the Original List), # 2 100 Years, 100 Cheers, and # 1 Courtroom Drama.  It was added to the National Film Registry in 1995. It is still a remarkable film. If you've not seen it, please rush out and get a copy from your local library. In the meantime, here is the trailer: