To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)

(Note: This is a slightly altered version of the review I wrote for this film and posted at the IMDB on April 1, 2004. The original can still be viewed there...for now.)

Starring
Gregory Peck
Brock Peters
Collin Wilcox
Mary Badham
Phillip Alford
Robert Duvall
William Windom
Estelle Evans
Rosemary Murphy
James Anderson

Directed by
Robert Mulligan

* * * * *

Macon was a tired old town even in 1932 when I first knew it. Somehow it was hotter then. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three o’clock nap and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum. The day was 24 hours long but it seemed longer. There was no hurry because there was no where to go and nothing to buy and no money to buy it with although Macon County had recently been told that there was nothing to fear but fear itself. That summer I was six years old.

* * * * *

I distinctly remember that the first time I saw To Kill A Mockingbird was at a drive-in theater. I was probably about ten or eleven at the time but I can’t be sure. Even at a young age I was captivated by this seemingly simple story told through the eyes of children. It is understandable that such a story would make it easy to relate to in some manner.

Perhaps I was also drawn to it because a good deal of the story dealt with Boo Radley, who was a mysterious and eerie presence even throughout the film even though he isn’t even seen on screen until the final moments. I'm not about to make the pretense that I understood any of the social significance of To Kill A Mockingbird. How many children at that age would? My appreciation for those things would come as later, upon repeated viewings as I matured into an adult.

One of the things that makes To Kill A Mockingbird a great film is the love and respect everyone involved in bringing Harper Lee's novel to the screen had for the original source material. It shows up on screen in every single frame. Each performance in this film is beyond reproach. Gregory Peck had many fine performances over his storied career, but as far as I’m concerned none every approached the perfection and depth of humanity that he brought to his portrayal of Atticus Finch, who was named the number one "hero" in American Cinema by the AFI.

As Atticus, Peck’s love for Jem and Scout enables him to treat his children with respect and honesty. He never talks down to them, but approaches them on a level in which children of their age can comprehend and learn from his own wisdom and experience. There is an early moment in the film in which Atticus is reading to Scout that in just a few brief moments tells you everything you need to know about his relationship with this children.

Atticus is also a man who believes in the integrity of justice, yet recognizes the failings of our judicial system. When called upon to do his duty, he does so, despite the hatred and venom he knows is going to be brought to bear upon him and his children by the citizens of the town in which he lives. Because he puts justice, fairness, and values ahead of his own well being and safety, we know he is a man of great principle but maybe even more so a man who has a sense of duty. When he is told he has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, he agrees to, but you still notice a certain amount of reluctance in his voice as if it is a job he really would rather not have to do. In a religious sense, he knows how much of a burden his cross will be to bare, and if there were any other way he would just as soon not have to be the one to carry it. Despite his principles and high idealism, it would seem that Atticus is is subject to the same self doubts as any other man.

In casting Jem, Scout and Dill, Producer Alan J. Pakula and Director Robert Mulligan faced a daunting task. So much of the success of To Kill A Mockingbird depended on the pivotal role these actors would play in the film. For Jem he chose Philip Alford, for Scout, Mary Badham, and for Dill, John Megna. Alford and Badham were both southern natives who had never been in films

before. Megna was a New York native but was also inexperienced. It is this inexperience and lack of polish that enables all three to shine on the screen. Mulligan began filming by letting them act as if making a film was like recess, allowing them to play on the set, and only moving the camera gradually as they became accustomed to their surroundings. It paid off in every way imaginable. None of the three ever appear as if they are actors acting, and bring a childlike wonder and presence to their roles that I had never seen before, and have not witnessed to the same degree at any time since.


Brock Peters as Tom Robinson, the black man falsely accused of raping a white girl, also gives a performance which he would never again surpass. You will not find anywhere a more memorable scene in any court room than when he testifies on the witness stand. Because he dared to care about a white girl, he now faces almost certain death if convicted, and perhaps even if not convicted. It is the first time I was able to begin to understand the effects of man's prejudice and hatred of a man simply because of the color of his skin. Just as Jem and Scout came of age, and realized the significance of the injustices of racial hatred, so did I.

Equally significant, is Collin Wilcox as Mayella Ewell. She makes it easy for many to hate her, and hating her is a natural reaction at first. But the more we view the film the more we become like Atticus and see in her a person to be more pitied than hated. She is a product of not only the times in which she lives, but even more so of her wretched upbringing. She is herself a victim of sorts, a victim of an endless cycle of poverty, ignorance, and racism. Mayella is what she is, but only because of the deep cutting prejudices of those around her. It is Mayella’s heritage that makes her what she is, just as those same circumstances are often passed down from one generation, the the next and the next. To Mayella, being caught enticing a black man into your house for relations, is the ultimate crime and the penalty for doing so is unthinkable to her.

In his screen debut as Boo Radley, Robert Duvall also brings to life the mysterious neighbor that once frightened Jem, Dill, and Scout so much. Though on the screen for a short length of time, without uttering a word, Duvall shows us a man tortured by years of cruelty, mistreatment, and the gossip and whispers of neighbors. He is a man who wants only to live in his own way, yet the bond that links him to Jem and Scout is significant. They are the childhood he had never really known. Just as Tom Robinson, he has never brought harm to anyone, yet suffers significantly just for the right to be able to exist on his own terms.

The rest of the cast is equally remarkable. Estelle Evans as the Finch’s housekeeper Calpurnia brings a no nonsense approach to the role. She may be the maid, but she’s as much a part of the Finch household as if she were a member of the family and the children respect her for it. When Scout begins to question Walter Cunningham’s strange use of maple syrup, Cal yanks Scout into the Kitchen and promptly reads her the riot act. Yet, I find it significant that when Atticus drives her home that she makes it a point to ride in the back seat of the car. One can imagine the trouble that would be stirred up in a Southern town in the 30’s if a black woman was seen riding in a car sitting next to a white man. It’s a small scene but it always left an impression on me.

James Anderson gets the despicable Bob Ewell exactly right. For him, we have no pity. We feel only utter contempt from the first time that we meet him until he takes his last breath. And that’s what we are supposed to feel. He has no redeeming qualities at all. In the wrong hands, the character might have been played overly broad or way over the top, but Anderson avoids that trap by letting us know that not only is Ewell the most despicable of human beings, he could also very well be the guy across the street, the guy who comes into your store every day, the guy who comes stumbling out of the liquor store in a drunken stupor, but is just as mean and dangerous drunk as he is sober.

The care with which To Kill A Mockingbird was brought to the screen can also be seen in the Art Direction by Henry Bumstead and Set Decoration by Oliver Emert. They indeed bring to life what a small Southern Town would have been like in the early thirties. Cinematographer Russel Harlan's black and white photography brings it all vividly to the screen, especially in the way he captures the foreboding of the Radley house, the moments when Bob Ewell approaches Jem when he is left in a car alone, and even more noteworthy near the end of the film when Jem and Scout are walking home from a school play. If it had been filmed in color, this film would have lost much of its sense of time, setting and mood. I’m instantly reminded of a film that came along in 1971 called The Last Picture Show which was intentionally filmed in black and white for the very same reasons.

Elmer Bernstein's score is never boisterous, but yet is as important to setting the mood of many of the scenes played out before us. For the most part he keeps it simple, only swelling the orchestra when it is absolutely necessary.

There have been many eloquent words written over the years about both the novel and the film adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird. It will be forever remembered, long after I am gone, and long after I am writing my reviews in that great movie palace in the sky. There is no doubt in my mind that To Kill A Mockingbird has been and shall remain one of the great achievements in American cinema in my lifetime, and shall remain so for many lifetimes to come. A remarkable film in every sense of the word. A+

* * * * *

Neighbors bring food with death, and flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives. One time Atticus said you never really knew a man until you stood in his shoes and walked around in them; just standin' on the Radley porch was enough. The summer that had begun so long ago had ended, and another summer had taken its place, and a fall, and Boo Radley had come out. I was to think of these days many times. Of Jem, and Dill, and Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson, and Atticus. He would be in Jem's room all night, and he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning.