To Kill a Mockingbird

US (1962): Drama/Thriller

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel was translated to film in 1962 by Horton Foote and the producer-director team of Robert Mulligan and Alan J. Pakula. Set a small Alabama town in the 1930s, the story focuses on scrupulously honest, highly respected lawyer Atticus Finch, magnificently embodied by Gregory Peck. Finch puts his career on the line when he agrees to represent Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a black man accused of rape. The trial and the events surrounding it are seen through the the eyes of Finch's 6-year-old daughter Scout (Mary Badham). While Robinson's trial gives the film its momentum, there are plenty of anecdotal occurences before and after the court date: Scout's ever-strengthening bond with older brother Jem (Philip Alford), her friendship with precocious young Dill Harris (a character based on Harper Lee's childhood chum Truman Capote and played by John Megna), her father's no-nonsense reactions to such life-and-death crises as a rampaging mad dog, and especially Scout's reactions to, and relationship with, Boo Radley (Robert Duvall in his movie debut), the reclusive "village idiot" who turns out to be her salvation when she is attacked by a venomous bigot. (Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide)

To Kill a Mockingbird was named to the National Film Registry in 1995. Shortly before Peck's death in mid-2003, the American Film Institute listed the character of Atticus Finch as the greatest hero in motion picture history.

 Use this link to view the original theatrical trailer for To Kill a Mockingbird on TCM.com.

7 nominations, 3 Awards