To Kill A Mockingbird
(1962)
 One
of Hollywood's better efforts at filming a story dealing with
racial problems in the United States.
Peck won a Best Actor Academy Award for his portrayal of a
lawyer in a small Southern town who defends a black man accused of
rape.
The setting is a dusty town in the South during the
Depression.
A white woman accuses a black man of rape. Though he is
obviously innocent, the outcome of his trial is such a foregone
conclusion that no lawyer will step forward to defend him - except
Peck, the town's most distinguished citizen.
His compassionate defence costs him many friendships but earns
him the respect and admiration of his two motherless children.
Peck had top-notch acting support from Mary Badham, Philip
Alford, John Megna, and Brock Peters, while screenwriter Horton
Foote also won an Oscar for an excellent job of translating Harper
Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to the screen, and much of the
atmosphere of the time and place remains intact.
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