To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1960 novel by Harper Lee, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1961. It was made into an Academy Award-winning motion picture starring Gregory Peck by director Robert Mulligan in 1962. A coming-of-age story, it is told from the point of view of Jean Louise " Scout" Finch, the young daughter of Atticus Finch, an educated lawyer in Maycomb, Alabama, a small town in the deep South of the United States. She is accompanied by her brother Jem and their mutual friend Dill.

Truman Capote was a lifelong friend of childhood neighbor Harper, and allegedly was the inspiration for Dill's character in her best-seller. Capote frequently implied that he himself had written a considerable portion of her novel, and some have said he ghosted the entire novel. At least one person—Pearl Kazin Bell, an editor at Harper's Magazine— has gone on record as believing his assertions were true.

The title of the book is taken from Atticus's advice to his children about firing their air rifles at birds: " Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" . The blue jay is a very common bird, and is often perceived as a bully and a pest, whereas mockingbirds do nothing but " sing their hearts out for us" . Metaphorically, several of the book's characters can be seen as " mockingbirds" , attacked despite doing nothing but good. The mockingbird represents innocence, and to kill one is to metaphorically kill innocence. Note that the protagonists are also named after birds: Tom Robinson and the Finch family. However, " Finch" was also Harper's mother's maiden name.

Harper Lee stated, " To get the ideas for the book I used recent events in my time like the Scottsboro Trials." (Harper Lee, Book Review, 1964)

• The beads of sweat and tears disappear and reappear on Tom's face during the courtroom testimony.
• During the courtroom scene, there is a closeup of Atticus seated at his table during the prosecuting attorney's questioning of Mr. Ewell. In this shot, the film image is reversed (Atticus' hair and the position of the spectators behind him reveal this). In this same shot, the light at the back of the courtroom is turned on both before and after this shot, it is off.
• The law books disappear from the mantelpiece when Scout returns from walking Boo Radley home.
• When Bob Ewell is on the witness stand and Atticus asks him if he ran for a doctor, Atticus is hovering over Ewell and his visible shadow behind Ewell reflects this. When the camera shifts to Atticus, he is a good 10-15 feet away. When the camera returns to Ewell, Atticus' shadow is still there.
• The ham that Scout wears is hand-laid fiberglass. The product was still in development at the time and would be an unlikely material for a costume in a Depression era school play. As Scout watches the fight between Bob Euell and Boo Radley the woven mat is visible above the eye opening.
• While Atticus gets his papers together in the courtroom after the verdict you see a water glass next to the pitcher on the judge's desk. In the next shot, as he walks out, there is no glass, just the pitcher.
• Mayella Ewell's hair alternates between neatly brushed and messy and back again between shots when she gets up to go to the stand in the courtroom.
• Scout steps up with both feet to stand on the tire swing to look up into the tree. The next shot shows Scout standing on the ground and stepping up into the tire swing again.
• When Atticus shoots the mad dog, it is obvious its hind legs are jerked from under it to make it fall.
• When Scout and Jem are debating Jem going back to retrieve his trousers from Boo Radley's, Scout (Mary Badham) can be seen mouthing the Jem's lines.
• While lying unconscious in his bed after Boo Radley carries him back home, Jem's head is seen in several different positions.
• While Atticus is questioning Mr. Ewell in the courtroom, Mr. Ewell has his left arm draped over the back of the witness chair in some shots and by his side in others.
• During the opening credits, when the marbles are rolling, several members of the camera crew are reflected in the marble.
• There isn't a mountain within 200 miles of South Alabama where the film takes place. However, mountains are clearly visable as part of the landscape in several shots throughout the movie.
• When Mr. Gilmer calls his next witness, he calls the wrong one (Mayella) to come first, which would have made the entire case scene non-crucial as it was in the book. Gregory Peck picks up on this superbly and improves the line which makes Mr. Gilmer re-think and correct his actions. This was all a mistake by Mr. Gilmer in the movie.
• When Mr. Radley startles the children by putting cement in the tree, Jem and Scout suddenly appear a couple of feet farther back than they were a split second before.

• Golden Globe Award for Best Film Promoting International Understanding
• Academy Award for Best Actor (Gregory Peck)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama (Gregory Peck)
• Academy Award for Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Black-and-White (Alexander Golitzen, Henry Bumstead, Oliver Emert)
• Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay (Horton Foote)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score - Motion Picture (Elmer Bernstein)

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• Actors: Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, Phillip Alford, Robert Duvall, John Megna, Frank Overton
• Directors: Robert Mulligan
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Black & White, Dolby, Dubbed, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Mca Home Video
• DVD Release Date: September 6, 2005
• Run Time: 130 minutes

• Dill was modeled after author Harper Lee's childhood friend, Truman Capote.
• Robert Duvall stayed out of the sun for six weeks and dyed his hair blond for the role of Boo Radley who, according to the story, spent much of his life locked in a cellar.
• Although Gregory Peck's inspirational performance as Atticus Finch turned out to be a perfect highlight to his long career, Rock Hudson was actually the studio's first choice for the role.
• Robert Duvall's first movie.
• The courtroom is a recreation of the interior of the Monroe County Courthouse in Monroeville, Alabama, Harper Lee's hometown. Prior to filming, production designers traveled to Monroeville, took photographs and measurements, and created a near duplicate on soundstages at Universal Studios.
• The watch used in the film was a prop, but Harper Lee gave Gregory Peck her father's watch after the film was completed because he reminded her so much of him.
• Phillip Alford told his mother that he did not want to go to the auditions for the part of Jem Finch but when his mother told him he would miss half a day of school, he immediately decided to go to them.
• Mary Badham messed up nearly every take in which the family was eating at the table. Phillip Alford didn't like eating the same meal dozens of times, so in one of the takes of the scene in which he rolls Badham in the tire, he aimed it at an equipment truck in an attempt to hurt her.
• Brock Peters started to cry while shooting the testifying scene, without rehearsing it this way, and Gregory Peck said that he had to look past him, instead of looking him in the eye, without choking up himself.
• Finch was writer Harper Lee's mother's maiden name.
• It has been reported that this film was Gregory Peck's favorite work.
• According to the comics, this is Clark Kent's (aka Superman) favorite movie.
• Atticus Finch was voted as the top screen hero of the last 100 years by the American Film Institute.
• The first scene that Gregory Peck shot showed him returning home from his character's law office while his children ran to greet him. Harper Lee was a guest on the set that day, and Peck noticed her crying after the scene was filmed. " Why are you crying?" Peck asked. Peck had looked just like her late father, the model for Atticus, Lee explained Peck even had a little round pot belly like her father's. " That's not a pot belly, Harper," Peck told her, " That's great acting."