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On Dangerous Ground (1952) 7.4
Hard, withdrawn city cop Jim Wilson roughs up one too many suspects and is sent upstate to help investigate the murder of a young girl in the winter countryside. There he meets Mary Malden,... See full summary » Director:Nicholas Ray |
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Cast
| Complete credited cast: | |||
| Ida Lupino | ... |
Mary Malden
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| Robert Ryan | ... |
Jim Wilson
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| Ward Bond | ... |
Walter Brent
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Charles Kemper | ... |
Pop Daly
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Anthony Ross | ... |
Pete Santos
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| Ed Begley | ... |
Capt. Brawley
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| Ian Wolfe | ... |
Sheriff Carrey
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Sumner Williams | ... |
Danny Malden
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Gus Schilling | ... |
Lucky
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Frank Ferguson | ... |
Willows
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Cleo Moore | ... |
Myrna Bowers
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Olive Carey | ... |
Mrs. Brent
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Richard Irving | ... |
Bernie Tucker
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Patricia Prest | ... |
Julie Brent
(as Pat Prest)
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Plot Summary
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Storyline
Hard, withdrawn city cop Jim Wilson roughs up one too many suspects and is sent upstate to help investigate the murder of a young girl in the winter countryside. There he meets Mary Malden, whom he finds attractive and independent. However, Mary's brother is chief suspect in the killing. And Mary herself is blind. Written by Jeremy Perkins <jwp@aber.ac.uk>
Taglines:
In One Strange Night she met both LOVE ... and MURDER!Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents »
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See full technical specs »
Details
Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishRelease Date:
20 June 1952 (France) See more »Also Known As:
Dark Highway See more »Company Credits
Show detailed
company contact information
on
IMDbPro »
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Sound Mix:
Mono (RCA Sound System)Color:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1
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[with much leering]
Woman in bar: How's about buying me a drink?
[With continued leering, and now, tongue lolling]
Woman in bar: I'm all dry.
Jim Wilson: [Sternly] How old are you?
Woman in bar: [Continuing to leer] Old enough.
See more »
Did You Know?
Goofs
Toward the end of the film when Ward Bond is sleeping in the chair, Robert Ryan removes the shells from his shotgun. However, minutes later Bond fires his shotgun. See more »Quotes
Woman in bar: Hello Junior.[with much leering]
Woman in bar: How's about buying me a drink?
[With continued leering, and now, tongue lolling]
Woman in bar: I'm all dry.
Jim Wilson: [Sternly] How old are you?
Woman in bar: [Continuing to leer] Old enough.
See more »
I liked this better than I thought I would. I read a number of reviews (here, but mostly elsewhere) before seeing it, so I knew the two main things to expect: a hard- hitting film noir in the first half and a melodramatic romance in the second. What I found was an interesting, fairly intense movie for all but the last 10 minutes (but I liked that part, too.) That second half was still a crime story a lot more than any romance as two guys tracked down a killer.
To digress, the first part was in the big city and it portrayed Ryan as a too-gung- ho cop who's fast getting burned out on the job. He's sick of all the punks in the world and just wants to beat the crap out of everyone. When he is one punch away from being suspended and losing his job on a police brutality charge, the boss sends him up north to snow country to find a murderer on the loose in the great outdoors.
That second half isn't some slow melodrama, as it's so often described. It's mostly more adventure as Ryan and Ward Bond track down the killer. Bond, whose daughter was the victim in this crime, is hell-bent for revenge. He makes Ryan like a calm-and-collected guy. Along the way, they meet "Mary Malden" (Ida Lupino), who is the sister of the kid on the run. She's also blind. Ryan befriends her and she pleads with him to promise to bring her brother in unharmed. Her trust in him helps bring about his personality change. You can see he's starting to soften up, become a little more caring toward his fellow man.
The ending of this film is not hokey - either in what happens in the manhunt or what happens to Ryan afterward. It's just a nice job of screen writing. I think this is a fine story, perhaps even underrated. I also think it is one of Ryan's finest acting jobs because he shows callous brutal toughness, loneliness and compassion all in the same film and he shows it convincingly.