Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

A one-armed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.

Director:

John Sturges

Writers:

Millard Kaufman (screen play), Don McGuire (adaptation)

Stars:

Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis

Nominated for 3 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Spencer Tracy	...	John J. Macreedy
Robert Ryan	...	Reno Smith
Anne Francis	...	Liz Wirth
Dean Jagger	...	Tim Horn
Walter Brennan	...	Doc Velie
John Ericson	...	Pete Wirth
Ernest Borgnine	...	Coley Trimble
Lee Marvin	...	Hector David
Russell Collins	...	Mr. Hastings
Walter Sande	...	Sam
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Walter Beaver	...	Cafe Lounger (unconfirmed)
Billy Dix	...	Cafe Lounger (unconfirmed)
Mickey Little	...	Cafe Lounger (unconfirmed)
K.L. Smith	...	Cafe Lounger (unconfirmed)

Storyline

From the time John J. Macreedy steps off the train in Black Rock, he feels a chill from the local residents. The town is only a speck on the map and few if any strangers ever come to the place. Macreedy himself is tight-lipped about the purpose of his trip and he finds that the hotel refuses him a room, the local garage refuses to rent him a car and the sheriff is a useless drunkard. It's apparent that the locals have something to hide but when he finally tells them that he is there to speak to a Japanese-American farmer named Kamoko, he touches a nerve so sensitive that he will spend the next 24 hours fighting for his life.

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Plot Keywords:

japanese american | stranger | town with a secret | world war two veteran | post world war two | 

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Taglines:

M-G-M's SUSPENSE STORY OF THE YEAR! (original print ad - mostly caps)

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller | Western

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 May 1955 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Bad Day at Hondo

Filming Locations:

Mojave Desert, Arizona, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,271,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$1,966,000, 31 December 1955

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,788,000, 31 December 1955

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

81 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (35 mm optical prints) (Western Electric Sound System) 4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints)

Color:

Color (Eastman Color)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

It was decided to build the town set and shoot on location at Lone Pine, CA, one of the most used locations for Westerns and other pictures throughout film history. The area, at the foot of Mt. Whitney on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas, was deemed suitable for its remoteness and the fact that it had an unused stretch of track that once connected it to Los Angeles. This was a must for the opening and closing sequences featuring the arrival and departure of the Streamliner.

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Goofs

At the end of the movie, Tracy arrives at the station and sets down his suitcase. When the train pulls into the station, long shot shows he is holding it again, next close up, it is again on the ground.

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Quotes

Mr. Hastings, Telegrapher: Sure you don't want some lemonade? It don't have the muzzle velocity of some other drinks drunk around here, but it's good for what ails you.

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Connections

Referenced in Happy Days: Richie Moves Out (1974)

User Reviews

"You're just a lost ball in the high weeds."

Director John Sturges doesn't waste a second. You've got to love a picture that strips itself down to its bare elements, strikes right at the heart of the audience's sympathies and winds up in just over 80 minutes. 'Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)' might just be one of the most suspenseful non-Hitchcock films of the 1950s, a near-perfect mechanical construction of unspoken tension and looming disaster. Similar in tone to intimate Western pictures such as Fred Zinnemann's 'High Noon (1952)' and Delmer Daves' '3:10 to Yuma (1957),' the picture is a curious combination of Western and War film motifs, with an understated racial overtone that recognisably foreshadows Sidney Poitier in Norman Jewison's 'In the Heat of the Night (1967).' Spencer Tracy is wonderful as John J. Macreedy, a one-armed WWII veteran who has arrived in the desolate town of Black Rock in search of a Japanese man. Upon arrival, he discovers that the town's isolation has spawned a local law of its own, and his suspicions of foul-play make him a target for the antagonism of its residents.

Even from the opening seconds, before anybody has displayed any ill-intentions, the tension quietly begins to build. The inhabitants of Black Rock look up with expressions of confusion and disbelief as the locomotive unexpectedly comes to a halt at their local railway station, and cautious eyes follow Macreedy as he swaggers guardedly through the dusty streets… the grim, wary frowns of the local men already offer sufficient warning that this day is, indeed, going to be a bad one. 'Bad Day at Black Rock' was photographed by William C. Mellor in CinemaScope, and the widescreen cinematography spectacularly captures the vastness of the desert, particularly in a dramatic opening shot that sees the camera approaching a moving train head-on, before rising above it at the final moment. Yet the abundance of wide-open spaces paradoxically heightens the intimacy of Macreedy's interactions with the townsfolk, and Sturges masterfully communicates both the seclusion of the isolated town and the closing walls of impending doom. Macreedy responds to the antagonism directed towards him, first with an air of indifference, but eventually with a sort of subdued desperation.

Whereas the participation of generic "bad guys" might have significantly hampered the film, 'Bad Day at Black Rock' boasts an impressive ensemble of gifted character actors, fronted by Robert Ryan as Reno Smith, the crafty, charismatic villain whose ability to cunningly manipulate his neighbours has made him the foremost authority in the forsaken town, unofficially outranking even the cowardly alcoholic sheriff (Dean Jagger). Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine, in roles that helped secure their status as respected actors, are very entertaining as Smith's mindless, thuggish hoodlums, particularly when the latter attempts to start a fight and discovers – the hard way – that even one-armed men can hit back. Walter Brennan, one of Hollywood's most recognisable character actors with that docile drawl of his, is initially Macreedy's sole ally in the hostile township, the courage of this outranked stranger inspiring his own sense of moral decency. At the film's climax, Sturges finally unleashes the steadily-mounting tension, and, extracting every ounce of anxiety from the unusually-brief 81 minute running-time, delivers a conclusion that is both exciting and satisfying.