Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Duration: 81 minuten
Alternative title: Een Kwade Dag voor Black Rock
Country:
United States
Directed by: John Sturges
Stars: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan and Anne Francis
IMDb score:
7,6 (26.383)
Releasedate: 13 January 1955
Bad Day at Black Rock plot
"Just the way it happened!"
It's 1945. World War II is over for several weeks and one-armed war veteran John J. Macreedy arrives by train in the small village of Black Rock. Macreedy is looking for the Japanese Komoko, who must have a small ranch in Adobe Flat, the mountain area near Black Rock. Even before the residents of Black Rock, heavily influenced by the racist rancher Reno Smith, know that he is a 'Japs friend', they declare Macreedy persona non grata and he is met with hostility. What do the villagers have to hide?
Actors and actresses
John J. Macreedy
Reno Smith
Doc T.R. Velie Jr.
Hector David
Tim Horn
Liz Wirth
Pete Wirth
Coley Trimble
Mr. Hastings
Sam
Reviews & comments
Leno
-
- 5921 messages
- 4415 votes
Entertaining but not very special film that comes across as nicely dated, with actors who dive into fight scenes before being hit, etc., but also with somewhat rawer acting. It's actually all about nothing, but Tracy plays a nice role and the whole hamlet that doesn't know what to do with a stranger is nicely conceived.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Sir Djuke
-
- 374 messages
- 1037 votes
John Sturgess takes full advantage of the Cinemascope format. With a helicopter he lets the camera skim over train and terrain and gives the raw landscape of the Alabama Hills the leading role. Spencer Tracy drives alone in his small jeep through the image, exposing the collective narrow-mindedness of the American Southwest along the way. 'Bad Day At Black Rock' takes less than an hour and a half to tell this story.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Woland
-
- 4809 messages
- 3825 votes
Macreedy (a fine Spencer Tracy) arrives in the desert hamlet of Black Rock in the course of '45, in search of a man of Japanese descent who seems to live nearby. But he is not exactly welcomed with open arms - in fact, it is made clear to him in subtle and mainly less subtle ways that he is not welcome, even before it is clear what he is about. There isn't much action, but there is a hostile, brooding atmosphere all the more, and that also raises questions. Whence the hostility and gross inhospitability of the villagers? What is Macreedy doing with the Japanese farmer Komoko, and what is wrong with the best man? Where does the escalation end? And who is Macreedy at all?
All this leads to a film that I can quite appreciate. I'm more into the atmospheric, atypical slowburners in terms of westerns (Ox-bow Incident, Assassination or Jesse James...) than the cowboy-and-Indian shooting movies or typical good guys vs bad guys (I'm looking at you, Magnificent Seven), to put it simply. In terms of acting and cinematography, it is also not disappointing here. Anyway, the questions slowly resolve and the story becomes clear, then the film gears up for a finale in which Macreedy gets support from some villagers, who realize Macreedy is on the right side and grow enough remorse to to take on the main people responsible for Komoko's murder. The ending may be a bit more of a standard showdown, but still I had a great time with Bad Day at Black Rock.
Translated from Dutch · View original
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