287. Bad Day At Black Rock (1955)

Directed By John Sturges

Synopsis

A one armed man (Spencer Tracy) comes into a town, the town does not make a brilliant job at being unsuspicious and he quickly understands that something is wrong there. This makes him their potential next victim.

Review

Well this was an extremely satisfying film, and that is something that John Sturges is always great at doing, films that are excellent but don't really make you notice how excellent they are, they just take you for a ride.

This film is a perfect case of that, Spencer Tracy is simply excellent here, in one of his best parts. You are so riveted watching him do his thing throughout that the film is just a breeze to watch. This only works because his supporting cast is equally excellent, what two best thugs could you have than Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin?

Then there is excellent dialogue, deep while still quite earthy the dialogue is a delight here. Last but not least there is a great message about the excesses of patriotism, as they say being "patriot drunk", and the horror of complicity and covering up. Oh, and there is one of the best fight scenes in the history of cinema as well!

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Nicholas Schenck, MGM's president at the time, nearly did not allow the picture to be made because he felt the story was subversive.

The film's producer, Dore Schary, wanted Spencer Tracy as Macreedy. Concerned that Tracy might not agree, Schary ordered the script changed so that Macreedy was a one-armed man. He rightly concluded that no actor would turn down the chance to play a character with a handicap.

This was Spencer Tracy's last film for MGM. This was MGM's first motion picture to be filmed in Cinemascope.

Preview audiences reacted negatively to the film's original opening sequence. A new shot showing the speeding train rushing at the camera was created instead. The shot was taken from a helicopter as it flew away from the moving train. The film was run in reverse to create the opening shot.

Bad Day at Black Rock was filmed in Lone Pine, California and the nearby Alabama Hills, one of hundreds of movies that have been filmed in the area since 1920. The "town" of Black Rock, Arizona was built adjacent to the Lone Pine railroad station, which was the last stop on the Southern Pacific Railroad's "Jawbone Branch," which served the northern Mojave Desert and Owens Valley.

Trailer: