Powerful

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

A good Western-Thriller by the great director John Sturges, with a courageous message, especially at the time of the film: the silence and conformism of the people, in a skillful and subtle criticism to the times of "McCarthyism" that lived at the time of the film. There are quite a few similarities to "High Noon", made three years earlier. Spencer Tracy has an excellent performance (nominated for Oscar) as well as the remaining actors in the cast (Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, among others). The only weakness is some movie sequences that are quite unlikely. Still, a movie that delivers great entertainment and a beautiful message.

Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, and Dean Jagger themselves make this M-G-M modern western something of a classic. John Ericson, Anne Francis, and Walter Sande lend great support. And too, John Sturges shows that he has performed a great direction feat. The Cinemascope and the color are very enhancing as well. If you like the dry southwest, and I do personally, then the rough-looking beauty is drawing. Though there's definitely little of a plot, the viewers are still held in suspense. Again, there's something of a dearth of a plot. John J. Macreedy (Tracy), a one-armed man in the movie, comes from L A to the deserted town of Black Rock again, in the southwest on a hot day in 1946, only shortly after the end of WWII, and all the people in the town wonder why he has made the trip. The townspeople are very suspicious, which is why they are cold and vengeful toward him; in one scene two large henchmen try fighting the rather small, one-armed man, but he handles himself very well. They are hiding a big, shameful secret, which is why they are as they are toward him. The climax may be somewhat surprising when one of the mean men there tries his best to have Tracy killed. Though there is focus mostly, again, on cast and action, there is something drawing about it, which is why personally I have always liked it.

SYNOPSIS: A mysterious, one-armed stranger arrives at a lonely western whistle-stop. What's his purpose? Why is he asking questions? NOTES: Nominated for the following prestigious Hollywood awards: Best Actor, Spencer Tracy, who lost out to Ernest Borgnine's performance, not in this picture, but "Marty"; Best Director, John Sturges, who lost out to Marty's Delbert Mann; Best Screenplay, Millard Kaufman. This award was actually won, of course, by Paddy Chayefsky for "Marty".Number five in The Film Daily's annual "Best Films" poll of USA and Canadian movie critics. Number four on the the National Board of Review's list of the Best American Films of the Year. Negative cost (excluding studio overheads): $1.2 million. Domestic rental gross: In excess of $3 million.Re-made in 1960 as "Platinum High School".COMMENT: "Back in the early days of CinemaScope," John Sturges tells us, "the wide, wide wide-screen was considered desirable only for enormous spectacles using thousands of people and mile-high sets. I thought it ought to be the other way around. Here I was with one man stuck in the desert. It occurred to me that the way to show the isolation of this one man in the desert was to use all this space, to surround him with space. The more space you have around him, the more you isolate him. And the more you isolate him, the more suspenseful your story becomes." Of course, Spence wasn't the only man in the town. He was the stranger, probing, asking questions, interacting with the tight- lipped townsmen who regarded him with suspicion, distrust, and even hate. Why? Under Sturges' riveting direction, Bad Day at Black Rock comes across as an engrossingly suspenseful story, stunningly directed, atmospherically photographed and vividly enacted by a first-rate cast led by Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis and Ernest Borgnine.

Screen legend Spencer Tracy plays one-armed war veteran John J. Macreedy in this excellent film, one of director John Sturges' best. Adapted by Don McGuire from the story by Howard Breslin, and scripted by Millard Kaufman, it shows what happens as the grimly determined but low key Macreedy arrives in a tiny desert community called Black Rock a few months after WWII has ended. The locals all have a big ugly secret to hide, and are set on showing Macreedy how inhospitable they can be. Particularly odious is Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), who gets by with a little help from thugs such as Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine) and Hector David (Lee Marvin).Sturges gets maximum impact from the isolated location, a place that has very few resources to offer our hero. Extremely well shot in Cinema Scope by William C. Mellor, it generates some agreeable suspense, especially in the last act of the picture when Macreedy is most actively menaced by Smith and gang. One might argue that Smith overplays his hand too soon into the story, but it just goes to show how deep his hatred lies. But Macreedy is a basically good man who won't let these creeps scare him off. The whole plot / back story is refreshingly uncomplicated and easy to follow.The superior acting ensemble is almost universally male, and even Liz, played by the lovely Anne Francis, is rather tomboyish. The only true weak link is John Ericson as Liz's brother Pete; this guy looks like he couldn't change his facial expression if his life depended on it. But Tracy is a fun hero, especially when Macreedy is able to manhandle Coley without the use of two arms. There are standout moments from such character players as Walter Brennan, as the town doctor who implores his fellow citizens to do the right thing, and Dean Jagger, as the pathetic yet not entirely unsympathetic local sheriff.Very fine entertainment, starting with its energetic opening credits sequence, that runs a tidy 82 minutes, with no filler to bloat its length.Eight out of 10.