Bad Day at Black Rock
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| Bad Day at Black Rock | |
|---|---|
| Image:Bad day at black rock.JPG Movie poster for Bad Day at Black Rock | |
| Directed by | John Sturges |
| Produced by | Dore Schary |
| Written by | Howard Breslin (story "Bad Day at Hondo") Don McGuire (adaptation) Millard Kaufman |
| Starring | Spencer Tracy Robert Ryan Anne Francis Dean Jagger Walter Brennan |
| Music by | André Previn |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) |
| Release date(s) | January 7, 1955 (U.S. premiere) |
| Running time | 81 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Bad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 film that combines elements of Westerns and film noir. It tells the story of a mysterious stranger who arrives at a tiny, isolated town in a desert of the southwest United States in search of a man. It stars Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin.
The movie was adapted by Don McGuire and Millard Kaufman from the story "Bad Day at Hondo" by Howard Breslin. It was directed by John Sturges.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
In 1945, John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy), a one-armed man, steps off the Southern Pacific train at the minuscule desert hamlet of Black Rock while on his way to Los Angeles. It is the first time the train has stopped at Black Rock in four years; the little town has very few inhabitants and appears to be dying.
Macreedy is looking for a man named Komoko, but the residents are hostile. At town's dusty hotel, the young desk clerk, Pete Wirth (John Ericson), says all the rooms are full. The newcomer is none-too-subtly threatened by local tough Hector David (Lee Marvin). But Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), the town's leading citizen, tells Pete to give Macreedy a room. Smith also tells Macreedy that Komoko no longer lives in Black Rock; as a Japanese-American, he was sent off to a internment camp for World War II.
Certain something is wrong, Macreedy sees the town sheriff, Tim Horn (Dean Jagger), but the sheriff is an alcoholic, and clearly afraid of Smith. The town physician and undertaker, Doc Velie (Walter Brennan), tells Macreedy he would be better off getting out of town immediately. Macreedy speaks with Smith again, who lets slip that Komoko is dead. Smith suggests that Liz Wirth (Anne Francis), Pete's sister, may rent him a Jeep. Macreedy finds Liz to be the only civil person in town.
Macreedy drives to nearby Adobe Flats, where Komoko lived. He finds the homestead burned to the ground. He drops a rock into the well, which has plenty of water, and finds a patch of wildflowers growing in the dust. Smith's flunky Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine) spies on Macreedy from an outcrop. When Macreedy starts back, Trimble attempts to run him off the road, but Macreedy is able to avoid crashing.
When, Macreedy returns the Jeep to Liz, Smith drives up and the two men talk. Smith learns that Macreedy lost his arm fighting in Italy. Macreedy tells him he found a grave at the Komoko place, which is why the wildflowers were growing there. He believes that Komoko is dead, and his body is in the unmarked grave, a statement which scares Smith. Macreedy discovers that Smith is a racist who tried to enlist the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor but was rejected. Smith virulently hates all Japanese.
Macreedy tries to telephone for the state police, but Pete refuses to put the call through, claiming all the lines are busy. Doc Velie admits that something terrible happened in the town four years ago, but Smith has everyone too terrified to speak up. Velie offers to drive Macreedy out of town in his hearse, but Hector walks up and rips the distributor cap and spark plug wires from the engine.
Macreedy heads for the train station, where he gives the nervous stationmaster a telegram to send to the state police. Then he lunches at the town cafe. Smith and Trimble walk in. Trimble picks a fight with Macreedy, but the one-armed man uses several Karate moves to knock Trimble out without being hit in return. Macreedy warns Smith that he knows Smith killed Komoko, but, he continues, Smith's mistake was being too cowardly to do it alone. He had to bring Hector, Pete and Coley Trimble into it. In time, Macreedy continues, one of the men will crack, and then Smith will be taken down.
Macreedy checks out and decides to spend the night sitting in the hotel lobby, hoping that Smith and his men won't attack him in such a public place. Smith and his henchmen are already there. The stationmaster brings in a telegram and attempts to give it to Smith, but Macreedy snatches it away. It is his own unsent telegram. Doc Velie accuses the stationmaster of having committed a federal crime for interfering with the wire service. He demands that Sheriff Horn do something. Horn, finding some backbone, tried to confront Smith, but Smith takes his badge and gives it to Hector. Hector tears up the telegram.
After Smith and Hector leave, Macreedy and Velie attempt to get Horn to enforce the law, but he refuses to become involved. Macreedy work on Pete, calling him a coward, and tells him that he's likely to be the first person killed when Smith starts to get rid of the eyewitnesses. Finally, Pete tells Macreedy what happened in 1941. Komoko lease some farmland from Smith, who knew that there was no water at Adobe Flats, but Komoko dug a well and found water, which only enraged Smith. Smith tried, but was unable to break the lease. After Smith was turned down for enlistment, he and the other men spent the day drinking, then decided to scare Komoko. When the old man heard them coming, he barricaded himself inside his home. The men set the place on fire. When the man fled, his clothes on fire, Smith shot him, much to Pete's surprise. The four then buried Komoko and intimidated the other townspeople into keeping silent.
Macreedy reveals that Komoko had a son who died trying to save Macreedy's life in combat. Macreedy was bringing the son's medal to his father. When Doc Velie presses Macreedy on why he was so stubborn about investigating Komoko's disappearance, Macreedy admits that he had given up on life. The loss of his arm had left him wallowing in self-pity and despair, and he was on his way to a boat to the South Pacific or South America — 'some place to get lost.' But the murder of Komoko enraged Macreedy, and he has a purpose in life again.
Pete calls his sister and tells her to bring the Jeep over. Pete then lures Hector into the hotel office, where Doc Velie knocks him unconscious with the metal nozzle of a fire hose. Liz drives Macreedy out of town.
But Macreedy has been betrayed: Liz stops the Jeep in a canyon. A car's headlights blind Macreedy. Up in the rocks, Smith begins firing at Macreedy, who hides behind the Jeep. Liz rushes to Smith's side, though Macreedy warns her to run away. Smith tells Liz that she has to die, along with the rest of Smith's accomplices. She turns and flees, but Smith shoots her in the back.
Macreedy finds a bottle by the side of the road. He scrambles under the Jeep, opens its fuel line and props the bottle under the opening, creating a Molotov cocktail. When Smith climbs down to get a better shot, Macreedy throws his bomb, splashing Smith with burning fuel. Smith drops his rifle and rolls on the ground to put out the flames.
As dawn breaks, Macreedy drives up to the town jail with the injured Smith and Liz's body. Doc Velie and Tim Horn rush out of the jail, shotgun at the ready. While Macreedy was gone, they mustered enough courage to jail Hector, David and Coley. The state police are called in and Macreedy leaves on the train.
[edit] Cast
- Spencer Tracy as John J. Macreedy
- Robert Ryan as Reno Smith
- Anne Francis as Liz Wirth
- Dean Jagger as Sheriff Tim Horn
- Walter Brennan as Dr. T. R. Velie Jr.
- John Ericson as Pete Wirth
- Ernest Borgnine as Coley Trimble
- Lee Marvin as Hector David
- Russell Collins as Mr. Hastings, the stationmaster and telegrapher
- Walter Sande as Sam, the cafe proprietor
[edit] Awards and nominations
Tracy was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor, Sturges for Best Director and Millard Kaufmann for Best Writing, Screenplay. Oddly enough, Tracy lost the Best Actor in a Leading Role Oscar to co-star Borgnine, who was honored for his role in Marty.
Tracy did win the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955. Director John Sturges was nominated for a Palme d'Or, but again did not win.
[edit] Production
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. (Just north of Lone Pine, at Owenyo, the Southern Pacific's standard gauge tracks ended and the narrow gauge tracks running into Nevada and originally laid by the Carson and Colorado Railroad began, requiring that everything traveling both north and south had to be transferred to rail cars appropriate for the track width.)
[edit] External links
John Sturges | |
|---|---|
| 1940s | The Man Who Dared - Shadowed - Alias Mr. Twilight - For the Love of Rusty - Keeper of the Bees - The Sign of the Ram - Best Man Wins - The Walking Hills |
| 1950s | The Magnificent Yankee - The Capture - Mystery Street - Right Cross - Kind Lady - The People Against O'Hara - It's a Big Country (with Clarence Brown, Don Hartman, Richard Thorpe, Charles Vidor, Don Weis and William A. Wellman) - The Girl in White - Jeopardy- Fast Company - Escape from Fort Bravo - Bad Day at Black Rock - Underwater! - The Scarlet Coat - Backlash - Gunfight at the O.K. Corral - The Law and Jake Wade - The Old Man and the Sea - Last Train from Gun Hill - Never So Few |
| 1960s | The Magnificent Seven - By Love Possessed - Sergeants 3 - A Girl Named Tamiko - The Great Escape - The Satan Bug - The Hallelujah Trail - Hour of the Gun - Ice Station Zebra - Marooned |
| 1970s | Joe Kidd - Chino - McQ - The Eagle Has Landed |
de:Stadt in Angst es:Conspiración de silencio fr:Un homme est passé pt:Bad Day at Black Rock ru:Плохой день в Блэк Роке (фильм) sv:En man steg av tåget
