bad day at black rock
Bad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 thriller film directed by John Sturges that combines elements of Westerns and film noir. [1]
Sturges is best-known for his action-suspense movies (Gunfight at the OK Corral, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape); in his hands, the story of Bad Day at Black Rock — a good-guy stranger comes to town and ends up the object of town hatred — slowly comes to a boil. [2]
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) is both a tightly-written, suspenseful, dramatic action film (with film noirish qualities) and a western. [3]
In 1945, John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy), a handicapped war veteran, steps off the Southern Pacific passenger train at the desert hamlet of Black Rock. [1]
Spencer Tracy is John J. MacReedy, a one-armed stranger who comes to the tiny town of Black Rock one hot summer day in 1945, the first time the train has stopped there in years. [2]
A big-shouldered, one-armed stranger John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) steps off the Streamliner train at the lonely, isolated crossroads of the Southwestern desert town of Black Rock. [3]
Hastings, the telegraph agent, learns that Macreedy wants to visit nearby Adobe Flat, whereupon he immediately telephones Pete Wirth, the hotel keeper. [4]
Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), who acts as the town’s authority figure, informs Macreedy that Komoko no longer lives in Black Rock; as a Japanese-American he was interned during World War II. [1]
Doc Velie wonders aloud why Smith, Coley, Hector, Pete and Sam are so worried about the stranger, but Smith silences Doc and orders Hastings to get information about Macreedy’s identity from a private detective in Los Angeles. [4]
The two men who emerge from the car are Coley and Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), the town’s boss - they both watch Macreedy with a mixture of indifference and disdain. [3]
For example, during the discussion scene on the railroad tracks about 27 minutes into the film, the clouds above the mountains at the tracks’ vanishing point appear in wide shots and disappear in tight shots. [5]
Shaken but unhurt, Macreedy returns to Black Rock, where Coley calls him a roadhog. [4]
Including posters, Academy Awards history, film genres, film terms, film history by decade, trivia, and lots of lists of ‘best’ films, stars, scenes, quotes, resources, etc. [3]
One of the first Hollywood films to deal openly with white racism toward Japanese Americans during World War II, this drama directed by 1950s action maestro John Sturges (The Great Escape) stars Spencer Tracy as a one-armed stranger named MacReedy, who arrives in the tiny town of Black Rock on a hot day in 1945. [6]
From the time John J. Macreedy steps off the train in Black Rock, he feels a chill from the local residents. [5]
Sources:
[1] Bad Day at Black Rock - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[2] Bad Day at Black Rock: Information from Answers.com
[3] Greatest Films: Bad Day At Black Rock
[4] Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
[5] Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) - IMDb
[6] Amazon.com: Bad Day at Black Rock: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan …