Bad Day at Black Rock ***** (1955, Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin) – Classic Movie Review 429

Director John Sturges’s brilliant 1955 Western thriller is his finest celluloid moment, bringing simmering, atmospheric suspense scaldingly to the boil. Spencer Tracy relishes one of his finest roles as one-armed army veteran John J Macreedy, who arrives by train in the windswept, one-horse town of Black Rock somewhere in the Mojave desert. There he uncovers some very shady goings-on that they desperately want to keep secret.

The locals are unfriendly, to say the least. The hotel refuses him a room, the garage won’t rent him a car and the sheriff is a drunk. When he finally reveals purpose of his trip is to speak to a Japanese-American farmer named Kamoko, he finds himself fighting for his life.

The potent yarn, focusing on Macreedy’s hunt for the missing Japanese-American farmer whose son saved his life, was Hollywood’s first acknowledgement of the authorities’ brutal treatment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War.

Sturges perfectly captures the edgy insecurities at the heart of all racism, with the help of Millard Kaufman’s Oscar-nominated screenplay. And he turns a painter’s eye on the Midwest’s open spaces, with the help of cinematographer William C Mellor’s brilliant CinemaScope and Eastmancolor  images.

And there are stunning performances, too, from dogged hero Tracy (Oscar-nominated), Robert Ryan as town boss Reno Smith and Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin as the thuggish bigots Coley Trimble and Hector David.

Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Anne Francis, Russell Collins and Walter Sande are also in the fine cast.

Based on Howard Breslin’s novel Bad Time at Hondo, and adapted by Millard Kaufman and Don McGuire, this is a superior example of film craftsmanship and one of the greatest suspense films ever.

MGM’s president Nicholas Schenck opposed the film, as he felt the story was ‘subversive’. An indecisive Tracy tried to back out of the film. An MGM executive contacted him shortly before the shoot: ‘Don’t worry, Mr Tracy, a copy of the script has been sent to Alan Ladd and he has agreed to do the picture.’ The next day, Tracy committed to the film. Ladd never saw the script.

Tracy, director Sturges and writer Kaufman were Oscar-nominated but didn’t win. Tracy ironically lost out to his co-star Borgnine for Marty. Tracy did however win a shared Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955.

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 429

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