Bad Day at Black Rock [Blu-ray]

Director: John Sturges

Overview

This powerfully tense, fast-paced suspense drama also yields a grim social message about racial prejudice. 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. He looks for both a hotel room and a local Japanese farmer named Komoko, but his inquiries are greeted at first with open hostility, then with blunt threats and harassment, and finally with escalating violence. MacReedy soon realizes that he will not be allowed to leave Black Rock; town boss Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), who had Komoko killed because of his hatred of the Japanese, has also marked MacReedy for death. MacReedy must battle town thugs, a treacherous local woman (Anne Francis), and finally Smith himself to stay alive. The entire cast is flawless, especially Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin as the mean-spirited town bullies, and the relentlessly paced action never eclipses the film's sobering themes.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/17/2017
UPC:	0888574446161
Original Release:	1955
Rating:	NR
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:21:00
Sales rank:	276

Special Features

Commentary by Film Historian Dana Polan; Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Spencer Tracy	John J. McReedy
Robert Ryan	Reno Smith
Anne Francis	Actor
Dean Jagger	Tim Horn
Walter Brennan	Actor
Ernest Borgnine	Coley Trimble
Lee Marvin	Hector David
John Ericson	Actor
Russell Collins	Actor
Walter Sande	Actor
Walter Beaver	Cafe Lounger
Billy Dix	Cafe Lounger
Mickey Little	Cafe Lounger
K.L. Smith	Cafe Lounger
Robert Griffin	Second Train Conductor
Harry Harvey	First Train Conductor
Bobby Johnson	One of Two Porters
Francis McDonald	Tall - White-haired Cafe Lounger
Andr? Previn	Composer

Technical Credits

Don McGuire

Millard Kaufman

Howard Breslin

Don McGuire	Screenwriter
Millard Kaufman	Screenwriter
Dore Schary	Producer
Howard Breslin	Screenwriter
Wesley C. Miller	Sound Effects
Ed Haight	Sound Effects
Kurt Hernfeld	Sound Effects
Harold Humbrock	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

One of the truly outstanding motion pictures of the 1950s, this taut, suspenseful drama is both a plea for tolerance and a warning against citizen complacency. Heading an excellent cast, Spencer Tracy plays a World War II veteran who arrives in the small, dusty desert town of Black Rock, looking for a local farmer of Japanese ancestry. The farmer’s son died in a battle that left Tracy’s character with one arm, and he intends to deliver the medal that was posthumously awarded to his fellow soldier. But the crippled veteran is met with suspicion and hostility by virtually the entire population of Black Rock, which, it soon becomes apparent, is keeping a terrible secret. Director John Sturges paces the movie superbly, building suspense steadily without resorting to cheap melodramatic hokum and creating an oppressive atmosphere of menace. Tracy underplays his role for maximum effectiveness, and the supporting players -- including Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine, Anne Francis, and Dean Jagger -- are not only perfectly cast but also shrewdly delineated by screenwriter Millard Kaufman. Looking for more authenticity than he’d have gotten on the studio back lot, Sturges persuaded producer Dore Schary to build the entire town of Black Rock in the Sierra desert region near the tiny hamlet of Lone Pine, a mecca for filmmakers since the silent-movie days. Black Rock -- an inhospitable collection of ramshackle buildings that supply hiding places for furtive schemers and apathetic townspeople -- practically becomes one of the characters. Bad Day at Black Rock is an undeniably effective “message” movie, but it also makes the grade as first-rate cinematic entertainment and richly deserves the “classic” designation bestowed upon it many years ago.