Review: BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK / John Sturges (1955)
November 14th, 2008 by Scott Marks
Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan
Bad Day at Black Rock(1955)
Directed by John Sturges
Written by Millard Kaufman from Don McGuire’s adaptation of Howard Breslin’s novel Bad Day at Hondo
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Walter Brennan, Dean Jagger, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and John Ericson
Running Time: 81 mins.
Technical Specs: Photographed by William C. Mellor In 
and Eastmancolor
Rating: 
With no more Brando goodies left to plum in the archive (my fatigued staff seemed reluctant to pay a revisionist look at Viva Zapata) our journey veered in the direction of another disturbed, perhaps the most distressed man in the annals of cinema, Robert Ryan. John Wayne was always right, Larry Fine was always wrong, and Robert Ryan was always, always troubled.
His first on-screen appearance was as an intern in the Bob Hope vehicle The Ghost Breakers. This is as good a theory as any as to what set the rugged he-man on the road to inner turmoil.
Mr. Ryan, who built his reputation playing racists, rednecks, crackers, goofballs and disillusioned vets, always displayed an uncanny ability to switch targets of hate as effortlessly as Fred Astaire changed partners. In Eddie Dmytryk’s Crossfire (1947), Ryan not only had a gripe against Jews, see, he had no fondness for “anyone who likes Jews.” In Fred Zinnemmann’s Act of Violence (1948), the mere question of how long Ryan will be staying at a hotel finds the despondent actor instantly turning on the day clerk with a gut wrenching, “Oh…I don’t know.” In Caught (1949), his melding of the fictional Charlie Kane with real life crackpot Howard Hughes gave Max Ophuls’ normally uninhibited camera just cause to dolly out. Nick Ray’s On Dangerous Ground (1952) may be the most perfectly pitched Robert Ryan performance. His tortured psyche effects, infuses and just plain annoys every character he comes in contact with.
My plucky crew’s first stop was at the 1955 John Sturges CinemaScope sermon, Bad Day at Black Rock.A mysterious one-armed man (Spencer Tracy) makes an unexpected stopover in a town so small that it makes Bogdanovich’s Anarene, TX look like a bustling metropolis. Given what Sturges shows us, the town is populated by Ryan and his band of goons (Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, John Ericson, Russell Collins) a neutral doctor (Walter Brennan), emasculated sheriff Dean Jagger and one babe, auto mechanic Anne Francis.The time is post-war America and Ryan’s Reno Smith, frustrated and 4F, finally get his hands on a “Jap.” Tracy single-handedly unravels Black Rock’s dirty secret and by my calculations, the only townsfolk left residing in Black Rock before the final credits roll are Walt and Dean.
This contented cut-out head of Bob Ryan appears to have been grafted on from the “Bachelor Mother” half-sheet.
Filmed at the dawn of ‘Scope, Sturges and ace cinematographer William C. Mellor do little more than exploit width. From the bug-eyed opening shot of the serpentine Super Chief barreling into town to the police line-up character compositions, the filmmakers are interested in only one thing: populating all the new found anamorphic space.
The plot plays out like a giant Golden Book wrought with themes of social significance, searing racial tension and an overall sense of sticky self-importance. The righteous Tracy follows the same plot fellow booze buddy Bogie traveled in Key Largo, released by a rival studio seven years earlier. The embryonic message picture fulfilled liberal minded producer Dore Schary’s expectations by hammering home themes of morality and tolerance while managing to sell bucket after bucket of hot buttered popcorn.
Tracy, who has no agenda beyond delivering a medal to the father of Komoko, the Nippon ally who saved his life and whose life Ryan extinguished, skates through the role with steely determination. A prepubescent flat, black-and-white TV viewing eternally etched in my mind the confrontation between Ernie and Spence at the town’s only eatery, the Chili and Bean. When the neighborly Borgnine seasons Tracy’s bowl with a half-bottle of Heinz red lead, the veteran star (aided and abetted by a primitive stunt double shot from the back) puts on a lighting display of Asian handiwork. Tracy’s judo chops propel the bloated Borgnine with such force that he almost topples the painted studio backdrop.
Perhaps the numerous Best of CBS viewings have forever rendered this film beyond criticism in the opinion of this reporter. Normally “important” entertainment, particularly when delivered in such a heavy handed manner, makes my skin crawl. What can I say? In spite of all the preachy prose and clumsy oblong compositions, the cast of supporting slobs is so appealing in their quest to pick on a white-haired, do-gooding old “cripple” that I can’t help but revisit this picture at least once every five years.
The Great Spencer Tracy, Ernest Borgnine Scenery Eating Chili Bowl Brawl:
Tags: bad day at black rock, bad day at black rock review, dore schary, DVD Review, Ernest Borgnine, Film Review, john sturges, Lee Marvin, M.G.M., robert ryan, spencer tracy, Video, william c. mellorShare: 
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2 Responses to “Review: BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK / John Sturges (1955)”
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I love this film!
Good: as you mentioned, it was if they wanted to put each character on all sides of the screen. I remember as a young film student, being impressed that someone besides Kurosawa had some understanding of character placement.
Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin!! You imagine how much testosterone this town was generating!!!
Bad: I always got a big kick that a fifty year old, one armed Spencer Tracy was able to kick the living *&%$ out of this one truck town.
You could have just skipped all the social commentary films of the 60s and 70s and gone right from BDBR to the action hero films of the 1980s. Spencer Tracy…as Chuck Norris!
No whining argumentation about “what men should do” and “might doesn’t make right” — Tracy is Billy Jack…the peaceful man who gets pushed over the edge (they put too much hot sauce in his chili) and he uses martial arts and Molotov cocktails to break up the bad guys!