Bad Day at Black Rock

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

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. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Screen: Letterbox for TV
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Features:
  • cc
  • Commentary by film historian Dana Polan
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Languages: English & Francais
  • Subtitles: English, Francais & Espanol

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Actor - 1955 (Spencer Tracy)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1955 (John Sturges)
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 1955 (Millard Kaufman)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Nominated Best Film - Any Source - 1955 (John Sturges)

• Cannes Film Festival

•     Won International Prize- Best Actor - 1955 (Spencer Tracy)

• Directors Guild of America

•     Nominated Best Director - 1955 (John Sturges)

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Picture - 1955

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Spencer Tracy - John J. Macreedy
       Robert Ryan - Reno Smith
       Anne Francis - Liz Wirth
       Dean Jagger - Tim Horn
       Walter Brennan - Doc Velie
       Ernest Borgnine - Coley Trimble
       Lee Marvin - Hector David
       Russell Collins - Mr. Hastings
       Walter Sande - Sam

• Director:

  John Sturges

• Producer:

  Howard Hoffman, Dore Schary

• Screenwriter:

  Millard Kaufman, Don McGuire

• Book Author:

  M. Niall, Howard Breslin

• Cinematographer:

  William C. Mellor

• Composer (Music Score):

  Andre Previn

• Editor:

  Newell P. Kimlin

• Art Director:

  Malcolm Brown, Cedric Gibbons

• Set Designer:

  Fred MacLean, Edwin B. Willis

• First Assistant Director:

  Joel Freeman

REVIEW:

• Director John Sturges received his only Academy Award nomination for his work on 1955's Bad Day at Black Rock. 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. The film is similar in its ever-increasing intensity to many westerns, most notably Fred Zinnemann's High Noon. Archetypal good-guy Spencer Tracy is his usual honorable self, though without any of the characteristic whimsy; he was nominated for his fifth Oscar for the role, and was named best actor by the Cannes Film Festival and the New York Film Critics. Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin also deliver distinguished performances as Tracy's antagonistic enemies. Screenwriter Millard Kaufman was nominated for his second Academy Award, the first of which was for his previous effort, Take the High Ground. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi