As soon as Spencer Tracy's John Macreedy steps off the train, having arrived at Black Rock, a town the inhabitants of which you could literally count on two hands, it's like he's traveled back in time, from 1945, the film's setting, to the untamed Wild West, with frontier justice, where laws don't matter, just men, in this case one man, Reno Smith, played with controlled menace by Robert Ryan. Macreedy is greeted with immediate hostility. He's unable to book a room in a hotel with 100% vacancy. When he finally secures lodging, he finds a lanky, handsome Hector David (Lee Marvin), one of Smith's acolytes, lying in bed. Hector interrogates Macreedy, ending every sentence with the dehumanizing "boy", as in "This is my room, boy." "What are you doing here, boy?" Macreedy has one arm, and as he's going up the steps, carrying his suitcase, Hector says "You look like you could use a hand." These are the people who live in Black Rock.
With a tantalizing slowness, we learn why Macreedy is there. And it doesn't surprise. Instead, it's a well-earned payoff. This is a well-acted drama. It may remind some of The Petrified Forest (1936). It reminded me of High Noon (1952): individuals with other responsibilities making the hard choices to fight back against evil rather than leaving or being complicit through standing by and doing nothing.
Spencer Tracy characteristically underplays; he represents a quiet, humble decency; traits that are effective contrasts to the testosterone-soaked portrayals of Lee Marvin's smooth upstart, and Ernest Borgnine's wild-eyed, fanatic thug. The topic of anti-Japanese racism must not have been easy only 10 years removed from WWII. Also starring Ann Francis as an auto mechanic (yes, and she's very good in the few scenes she has).
With a tantalizing slowness, we learn why Macreedy is there. And it doesn't surprise. Instead, it's a well-earned payoff. This is a well-acted drama. It may remind some of The Petrified Forest (1936). It reminded me of High Noon (1952): individuals with other responsibilities making the hard choices to fight back against evil rather than leaving or being complicit through standing by and doing nothing.
Spencer Tracy characteristically underplays; he represents a quiet, humble decency; traits that are effective contrasts to the testosterone-soaked portrayals of Lee Marvin's smooth upstart, and Ernest Borgnine's wild-eyed, fanatic thug. The topic of anti-Japanese racism must not have been easy only 10 years removed from WWII. Also starring Ann Francis as an auto mechanic (yes, and she's very good in the few scenes she has).