On Dangerous Ground

'On Dangerous Ground' is a very original and striking movie, one of the most interesting to come out of 1950s Hollywood. The movie is in two halves. The first is urban and sees Robert Ryan play Jim Wilson a brutal but seemingly moral cop who appears to be on the brink of a complete breakdown. His character could well be the toughest cop ever seen on screen until the early 1970s heyday of Dirty Harry and Popeye Doyle,etc. The second half is rural, with Wilson being sent out of the city to investigate the murder of a young girl (shades almost of Stellan Skarsgard in 1997's 'Insomnia'). There he encounters a local blind woman (Ida Lupino), the sister of his number one suspect. The first half is as I said, extremely tough, the second half is ALMOST a mystery (yet it's obvious who the murderer is), and ALMOST a romance (but handled in a very subtle and "unHollywood" way). It's an odd combination but really works because the script lacks cliches, Nicholas "Rebel Without A Cause" Ray's direction is very fresh and inventive, and the acting is first rate. Lupino makes the most of her supporting role, as does Ward Bond ('The Searchers') as the father of the murdered girl, and Sumner Williams as Lupino's disturbed younger brother, but Robert Ryan steals the movie. I'm beginning to regard Ryan as one of the most underrated screen actors of all time. Just watch him in this, the boxing classic 'The Set-Up', 'Crossfire', 'Bad Day At Black Rock', and of course, 'The Wild Bunch' and see what I mean. 'On Dangerous Ground' deserves a much larger audience. Highly recommended.

'On Dangerous Ground' sounded right up my street. The story sounded incredibly gripping, and have always been a fan of films with a film noir atmosphere. Love some of director Nicholas Ray's other work, especially 'In a Lonely Place' and 'Rebel Without a Cause'. Robert Ryan was a great talent as an actor, especially in ruthless and villainous roles (i.e. 'Billy Budd', 'Crossfire', he is bone-chilling in both), and when he was in a particularly great role he was brilliant.

Found 'On Dangerous Ground' to be a very good film that could have been a great one if it was a little more consistent all the way through. It is a very good representation of Ray, it is a great representation for composer Bernard Hermann who pens one of his best non-Hitchcock scores and it is a great representation for Ryan in a role that fits him perfectly. Have seen better from Ida Lupino though, from personal opinion of course.

Positives are numerous and they outweighs the negatives by quite some way. Just loved the stylish and quite eerie way it was photographed which couldn't have been more perfect for the darkness of the story. The landscapes are just as striking and the photography is clearly in love with it without going into self-indulgence land. Hermann's score is remarkable, it has a very haunting atmosphere enhanced by the truly ominous orchestration. As said, to me it's among his best scores for a film that isn't from Hitchcock. The script, especially in the first half, is thought probing and taut as needed for a film of this type.

The first half of 'On Dangerous Ground' is absolutely brilliant, taut, full of grit and edge and nail-bitingly suspenseful. The subject matter is a dark, grim one and the first half matched that perfectly. Ray's direction is never less than assured and keeps the suspense going. Ward Bond is compelling in his role, but as far as the performances go the film belongs to Ryan, his intensity is absolutely riveting.

Didn't however find the second half quite as strong. It is still good certainly, nicely paced, exceptionally well made, scored, directed and acted and is absorbing. It just lacks the hard-boiled edge of the first half.

If the romance was more developed, it was interesting enough but slightly bland, and gelled within the story a little better it would have been even better. Lupino has charm and pathos but could have done with more steel, like the romance she doesn't quite fit within the rest of the film, but that is just personal taste.

All in all, very good. 8/10

Lovely is not a word I would normally use when describing a film noir, yet here I am, labeling On Dangerous Ground as a lovely piece of work. It is perhaps Nicholas Ray's most upbeat movie, beginning as a hard- hitting cop story and ending on a heartwarming note, with renewal and hopefulness at its beck and call. It is the only tender film noir I've seen. Genre turnarounds can be hurtful to the tone of a film, as no one wants to go to the theaters for a Will Ferrell vehicle only to find it sinking into tragedy rather than an uproariously funny closer. But by tying the pessimistic atmosphere of the first act into the neuroses of the title character, the shift in On Dangerous Ground is largely flattering, a difficult feat that Ray pulls off with unwavering certainty. He believes in the story, and, as a result, so do we.

Robert Ryan portrays Jim Wilson, a worn-out detective who is growing increasingly intolerant towards the disreputable scum he deals with on a regular basis. In past film noirs, cops as violent as Wilson would eventually go as far as murdering someone, spending the rest of the movie trying to make their wrongs into rights. But in On Dangerous Ground, it immediately becomes evident that Wilson is capable of saintly good nature but has been pushed over the edge by the constant surrounding sleaze.

After beating up a number of suspects during arrest, his precinct grows concerned and sends him away to the outskirts of town to investigate the murder of a young woman. Upon arrival, he finds a reflection of himself in the hateful family of the victim, and, during the investigation, falls for Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), the blind sister of the prime suspect who serves as a ray of light in his jet-black life. In theory, On Dangerous Ground should be clunky and awkward; yet, it is kind of brilliant. It looks and feels like a film noir, but that's only a disguise for the more touching instances of psychological study. Everything is presented in such a nonchalant, nearly conventional manner that the power it eventually bears is unexpectedly poignant. Only Ray could direct this sort of material; most do not have the same curious capacity to switch from the hard-boiled to the humane.

The contrast between the slick city streets and the snowy grounds of the more evangelical countryside are competently histrionic. As Wilson enters the fresh, cool landscape, a tidal wave of reversal falls upon us. In the first few minutes of the film, as we watch Wilson fight crime with boorish tenacity, the streets so usually enthralling in film noir turn into something uncomfortably grimy and greasy. Crime is like a horde of ants crawling up and down our arms. The countryside, though still the setting of a murder, has a comforting tranquility. Without people scattered in every nook and cranny, there is a chance to breathe. The entrance of Lupino is reminiscent to that of an angel falling out the sky; with no eyesight, she is unable to see the vile underpinnings of the world. Her kindness is a gift.

As Wilson's life converts from direly violent to one of prospect, there is something stirring that occurs that softened me more than I ever would have thought possible. In film noir, we're used to endless acerbity; it is rare that a character, a policeman who seems so destined to head down a dark path, is given a second chance. Throughout his career, Ryan was mostly typecast as a villain with a booming voice, but in On Dangerous Ground he is given a chance to be expressive and sensitive. It is a surprisingly wistful performance, connecting with ease towards the delicate, soul-baring Lupino.

On Dangerous Ground has been pushed aside as a minor work from the illustrious Nicholas Ray (The Big Heat, Rebel Without a Cause), but it's nevertheless shimmering all these years later. Its audacious attempts to subvert the norms of such a specific genre are absorbingly moving.

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Nicolas Ray who directed a string of good films, most notably In a Lonely Place, Flying Leatjernecks and They live by Night and would become best known for Rebel Without a Cause directed this fine film-noir flick from 1952. He had taken the idea for the story based on the Gerald Butler novel Mad With Much Heart. Ray teamed with Albert Bezzerides for the screenplay who had written They Drive by Night, Desert Fury and Thieves Highway for the screen and would become best known in film for Kiss Me Deadly. He would become better known in television as the creator of the long running western series The Big Valley. Excellent photography in this film from cinematographer George E. Diskant. Robert Ryan is one of Hollywood's most underrated actors and in the staring role of a burnt out city cop on the road to redemption and awakening, turns in yet another great performance. Ida Lupino is another of my favorites and this time around plays a blind woman living alone in rural upstate Mew York. This is a film in two acts that are almost like tow separate films. Part one we find the Ryan character as a violent tough and over the edge cop who once was a popular high school football star and has become burned out in his job and dissatisfied with his lonely small apartment so he hates his job and his life away from work. The first half of the film is mostly night scenes. He is sent by his superiors to cool off in the frozen north and try to help solve a local murder. In the Ward Bond character as the Father of a murdered woman he meets someone even more angry and violent than he is. Bond delivers a strong supporting role performance. Rounding out the fine cast are Ed Begley, Charles Kemper and Anthony Ross. Famed, prolific composer Bernard Hermann provide the musical score. The story might be a little simplistic at times and predictable but it is still a strong film and I would give it an 8.5 out of 10.

The Nicholas Ray-A.I. Bezzerides On Dangerous Ground is a modestly budgeted film that tries to be different, and succeeds. Tough, brutal city cop Robert Ryan is sent upstate to help solve a murder case, and also to be got rid of, since he seems to be on the verge of mental breakdown. Along the way he runs into a blind woman, the father of the murdered teen, and a few locals. This is the bare bones of the story, such as it is, which on the surface appears mundane. But writer Bezzerides and director Ray were up to other things, and the crime picture trappings of this film are deceptive. The movie is really about that most modern of issues, alienation, and more generally, anomie, the feeling of displacement, namelessness, uselessness, that so many people have in such a fast-paced and mechanized society as ours. Ryan's character is a solitary, apparently celibate cop, who loves no one, and doesn't even like his job. He has a sense of morality, which is maybe what keeps him going. It also, alas, gets him into hot water with his superiors when he punches out one too many suspects, which is the reason for his being sent upstate, to Siberia, as he puts it. Ida Lupino, the blind woman he falls for, is equally isolated, but more serene. Her intuition tells her that Ryan is far more sensitive than he seems (or even understands), and they become close (but not lovers). She represents his good side, the part of him he has repressed all these years. Ward Bond, as the vengeful father of the murder victim, is like a caricature of Ryan, and also skeptical of him as a "city cop", as he puts it.

There's much to recommend in this film. Bernard Hermann's music is excellent. Ray's handling of the chase scenes in the snow, and his evocation of a small rural community, is masterful. The movie seems a little too short to me, for what it's trying to do, and at times spreads itself too thin. It's at various points a crime film, a romance, a mystery, an action picture and a psychological study. The actors, Ryan in particular, are outstanding. No one could play a brooding loser like he could. His emotional outbursts early on feel almost psychotic. Later, mellowed out in the frozen north (irony of ironies!), his vulnerable side begins to emerge, and he becomes sympathetic to us, and eventually empathetic toward the woman. One senses his cluelessness about what's happening in him emotionally, as we, the audience, get it, and he doesn't. He's almost fragile trying to deal with tender feelings, especially since if he messes up or things go wrong he can't very well punch his way out of this one.