Saturday, December 25, 2010

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955)

‘You got a body of the hippo but the brain of a rabbit. Don’t overtax it.’

A stranger, mysterious guest named Mr. Macreedy arrives by train at countryside small town of Black Rock. He’s got unwelcome hospitality from people of the town. The only aim of this outsider is to visit a place called Adobe flat, looking for a man named Komako. Nobody is providing him any information sniffing him strange suspicious guy. Slowly it reveals us the status of plot and characters filling the drama with enough conflict.

The film was made by John Sturges, the man who gave us epical ‘The Great Escape. Quite contrary to that this is a film with duration of just eighty minutes. It’s a fine cocktail of western meets noir giving you enough thrilling pleasure. This single day thrill story of one man reminds me Fred Zinemann’s classic western ‘High Noon’. Sturges finely brought the picture of godforsaken lawless small west town controlled by a man named Smith (Robert Ryan) and his loose sidekicks. I haven’t seen much of Spenser Tracy but as far as this film is concerned it’s one of his most memorable performances. He’s an old man keeping his one hand in pocket throughout the film and wearing no comment like attitude towards bunch of obstacle baddies until that tense filled provoking scene with duel at hotel bar. Tracy is just gentleman you love to watch. Shot in color it shows us splendid country side Wild West with fine cast and brilliant lines what you expect from classic Hollywood.

Highly recommended to classic fans.

Ratings-8.5/10

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