Bad Day At Black Rock - A Film Noir/Modern Western

In Bad Day at Black Rock, Spencer Tracy is excellent as a war veteran with one arm who comes to the desert town of Black Rock, looking for the father of a Japanese American soldier killed in action. He wants to give the father his dead son's medal. Simple enough, it seems, but once there, Tracy finds a town full of cold-hearted, suspicious bigots who are hiding a terrible secret.

Slowly, the audience, along with Tracy, learns what happened and who is to blame. The suspense is intense, the ending satisfying. And the director, John Sturges, manages to throw a strong, anti-bigotry message into the mix, which is refreshing, especially for 1955!

The color of this film is rich and deep, the moody interiors contrasting with the brilliant pastels of the desert. And that train! Oh, what a mistake it was to trade the luxury and thrill of train rides for the dust and pollution of the interstate highway system - BLAH!

Anne Francis is the only woman in Black Rock, surrounded by John Ericson as her brother, Robert Ryan as her boyfriend, with his henchman, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. Other townspeople include the doctor, Walter Brennan and the sheriff Dean Jagger.

I see this as a Film Noir, and a mystery but it's also a fine, modern Western. So, whatever genre you're into, well, besides romance, you'll find Bad Day at Black Rock a great film!