Movie Type: Police Detective Film, Psychological Drama
Themes: Redemption
Main Cast: Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond, Charles Kemper, Anthony Ross
Release Year: 1951
Country: US
Run Time: 82 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
Robert Ryan plays Jim Wilson, a tough police detective embittered by years of dealing with low-life urban scum, in Nicholas Ray's moving film noir. After severely beating several suspects, Jim is assigned to a case far from the city to find the killer of a young girl. Joining the manhunt, in snow-covered terrain, Wilson finds himself paired with the victim's father, Walter Brent (Ward Bond), who plans to shoot the killer himself. When the two men come upon a cabin occupied by Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman who is also the killer's sister, Wilson's life is changed forever. Mary, a generous and loving person who has cared for her mentally ill brother Danny (Sumner Williams) since the death of their parents, convinces Wilson to protect Danny from Brent. Wilson also promises to get help for Danny if he surrenders to him. Inspired by Mary's courage and recognizing Brent's rage as the mirror image of his own, Wilson gains the insight to free himself from his own blindness. The film includes a memorable score by Alfred Hitchcock favorite Bernard Herrmann. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
Review
Obsession, despair, and hatred permeate the psyches of the leading men in On Dangerous Ground, creating a gritty, powerful, and unsettling film. That one of those leading men finds salvation -- convincingly and persuasively -- through the power of hope and love is a testament to director Nicholas Ray's special skills. True, the film does divide into two halves that don't quite connect, a fact that many viewers will find jarring. But those two halves are each so well done, and Ray so clearly believes that they should go together, that it's hard not to be won over. Ground is an unmistakably Ray feature, with human alienation and people struggling to cross the huge chasms that keep them from connecting with each bother prominently featured. Yet Ground also features a Ray rarity: a sweet, serene, genuinely happy ending. Ray is aided by the superlative work of his cast, especially Robert Ryan, Ida Lupino, and Ward Bond. Bond's obsessive hatred is made all the more powerful for being so understandable, and contrasts nicely with Ryan's, which is at base psychotic and threatens to destroy him. Ryan's work is absolutely fierce, yet he makes the transition to a gentler soul very convincingly. Lupino is, as usual, aces, finding complexities that would escape other actresses and using her special warmth to very good effect. There's also a driving Bernard Herrmann score and some sharp George E. Diskant photography, all adding up to a very satisfying and surprising noir variation. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Ed Begley, Sr. - Capt. Brawley; Sumner Williams - Danny Malden; Ian Wolfe - Carrey; Gus Schilling - Lucky; Frank Ferguson - Willows; Cleo Moore - Myrna; Olive Carey - Mrs. Brent; Richard Irving - Bernie; Pat Prest - Julie; Eddie Borden - Man; William Challee - Thug; Jimmy Conlin - Doc Hyman; Joe Devlin - Bartender; Donald Dillaway - Man; Budd Fine - Man; Kate Lawson - Woman; Ruth Lee - Helen; Al Murphy - Man; Nestor Paiva - Bagganierri; Gene Persson - Boy; Steve Roberts - Man; Tracey Roberts - Peggy Santos; Nita Talbot - Woman in Bar; Joan Taylor - Hazel; Ken Terrell - Crook; Esther Zeitlin - Woman; Frank Arnold - Man; A.I. Bezzerides - Gatos; Jim Drum - Stretcher Bearer; Art Dupuis - Man; Bill Hammond - Fred; Michael Lally - Man; W.J. O'Brien - Hotel Clerk; Vera Stokes - Mother; Homer Dickenson - Man
Credit
Ralph Berger - Art Director, Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Nicholas Ray - Director, Roland Gross - Editor, Sid Rogell - Executive Producer, Bernard Herrmann - Composer (Music Score), Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, Mel Burns - Makeup, Mel Berns - Makeup, George E. Diskant - Cinematographer, John Houseman - Producer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, Harley Miller - Set Designer, Harold E. Stine - Special Effects, Phil Brigandi - Sound/Sound Designer, Clem Portman - Sound/Sound Designer, A.I. Bezzerides - Screenwriter, Nicholas Ray - Screenwriter, Gerald Butler - Book Author
Bernard Herrmann jumped from working at CBS radio to RKO studios in one fell swoop in 1940-1941, courtesy of Orson Welles and Citizen Kane, and managed to earn two Oscar nominations in one year, winning for The Devil and Daniel Webster -- he had the world at his feet, and then blew it by interceding in the dispute between Welles and the studio over the recutting of The Magnificent Ambersons. The only time he returned to RKO over the ensuing three decades was to write and conduct the score for On Dangerous Ground (1951) -- producer John Houseman and production chief Jerry Wald were so unsure about the appeal of Nicholas Ray's movie that they wanted the strongest score possible, and Herrmann was ultimately engaged for the project. This CD marks the first release of the resulting score, retrieved from the only surviving sources, 16" acetates and 12" transcription discs prepared for the composer's convenience, of which the former are the highest quality but were only ever intended to be played two or three times at most, and have also sustained the most damage. The CD's producers apologize profusely for the sound quality at almost every turn, but this reviewer found this disc to be eminently listenable and downright essential listening -- one of Herrmann's more jarring and moving scores, the music for On Dangerous Ground shifts wildly, from the jarring stop-and-start main title theme to the dark depictions of the central character's psyche, in "Solitude" and the extended "Nocturne." Those tracks, and the brilliant "Hunt Scherzo," all make effective use of winds, and the string section of the orchestra, with the latter track anticipating elements of Herrmann's scores for Obsession, North by Northwest, and Marnie -- Herrmann even finds room for a jazz trumpet in one place. The highlight of this score, however, are the sections such as "Blindness" or "The Searching Heart" that utilize the solo vioa d'amore, played by Virginia Majewski, some of Herrmann's most moving, subtle, and finely textured writing for film -- despite the shortcomings of the source material in terms of noise, those tracks come out beautifully here, and bear repeated listening; one comes away not at all surprised that Herrmann insisted on Majewski's getting an on-screen credit. This limited-edition CD is essential listening for any fan of Herrmann, and a must-own item for anyone who has ever listened on a serious level to any of his music, or for more general fans of film noir, of which the movie is considered a classic; the producers have even managed to retrieve a set of alternate takes and unused sections of the soundtrack, and appended them after the main body of the piece. The annotation is extremely thorough, providing not only a detail sketch of Herrmann's life and career up to that point but also a detailed pre- and post-production history of the film. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
The film opens with Bernard Herrmann's music, played over the both the RKO logo and then the title credits as the camera cruises down a dark city street. The stark nighttime scenery immediately establishes a noir atmosphere.
The police officers are getting ready for a day's work and head to the squad room. It is announced that it has been two weeks since the killing of a cop and the culprit is still on the loose. Detective Jim Wilson and his partner, acting on a tip, visit Myrna Bowers. Her very abusive boyfriend, Bernie Tucker, is supposed to be a partner of the suspected murderers.
Jim convinces Myrna to reveal Bernie's hideout, and after he tracks Bernie down, he beats him into betraying his partners. Although Jim's actions lead to the arrest of the killers, his superior, Capt. Brawley, cautions him to take it easy. Later, while on patrol, the detectives hear a woman scream and discover Myrna being beaten by two thugs.
Jim grabs one of the men and starts to rough him up. The next day, Brawley yells at Jim that he is becoming a liability to the department and assigns him to assist in the investigation of a young woman's murder in the rural north.
Jim Wilson has lost control, and says after he's restrained by his partner from beating up a suspect:
What kind of job is this, anyway? Garbage, that's all we handle, garbage!
In the second act, Wilson is sent up north to cool out. "Siberia," he wryly notes. Though he is given a job similar to what he has left behind in the city—a murder investigation—Wilson's exile to the wintry countryside marks the beginning of his journey of redemption. Following a pursuit of the killer, Wilson is brought together with a blind woman, Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), the sister of the fugitive. In the brief final act, Wilson's redemption is a foregone conclusion, but it is his journey toward it that matters most: Wilson has made his way on dangerous ground.
Film critic Bosley Crowther gave the film a harsh review based on the screenplay. He wrote,. "But, as we say, the story is a shallow, uneven affair, as written by A. I. Bezzerides from Gerald Butler's Mad With Much Heart. The cause of the cop's sadism is only superficially explained, and certainly his happy redemption is easily and romantically achieved. And while a most galling performance of the farmer is given by Ward Bond, Ida Lupino is mawkishly stagey as the blind girl who melts the cop's heart. For all the sincere and shrewd direction and the striking outdoor photography, this R. K. O. melodrama fails to traverse its chosen ground."[2]
Fernando F. Croce, film critic for Slant magazine, liked the film and wrote, "Perched between late-'40s noir and mid-'50s crime drama, this is one of the great, forgotten works of the genre...Easily mushy, the material achieves a nearly transcendental beauty in the hands of Ray, a poet of anguished expression: The urban harshness of the city is contrasted with the austere snowy countryside for some of the most disconcertingly moving effects in all film noir. Despite the violence and the steady intensity, a remarkably pure film."[3]
Critic Dennis Schwartz liked the film and acting in the drama and wrote, "A schematic film noir by Nicholas Ray (They Live by Night) that overcomes its artificial contrivances to become a touching psychological drama about despair and loneliness--one of the best of this sort in the history of film noir...Robert Ryan's fierce performance is superb, as he's able to convincingly assure us he has a real spiritual awakening; while Lupino's gentle character acts to humanize the crime fighter, who has walked on the "dangerous ground" of the city and has never realized before that there could be any other kind of turf until meeting someone as profound and tolerant as Mary."[4]
.jpg)
