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On Dangerous Ground

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While I certainly don't claim to be an expert on film making as the first reviewer apparently is, I do know what I like, and I really like On Dangerous Ground.
First, I like the storyline. A police story like this couldn't happen today. A rogue officer who beat information out of suspects, even those who deserved a beating or worse, would be quickly pilloried in the press and most likely fired and charged with some offense. In this film, Robert Ryan's character was merely sent upstate to help in a rural murder case while the public uproar over his brutality subsided. But the film is not just about the mean streets and police brutality, it is about a man who discovers and comes to terms with his real self and in the end is redeemed by love.
Secondly, I like the film-makers technique. The city streets are ever wet and grimy, while the rural mountainous area to which Ryan is sent is unrelentingly cold and bleak. The picture painted of a cold world is one that carries on throughout the film. One of the few spots of warmth is in the house where the blind Ida Lupino lives with her deranged brother.
Next, I like the mostly on-location shoots. Though the upstate "Siberia" to which Ryan's character was sent is putatively in New York, it was actually filmed mostly on location in Colorado lending an air of rural authenticity to the film it would otherwise not have. The locale, though bleak and cold, has its own majestic natural grandeur. Anyway, it LOOKS like Colorado (or California) and not New York, so until I read more about the film, I thought that Ryan was an LA cop rather than with the NYPD.
Lastly, the acting is first-rate. Ryan's transformation is spell-binding, and Lupino's role performed with aplomb. Ward Bond is excellent as an enraged father sworn to violently avenge the murder of his daughter.
If you are a fan of the film noir genre and have yet to see On Dangerous Ground, then you are in for a treat. The only negative comment I have to make is that in the commentary feature, Glenn Erickson natters on too long about the admittedly glorious score composed by Bernard Herrmann and misses commenting on a few scenes which would benefit from some clarification.

This terrific 1950 film follows the descent and redemption of a big city police detective (Robert Ryan), alienated and emotionally isolated by the corrosive nature of his work and sent "upstate" by his boss (Ed Begley) to help the locals track down a killer. Upstate turns out to be Colorado, where much of the film was shot, knee deep in snow. There he teams up with the enraged father of the victim (Ward Bond), armed and determined to take the law into his own hands. And he also befriends a blind woman (Ida Lupino), who turns out to be the sister of the hunted man.

Removed from the dark, mean streets of the city and the morally compromised women that his work brings him in contact with, our (anti)hero discovers another world that calls to his higher instincts, both as a cop and as a man. In true Hays Code fashion, the cynicism characteristic of the hard-boiled crime fiction that gave birth to film noir is transformed in the end by the love a decent woman.

John Houseman produced this well-made film and Nicholas Ray directed. The sun-swept exteriors of wintertime Colorado are a visually striking contrast to the stylized urban shadow world of dark streets and low-rent hotel rooms. Camera work is inventive, and the Bernard Hermann score is sweeping and pulse quickening. The DVD has an informative scene-by-scene commentary that highlights the film's cinematic achievements while exploring its relationship to the genre of film noir and its place in the careers of the filmmaker and the cast.

On Dangerous Ground was an esoteric masterpicece, which Nicholas Ray and A.I. Bezzerides adapted from the British novel, Mad With Much Heart. Robert Ryan may have given one of his subtlest portrayals in the film, which was short on dialogue, high on visual expression, and augmented by Bernard Herrmann's dramatic score (he later stated that this was his favorite personal composition). As Detective Jim Wilson, Ryan's character was a noir type with which he was familiar, a man so tormented by what he sees in the line of duty that he is driven to commut brutal acts. Wilson's role delineates the conflict of the story, that of a man turned rancorous and cynical from dealing with the dregs of society. He has become a loner, an essentially good man gone sour, and though his conscience bothers him, he is trapped. Stooping to the level of those he detests, he has incorporated their self-destructiveness into his own actions. One scene, with the blonde, vampish Myrna (Cleo Moore), indicates the extent of his frustrations, as masochism and sexuality are tied together. As Myrna shows Wilson the bruise her boyfriend recently gave her, she directs his hand, holding an unlit cigarette, into her mouth. The music in the background synchronizes with a shot of Wilson turning toward Myrna, who says, "You'll squeeze it out of me with those big strong arms, won't you?" He softly replies, "That's right, sister." The next fade-in shows Wilson slowly descending the dark staircase of her building in deep thought, leaving one to ponder whether he has left Myrna safe or sorry. Another spare, yet graphic, scene depicting Wilson's violent impulses occurs in an eerie film noir setting, appropriately named the Harbor Hotel, a seedy tenement on a one-way street. A stool pidgeon has tipped off Wilson and his partner about a murder suspect, Burney Tucker, and the two cops pay him a visit. Accompanied by the rising crescendo of Herrmann's magnificent score, Wilson loses control of himself and snarls, "I always make you punks talk! Why do you make me do it? Why? Why?" He is on the verge of a total breakdown as he responds to Burney's masochistic entreaty, "Hit me, hit me," by nearly beating him to death. The pangs of conscience that erupt when Wilson returns to his apartment are acted out symbolically. Frowning as he shuts the door and switches on the bare overhead light, Wilson's face contorts into a desolate mask of anger and hopelessness. As he gazes despairingly at the trophy resting on his dresser, it is the sole remnant from his optimistic past. To blot out the world, he jerks down the window shade, walks to the sink, and while a trombone insinuates a somber melody in the background, he is compelled to wash his hands of his recent dirty work. It is an unconscious "undoing" act, but as he anxiously wipes his hands with a towel, the guilt remains. In addition to director Ray's high artistic talent, cinematographer George E. Diskant's expertise in low-key, high contrast lighting situations, and Herrmann's beautiful score, counterpointed the drama as it unfolded. Virginia Majewski's virtuoso viola work perfectly complemented his orchestration. Working within Ray's unconventional story, Ryan and co-star Ida Lupino brought the whole piece together by making their scenes together into intimate conversations. Although their romantic involvement is depicted only briefly in the final frames, their embrace possesses real emotional power. Ryan's predilection for appearing in films dealing with the raw truths of existence sometimes prompted queries about his attraction to the melancholic. He was once asked why he never played comedy roles, and he responded, "I play them as I see them." Author James Kreidl discussed On Dangerous Ground and Ryan's performance, and concurred that he had an affinity for tragedy. Calling the picture "deadly serious and completely cut off from the romantic comedy," Kreidl described Ryan's interpretation as "subdued, controlled, understated - almost expressionistic." Despite being undervalued in 1952, On Dangerous Ground has resurfaced often for study by serious film scholars, and is frequently featured in film retrospectives.

Director Nicholas Ray disliked this film's "miracle" ending. Let's hope that judgement didn't apply to the movie as a whole. Because, from jarring commencement to pastoral close, On Dangerous Ground may be the legendary Ray's most beautifully realized film. Reviewer Jarlett has done a good job bringing out the high points, including the absolutely riveting performance of Robert Ryan in the pivotal cop role. Rarely has any screen actor conveyed tortured sensitivity as effectively as Ryan's Jim Wilson. Nor could many directors or actors bring off the emotional final scene so persuasively. Ray was wrong. The ending works. It works because he and Ryan had the artistic sensibility to make it work despite a Hollywood where cynicism is the norm and true romantics are as rare as hen's teeth.

Fifty years have passed since the movie's release. In the meantime, cops alienated from society have become an entertainment staple, if not cliche. Ray's early entry transcends the genre because of spiritual overtones that are at once mysterious and profound, and a long way from the hokey variety that usually emanate from studio cynics. Wilson's arc from savage cop to gentle lover is a modern tale of suffering and redemption, as mesmerizing now as at mid-century. Made finally to see his own suppressed humanity through the eyes of a blind girl, Wilson stands at movie's end on the threshhold of becoming the good man he has always been, despite the years of desensitizing police experience. Fortunately, Ryan's convincing expressions, tones, and gestures, have prepared us for this redemptive turn, despite the overt brutality. Unlike such fashionable counterparts as Bullitt or Dirty Harry, hopelessly adrift in their amoral urban worlds, Ray, Ryan, and Lupino pull off that most difficult of challenges -- they make us actually believe in the redemptive power of love and caring as dimensions of real life, and not merely as plot cliches. In fact, the entire film moves toward this resolution, making it one of the few coherent and compelling renderings of romanticsm in movie history. How powerfully Ray evokes the course of Wilson's spiritual journey from gritty urban fleshpots to barren mountain snowscapes (Colorado), all of which accentuate the growing despair of Wilson's inner world, while the early morning scene of Mary (Lupino) ministering to her star-crossed brother Danny reaches near mystical proportions. This may be the only Hollywood prayer scene that did't send me rushing for the aisle.

There are so many memorable bits in the film that it must be seen to be appreciated. Don't let the relative obscurity fool you. The collaboration here is a permanent record of those superior talents involved. Were the academy awards truly about artistic achievement, nominations would have gone to Ryan, Ray, and scorer Bernard Hermann for their work. But industry prejudices against no-name films, then as now, remain too strong. Nor could the magic be repeated. As a result of this film, Lupino and Ryan went on to make the suspenseful but unremarkable Beware My Lovely, while Ray and Ryan were again paired in the studio's Flying Leathernecks, a dreary Korean war drama. Nevertheless, this one time, under Ray's unifying vision, they came together to fashion a masterpiece of urban despair and spiritual regeneration that continues to disturb after all these years.

"On Dangerous Ground" is based in part on the British novel "Mad with Much Heart", written for the screen by the renowned A. I. Bezzerides and director Nicholas Ray. Bezzerides and Ray altered the book's themes considerably and added the urban sequences for which the film is best remembered, turning the story into a character study of urban alienation and rural redemption. Neither Bezzerides nor Ray were pleased with the final result though. They didn't like the ending. This was a Howard Hughes production and, accordingly, suffered reshoots and delays. Sometimes Hughes ruined movies with his obsessive tinkering; sometimes he improved them. After its first edit, "On Dangerous Ground" underwent a major reorganization that changed the structure of the film and eliminated the third act. Oddly, this doesn't seem to matter beyond delaying the film's release for 2 years. Rearrange the pieces, and they add up to the same thing.

Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) is a city police detective, and 11-year veteran of the mean streets. He lives alone, seldom socializes, dedicating himself to ridding the world of crime. His partners are worried about Jim. He can't leave his job at work. He carries the stresses of police work around with him all the time. He's anxious and increasingly violent. When Jim roughs up a suspect to the point of serious injury, police chief Captain Brawley (Ed Begley) sends him to assist a small-town sheriff in a murder investigation upstate. A young girl has been killed by a man while walking home from school. The girl's father Walter Brent (Ward Bond) is a single-minded farmer who won't stop until he has killed the man who killed his daughter. A frantic manhunt is underway, chasing the suspect across the countryside. The chase leads Jim and Brent to the isolated home of Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a gentle blind woman with something to hide.

"On Dangerous Ground" failed at the box office when it was released in 1952. Critics thought that the urban first half hour of the film and the following 50 minutes of rural action felt like 2 different films. They found Mary Malden's dialogue too maudlin and the final scenes too sentimental. I have to agree with them. But in hindsight it is easier to see the film's successes along with its failures. Actor Robert Ryan and cinematographer George E. Diskant make "On Dangerous Ground" worthwhile. One of the great character actors of his day, Robert Ryan delivers quite an arc as Jim Wilson, a man so sensitized to cruelty that he embraces it. A trip to the countryside, where he comes face to face with a hick version of himself, turns his self-destructive tendencies on end.

Film noir fans gravitate toward the first 30 minutes of "On Dangerous Ground". Jim Wilson is a man consumed by the brutality he tries to stamp out. He's about to self-destruct in noir fashion. But the naturalistic photography of nighttime city streets by George E. Diskant may be the most stunning of its kind. All of the urban scenes take place at night, and they're all beautiful. A striking combination of neo-realist and low-key styles. The many shots from inside moving vehicles are great. Then we move to the snow-covered countryside, filmed on location in Colorado. Now everything is white. If the story doesn't grab you, the photography will. This is also one of Bernard Herrmann's most notable film scores, which successfully stands in for dialogue during the chase scenes. "On Dangerous Ground" doesn't tell a great story, but it does showcase some wonderful work.

The DVD (Warner Brothers 2006): Bonus features are a theatrical trailer (2 min) and an audio commentary by film critic and historian Glenn Erickson. Erickson's commentary is scripted, informative, and continuous. He interviewed A.I. Bezzerides in 1997, so is able to contribute Bezzerides' view of the film. Erickson addresses the film's cinematography, themes, characters, actors, dialogue, and score in scene-by-scene analyses. He relates the history of the production, compares the film to the novel, and talks about the editorial re-organization that restructured the film. Subtitles are available for the film in English, French, and Spanish.

Director Nicholas Ray turned the conventions of film noir up on end in this tense, quirky thriller. The film starts off with one of the most intense, ugly and fear-provoking character sketches of the genre -- Robert Ryan plays a big city cop whose soul has been killed by his job -- he's seen too many hopheads, gun molls and lowlifes, and they've infected him with their grubbiness, transforming him into "a gangster with a badge." Although his sadistic methods get results, Ryan's partners are afraid to work with him and the chief of police has to repeatedly reprimand him to take it easy with the rough stuff. When these warnings don't work, he gets reassigned to a murder case in a presumably bucolic podunk town. Where the plot goes from there is unusual and unexpected; suffice it to say this is no run-of-the-mill cops and robbers movie. Beautiful cinematography, too, by the way. Unusual and highly recommended.

A highly unusual noir that starts off really, really dark and gets...well, sort of better. Robert Ryan is exceptional and genuinely frightening as the tortured and self-torturing violent cop, who encounters the blind sister (Ida Lupino) of a man he's hunting. Ryan's gravity, tension and capacity for savagery are in full whack during the first third of the movie; the scene where he beats up a suspect is scarier than anything by Wes Craven, because we seem to learning something about human beings instead of about film cliches. Lupino is very, very good as the blind woman, a part that could easily have toppled over into sentimentality. (It's worth remembering that the RADA-trained Lupino - actually English, but with an immaculate American accent - was a fine director of tough movies in her own right, and the story goes that she directed some of the scenes in this herself when Nicholas Ray was ill.) The ending is approaching Bresson territory, in this viewer's opinion. A truly poetic movie, a tribute to Ray, Lupino and above all Ryan, a great and harrowing actor who didn't get enough good parts. This was maybe the best he ever had. It's a scandal that the film isn't more widely available.

In 1952's "On Dangerous Ground," Robert Ryan plays a talented police detective. Unfortunately, he has a reputation for being a bit forceful, and after beating up one too many suspects, he's sent by his superiors to work a murder case in a small town upstate. A young woman has been killed, and the killer is believed to be on foot somewhere in the vicinity. When Ryan arrives, the tension between the family of the murdered girl and him is palpable, as the family wants to bring the killer to justice themselves. They get a lead and start chasing the killer through the snowy countryside. Ida Lupino also co-stars as a young blind woman Ryan meets while working the case.

This low-budget film is a real find. Director Nicholas Ray ("Rebel Without a Cause") injects the film with gritty detail. The prolonged chase scene through the snowy countryside is particularly exciting and realistic; just two men slowly trudging along. The scene really conveys the almost claustrophobic feeling that must accompany such chases. The script is believable and lean - clocking in at just 82 minutes.

Ryan is perhaps best known for co-starring roles in hard-bitten dramas, such as "The Wild Bunch" and "Crossfire." He has one of his most fully developed starring roles here as the lonely detective who's obsessed with his job. Another beautiful aspect of the film is the score by Bernard Herrmann, who is perhaps best known for his work with Hitchcock (e.g., "Psycho"). Hermann reportedly said that this score is his favorite - quite a statement. Overall, this little film is really fantastic - an extremely enjoyable film noir - highly recommended. Hopefully they will release it on DVD in the near future.

On Dangerous Ground is a flawed favorite, boasting an exceptional performance from Robert Ryan as a man as much attracted as repulsed by his own capacity for violence - the look on his face before beating a suspect into the hospital, the almost sexual glee tinged with disgust as he repeats "Why do you make me do it?" to justify his own imminent enjoyment to himself give him a disturbingly raw emotional violence that's far more worrying than anything his fists can do. Even Ward Bond's distraught and vengeful father of a murder victim is disturbed by the joy of the hunt he finds in that face. Nicholas Ray's camerawork is similarly on the brink of falling to pieces in the opening city section, eavesdropping in and out of windows and windscreens before erupting into a brutal alley chase shot with a bold use of handheld camera that's still seems shockingly vital for a 50s studio picture. They're both matched blow for blow by Bernard Herrmann's strikingly violent score, with a main title like a sword slashing through flesh and striking bone but with passages beautifully underlining the loneliness and sadness behind the savagery. Mad With Much Heart indeed.

Even the prolonged section with Ida Lupino's blind woman and the possibility of another, more compassionate way of life avoids mawkishness, not least because pity is neither sought nor given. Only the miraculous ending doesn't work. Whether this is due to the 10 minutes of studio-imposed cuts and the re-editing and restructuring the film went through during more than a year on the shelf or whether it was always a problem we'll probably never know (it would have been nice to have included the script as an extra, especially since Glenn Erickson's scripted audio commentary is often awkwardly delivered and often lacks the substance of others in the Film Noir boxed set). There is definitely the feeling that the whole third act of the movie has gone, making Ryan's decision seem almost arbitrary and not allowing us to see if he really has changed back on his home ground. Indeed, it probably would have been better to have ended the film a minute earlier with the almost purgative drive back to the city. But so much of what has gone before is so remarkable that it's a failure you can forgive.

Being the author of Robert Ryan's biography has been the most rewarding experience of my life. In researching this complex actor whom an Internet reviewer recently described as "one of the finest of all American actors," I believe that I brought to public light such unsung gems as "On Dangerous Ground," "Beware, My Lovely," "The Woman on the Beach," "Clash by Night," and many other Ryan films that have transcended the medium of film. Paulene Kael, in his book, "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang," wrote that Ryan belonged to a class of actors who are "Professionals in every sense of the word."

On Dangerous Ground was lost in the shuffle at RKO when Howard Hughes helmed the studio, meddling with films and altering them to fulfill his wierd psychological schemata on life. It languished there for nearly two years, suffering a prompt dismissal when it was finally realeased in 1952. Some observers have stated that On Dangerous Ground was way ahead of its time, which is probably true. Fortunately, Hughes didn't completely change the movie, while Nicholas Ray's brilliance comes through so clearly as a definitive, phenomenally sensitive director that, if truly appreciated contrasted with most of the movies made these days, renders them trite and obvious by comparison.

Ryan's performance is one of the top ten of his career, a meaty role that he devoured with the intensity of a wound-up dynamo overdosed with righteous indignation. Lupino is luminary as Mary, but a few critics have chided her performance, one calling it "mawkish." There may have been better actresses for the role, but she was believable to me.

In one of the few times in Ryan's career, his range, intensity, and captivating expressions were fully tapped. As one reviewer recently wrote about Ryan, in On Dangerous Ground, seeing him play a burned-out cop allowing himself to make people talk with his fists, he has been called the original Bad Lietenant by another reviewer. Ryan's scenes with Mary are marvelous to behold, with Ray utilizing his cinematographer, George E. Diskant, to astounding effects with tones and contrasts. The whole film is artistically astounding in Ray's depiction of loneliness and redemption in an allegorical form.
With Bernard Herrmann's simply amazing film score, highlighted by Virginia Majewski's haunting, memorable viola playing, the art of On Dangerous Ground treads heavily on mundane reality to create a film that is at all times thought provoking and constantly amazing.

The final scene inthe movie in which Ryan and Lupino extend their hands toward each other and kiss at the end must be seen to be appreciated. So tender, so vulnerable.

The DVD quality is not perfect, however, and the image is soft without strong contrasts. Compare it to the quality of Anthony Mann's Border Incident, which is a great deal sharper with beautiful contrasts. A good black and white film can elevate a film to the highest level of cinema viewing, in the opinion of many in the film industry. This is my only criticism of the DVD. On the other hand, the commentary by Glenn Erickson clears up some of the confusion about the film, while giving Ryan his just desserts as the cop. The other extra is the theatrical trailer, which has better contrast than the film, and which is a joy for Ryan and Ray fans to watch over and over. My final grade for On Dangerous Ground is an A+.