cheadwrites
My TV was still tuned to TCM from the night before, so when I hit the remote to watch the morning news, the first image I had was of what I thought was a gritty, gumshoe tale. A glimpse of Robert Ryan kept me from switching channels, and when I clicked for more info on the remote and saw the summary, and the name: Ida Lupino, there was no turning away. The most compelling parts of this film is the story's attempt (probably maintained from the novel upon which the film is based) to explain the hardness and inhumanity which can occur when you're a cop. Jaded, and now dangerous, cop Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) doesn't have an outlet to balance the harshness of the tough, city streets he prowls everyday. Even his fellow cops point out that he needs to find a way not to take his work home with him every night. When his anger spills over one too many times, he's sent off to help on a case away from the mean streets. Where he meets, and falls in love with a blind woman (Ida Lupino). Lupino is uncredited as a director but you can see her deft touch in the scenes where she navigates domesticity as a blind woman. The second thing to become enamored with in this film is the music. Bernard Herrmann's musical themes can be heard all over this film, but especially the rural scenes which invoke North by Northwest, Psycho, and the haunting strains of Marnie. In this film, Herrmann establishes some of the themes he liberally borrows from in later projects, in particular his TV work on westerns like Have Gun Will Travel. But this film, released in 1952, was obviously influenced by his work the year before on one of my favorite films, The Day the Earth Stood Still. By the way, it's easy to imagine that the Master, Hitchcock, may have borrowed a few cinematic techniques from On Dangerous Ground director, Nicholas Ray, in the mountain chase scene. Imagine Mount Rushmore instead of the snowy, rural mountain in this film, and you'll see what I mean.
AaronCapenBanner
Nicholas Ray directed this underrated film noir that stars Robert Ryan as tough cop Jim Wilson, who has grown cynical and brutal in his big city dealings with the criminal elements, and gets too rough with one suspect, so is sent upstate in the snowy winter to investigate the murder of a young woman. There he meets an attractive blind woman named Mary Malden(played by Ida Lupino), whom he falls in love with, but as fate would have it, it is her younger brother(played by Sumner Williams) who is the chief suspect. Fine acting, score and direction make this mystery/love story memorable. Ryan in particular is excellent, his no-nonsense character a sort of forerunner of both Popeye Doyle & Dirty Harry.
classicsoncall
Director Nicholas Ray had a penchant for themes of alienation and loneliness. With "On Dangerous Ground", he positions his principal players with conditions that isolate their loneliness in contrasting ways. Detective Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) stands apart from his fellow officers by virtue of internalizing his job, creating in himself a distrust of all humanity. When he meets Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), he finds her to be isolated by her blindness, living alone with her mentally challenged brother in a remote small town some seventy miles north of the City.If this was going to be about simply catching the killer of an innocent young girl, it could have been handled in the first half of the film when we first see Ryan's character as the hard boiled and cynical street cop. He's still that same cop when he arrives in Westham, but over time a curious transformation takes place. There's a fleeting moment when the detective observes Walter Brent (Ward Bond) in a rage over his daughter's murder and vowing to blow the killer away. It doesn't last long, but in that brief moment Wilson sees himself with all the hatred and confusion that's built up inside himself after eleven years as a cop.Film noir fans will be engaged by the first half of the picture - gritty city nightscapes and tough cops scouring the streets for thugs and low-lifes. The bar scene exploits an underage trashy hooker who makes a pass at Ryan, and gets the old heave-ho in return. The noir feel is maintained to a degree in the latter half, as much of the story takes place in Lupino's darkened home. Then the chase for Mary Malden's brother occurs over a snow covered landscape in sharp contrast to typical noir sensibility.I don't know if I'm buying the resolution to the story all that readily. Mary didn't seem all that distraught that her brother died, especially after Wilson vowed his help in securing his safety. And I'm not convinced that Wilson would have turned his entire life on a dime to return to Mary and give up the big city life. But oh, that closing moment, that's what stays with you as Jim and Mary embrace in a happy ending that defies all probabilities. Ryan and Lupino have a way of making it look credible.
zetes
Robert Ryan plays a sadistic cop from the big city who loves beating the crap out of suspects. His captain (Ed Begley) sends him out to the country for a while to help investigate a murder there, but the murder victim's father (Ward Bond) has already discovered the culprit, plans to kill him and doesn't want Ryan to get in the way. No problem for Ryan, that is until he meets up with the murderer's blind sister (Ida Lupino), who melts his hard heart. This film starts off well - Ryan in particular is just great in it. But, as much as I love Ida Lupino, her character and her blind act are pretty corny, and I just don't buy Ryan's quick change of heart (well, my guess is he probably just wants to get laid, but this is 1952 and they can't just come out and say that). Nicholas Ray's direction is very good.
AD
