On Dangerous Ground 1951

 This tightly coiled 1 hour 22 minute flick is set in a murky dark grimy unnamed noir city that looks like L.A., and has as its main character a deeply flawed sadist policeman played with steel force and demeanor by Robert Ryan.

Ryan along with his two more well adjusted partners played by Charles Kemper and Anthony Ross roam the streets in their patrol car looking for criminals which usually winds up with Ryan beating the crap out of them. He has a lonely life that Nicholas Ray and the screen writer A.I. Bezzerides sketch out for us in sometimes subtle but pointed and telling details there are some football trophies on his mantle in his ratty apartment. His two partners by the way are married one has 7 children and both leave their jobs at night to return to their settled domestic lives. Ryan has nothing.

He is constantly in trouble with his superiors including his captain wonderfully acted as usual by Ed Begley. Their scene in a restaurant is terrific as Begley dresses down Ryan for his violent ways and gobbles down a steak dinner asking the waiter to bring him more peas and bread. To push Ryan back to reality Begley assigns him to a job upstate in a cold snowy mountain small town where a young girl has been murdered. The change in the film starts as Ryan drives from the dark city to the light of the snow covered small mountain town and his journey to light both symbolic and real is accompanied by a great early score by Bernard Herrmann who will become a partner in the near future to Alfred Hitchcock.

The father of the murdered girl played by tough and mean Ward Bond who is hell bent to find the killer and bring him to justice from the barrel of his rifle. For now he has to deal with Ryan who starts to change mainly when he meets Ida Lupino who plays blind and lives in an isolated cabin. It turns out Ida is the sister of the young suspect who has mental problems and is played by Sumner Williams the nephew of Nicholas Ray. Bond and Ryan go on a manhunt to find the kid and more tragedy follows.

The film is full of symbolism with religious imaginary and references both obvious (Lupino is named Mary and crucifixions or if you prefer crosses pictured and planted in the landscape sometimes subtle sometimes not especially towards the end of the film where redemption, salvation and love also play a role and for me dilutes to a degree the toughness that went before.

There are also many references to nature including a large tree like sculpture that looms over Lupino's living room that was made by her brother who we see has talent as a wood carver. The pock marked supporting cast is good and is filled with familiar and not familiar character actors including Ian Wolfe, Olive Carey, Vince Barnett, Jimmy Conlin, Frank Ferguson, Gus Schilling and a good Cleo Moore along with a very young Nita Talbot as an underage barroom floozy. The cinematography is by George E. Diskant who did many noirish “B” films and lots of early t.v. Definately worth a look.