Un forastero con un solo brazo llega a una pequeña ciudad un pasado terrible que quieren mantener en secreto, aunque tengan que servirse de la violencia.Un forastero con un solo brazo llega a una pequeña ciudad un pasado terrible que quieren mantener en secreto, aunque tengan que servirse de la violencia.Un forastero con un solo brazo llega a una pequeña ciudad un pasado terrible que quieren mantener en secreto, aunque tengan que servirse de la violencia.
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Elenco
- Nominado a 3 premios Óscar
- 4 premios ganados y 8 nominaciones en total
- Cafe Lounger
- (sin confirmar)
- Cafe Lounger
- (sin confirmar)
- Cafe Lounger
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- Cafe Lounger
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- Second Train Conductor
- (sin créditos)
- First Train Conductor
- (sin créditos)
- One of Two Porters
- (sin créditos)
- Tall - White-haired Cafe Lounger
- (sin créditos)
- Dirección
- Guionistas
- Todo el elenco y el equipo
- Producción, taquilla y más en IMDbPro
Opiniones destacadas
I read a review of the film on IMDB pointing out the flaws in the script. They are all correct, if we go by rational thinking. But the merits of this film are the superb editing, the beautiful cinemascope photography and the arresting performances. Every time I see this film I am reminded of Spielberg's little known film "Duel" that had similar thrilling tension packed into less than 24 hours of screen time--a film I admire much more as good cinema than the recent box office outputs of Spielberg.
Compare this film with Sturges' "The Magnificent Seven." Sturges like King Vidor, seemed to pick up stories to film that looked at the oppressed and tried to present a world that could be better. "The Magnificent Seven," like this film, had a predominantly male cast. It appealed to most viewers. And some could see a social and even a political layer beneath these films.
What I find most appealing is the the ability of Sturges, Vidor, and the early unsung Spielberg's ability to use cinema to combine thrills, human values and craft in say 81 minutes as in this film. Spencer Tracy is not to be admired for the way he delivers his lines, but his body movements which remind you of majestic caged animal that can be deadly if provoked. Sturges brings to the fore evil in different ways--the dead buck strapped on the front of a vehicle, menace on empty roads by big vehicles (used in "Duel" to great effect), evil women when you expect them to be good, laws used in illegal ways (the hotel registration scene), etc. Sergio Leone made similar films in Europe--the famous spaghetti westerns--with laconic dialogues and emphasis on body movements and photography
In spite of its flaws, it is a film Hollywood can be proud of. I only hope TV reruns show the film in its original cinemascope grandeur, which grabbed me the first time I saw it decades ago.
Unity of place:everything takes place in a one-horse town,Black Rock,where an unusually inventive use of the wide screen makes the small town even more isolated,cut off from the world.When you leave Black Rock,you find a desolate landscape where only some flowers (of death?as Tracy points out)grow.
Unity of action:something happened in "Black Rock" ,something that its inhabitants are anxious that it remains in the shadow.Enter Tracy who seems to know too many things he should.Then all the inhabitants all stand together ,and their conspiracy of silence becomes threatening.What's amazing is that John Sturges (it's probably his best film,he uses Tracy in a much better way than he did in "people against o'Hara" some years before)refuses the easy way out:take for instance the only female character played by Anne Francis ;she does not act as the audience expects .Stand-out remains Robert Ryan,always excellent in one of his villains parts:funny how an actor who was known for his liberal views should have played so many racists ,anti-Semitics (this film,but also Dmytryk's "crossfire" and Wise's "against all odds").Other good performances come from Marvin and Borgnine.
Unity of time:everything happens in the space of 24 hours;first sequence :the train arrives in Black Rock,last sequence:it leaves it.
This is a modern western,which takes place just after WW2."Bad Day at Black Rock" is also,in its own special way, a war movie ,and also an anti-war one,because Tracy's life was saved by a...
Thoroughly enjoyable ,it deserves its reputation of classic.
Tracy gets off a train at a hole in the wall, whistlestop, speedtrap of a town called Black Rock located somewhere in the Mojave desert. He's looking for a Japanese farmer named Komoko who seems to have vanished. And the townspeople are downright unfriendly to the stranger.
It gradually dawns on Tracy that by probing about Komoko's whereabouts, he's stepped in one big festering pile and he's put himself in danger. What he does about it is the rest of the film.
John Sturges keeps the tension going here worthy of an Alfred Hitchcock film. In fact if Hitchcock had ever decided to do a western and was presented with Bad Day at Black Rock, I doubt he could do it any better. Certain arty Hitchcock touches are missing, but the suspense is there. Sturges was in fact nominated for Best Director.
As was Tracy nominated for Best Actor. He lost ironically to one of his fellow cast members Ernest Borgnine who copped the big prize for Marty. But in fact any one of the small cast could have been nominated. I'm not sure why chief villain Robert Ryan wasn't.
A fews years later John Sturges directed another film The Law and Jake Wade about Robert Taylor being held prisoner by Richard Widmark and his gang. There was a lot of suspense there as well, similar to Bad Day at Black Rock, as to whether Taylor would escape his predicament.
For a feature film in 1955 it is a rather short one, less than 90 minutes. But as Tracy said in another film, what there is is cherce.
¿Sabías que…?
- TriviaJohn Sturges had already moved on to his next film, La capa escarlata (1955), so Herman Hoffman took charge of filming the opening. The plan was to shoot the train hurtling toward the audience, almost like a 3-D movie, but it would have been deadly to attempt a helicopter maneuver into the path of a speeding locomotive. Stunt flier Paul Mantz offered the perfect solution: have the train running backwards, fly the copter over the retreating engine, then project the footage in reverse. "It's a helluva shot," Sturges later said, "but I didn't make it."
- ErroresAs the train approaches the town, the horn blows twice, which is the signal for starting up. The mandatory signal for a grade crossing (long, long, short, long) is never blown, although one clearly exists. When the train departs, the conductor makes a confused hand signal to the engineer resembling the horizontal motion that means "stop" rather than the vertical motion that means "go". The engineer never responds with the "long, long" starting signal.
- Citas
Reno Smith: I swear, you're beginning to make me mad.
John J. Macreedy: All strangers do, hmm?
Reno Smith: No, they don't. Not all of them. Some do, when they come around snooping...
John J. Macreedy: Snooping for what?
Reno Smith: I don't know, outsiders coming in, looking for something...
John J. Macreedy: Looking for what?
Reno Smith: I don't know! Somebody's always looking for something in this part of the West. To the historian it's the Old West, to the book writer it's the Wild West, to the businessman it's the Undeveloped West -- they say we're all poor and backward, and I guess we are, we don't even have enough water. But to us, this place is *our* West, and I wish they'd leave us alone!
John J. Macreedy: Leave you alone to do what?
Reno Smith: I don't know what you mean.
- Versiones alternativasTo receive an 'A' (PG) certificate in 1955 the UK cinema version was subject to heavy BBFC cuts. These included Macreedy striking Hector with the brass fire hose nozzle and the climactic shots of Reno on fire. Later TV showings and video releases were fully uncut.
- ConexionesFeatured in The Spencer Tracy Legacy: A Tribute by Katharine Hepburn (1986)
Selecciones populares
- How long is Bad Day at Black Rock?Con tecnología de Alexa
- If Mcreedy is one armed, how can he manage a perfecly knotted tie?
- Was the small town of Black Rock built for the movie or was it already in place?
Detalles
Taquilla
- Presupuesto
- USD 1,271,000 (estimado)
- Total a nivel mundial
- USD 10,813
- Tiempo de ejecución1 hora 21 minutos
- Color
- Relación de aspecto
- 2.35 : 1