150 Word Review: 'Bad Day At Black Rock' (1955)
Last stop
Director John Sturges’ Bad Day At Black Rock opens on a train speeding through the desolate, colorful desert and arriving at a small town run by bad hombres. But this isn’t the 1850s. It’s 1945, not long after the end of the Second World War, when the country was emptied of heroes, and the scumbags stayed behind. Spencer Tracy is fantastic as a quick-witted, one-armed, long-in-the-tooth veteran who visits a lawless backwater searching for a man named Komoko. This is a fast-paced cowboy noir about a man who knows the difference between right and wrong.
The population of Black Rock is a mixed bag: there are racists, weasels, and gutless cowards. Robert Ryan is a casual rattlesnake. Dean Jagger is a yellow-bellied lawman. Lee Marvin has a small part as a growling henchman. There’s an unexpected, rip-roaring fistfight between wild-eyed Ernest Borgnine and Tracy—remember, Tracy’s character only has one fist.