Bad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 American film noir neo-Western film directed by John Sturges with screenplay by Millard Kaufman. It stars Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan with support from Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. The film is a crime drama set in 1945 that contains elements of the revisionist Western genre. In the plot, a one-armed stranger (Tracy) comes to a small desert town and uncovers an evil secret that has corrupted the entire community.
The film is based on a short story called "Bad Time at Honda" by Howard Breslin, published by The American Magazine in January 1947. Filming began in July 1954, and the movie went on national release in January 1955. It was a box-office success and was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1956. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
Plot[]
In late 1945, one-armed John J. Macreedy gets off a train at the isolated Californian desert hamlet of Black Rock. The residents are suspicious, as this is the first time in four years that the streamliner express train has stopped at the tiny flag stop station. After Macreedy states that he is looking for a man named Komoko, several of the local men become hostile. Hastings, the telegraph agent, tells him that there are no taxis, the hotel desk clerk, Pete Wirth, claims that he has no vacant rooms, and Hector David threatens him. Later, Reno Smith informs Macreedy that Komoko, a Japanese-American, was interned during World War II.
Macreedy visits Sheriff Tim Horn, but the alcoholic lawman is of no help. The veterinarian and undertaker, Doc Velie, advises Macreedy to leave town immediately, but lets it slip that Komoko is dead. Pete's sister, Liz, rents a Jeep for Macreedy. He drives to nearby Adobe Flat, where he finds a homestead burned to the ground and wildflowers growing nearby. As Macreedy drives back, Coley Trimble tries to run him off the road. Macreedy tries to leave town, but Liz, having been previously confronted by Smith, refuses to rent him the Jeep again. When Smith asks about his missing left arm, Macreedy says that he lost it fighting in Italy. Macreedy says that the wildflowers at the Komoko place make him suspect that a body is buried there. Smith reveals that he is virulently anti-Japanese; he tried to enlist the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor but failed the physical.
Macreedy tries to telephone the state police, but Pete refuses to put the call through. Doc Velie admits that something terrible happened four years ago, but Smith has everyone too terrified to speak up. Velie offers his hearse to Macreedy to leave town, but Hector disables it by yanking out the cables. Macreedy writes a telegram to the California police summoning help and gives it to Hastings.
Macreedy goes to the diner, where Trimble provokes a fight, but Macreedy, despite having only one arm, easily throws him to the ground using martial arts. Macreedy confronts Smith and accuses him of killing Komoko with the help of others. Hastings arrives and tries to give Smith a piece of paper, but Macreedy snatches it. It is his unsent draft of a telegram. Macreedy and Velie tell Hastings that he has broken the law and demand that Horn take action. Horn stands up to arrest Hastings, but Smith pulls the sheriff's badge off Horn's shirt and pins it on Hector, who casually tears up the telegram.
After Smith and Hector leave, Macreedy reveals that the loss of his arm had left him wallowing in self-pity, but Trimble's attempt to kill him has reinvigorated him. Macreedy finally reveals that Komoko's son died in combat (with the 442nd Infantry Regiment) while saving his life. Macreedy came to give the man's medal to Komoko. Macreedy learns that the elder Komoko had leased some farmland from Smith, who was sure that there was no water. Komoko dug a well and found water. After Smith was rejected for military service, he and the other men began drinking, and decided to scare Komoko. The old man barricaded himself inside his home, but the men set it on fire. When Komoko emerged ablaze, Smith shot and killed him.
Doc and Pete enlist Liz to help Macreedy to escape under cover of darkness. Hector is standing guard outside the hotel; Pete lures him into the office, where Doc Velie knocks him unconscious. Liz drives Macreedy out of town but stops at Adobe Flat. Macreedy realizes that he has been set up. When Smith starts shooting at him, Macreedy shelters behind the Jeep. Liz rushes to Smith despite Macreedy's warning. Smith tells her that she has to die with the rest of his accomplices, and shoots her in the back as she flees.
Macreedy finds a bottle and fills it with gasoline from the Jeep. When Smith climbs down for a better shot, Macreedy throws the Molotov cocktail, setting Smith on fire. Macreedy drives back to town with Smith and Liz's body. The state police are called, and several arrests are made. As Macreedy is leaving, Velie requests Komoko's medal to help Black Rock heal. Macreedy gives it to him before boarding the train.
Cast[]
- Spencer Tracy as John J. Macreedy
- Robert Ryan as Reno Smith
- Anne Francis as Liz Wirth
- Dean Jagger as Sheriff Tim Horn
- Walter Brennan as Doc Velie
- John Ericson as Pete Wirth
- Ernest Borgnine as Coley Trimble
- Lee Marvin as Hector David
- Russell Collins as Mr Hastings
- Walter Sande as Sam, the diner owner
The small cast includes three past and two future Academy Award winners; one past Academy Award nominee; and one future Golden Globe winner. Brennan (1936, 1938, 1940), Jagger (1950) and Tracy (1938, 1939) had all won Academy Awards. In subsequent years, Borgnine (1956) and Marvin (1965) both won Academy Awards; and Francis (1965) won a Golden Globe.
Themes[]
Film historian Stuart M. Kaminsky, in American Film Genres (1985), contrasts the ideology that guides Spencer Tracy's McCreedy, with the key motivating factor in samurai tradition:
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Although essentially a crime drama with revisionist Western overtones, the film is one of the first to recognize Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States|discrimination against Japanese Americans in World War II. No Japanese American characters are portrayed, although Komoko and his son, both dead, are central to the plot. In her 1991 documentary film History and Memory: For Akiko and Takashige, Rea Tajiri uses footage from Bad Day at Black Rock to illustrate prevailing attitudes toward the Japanese. Tajiri's family were among those interned after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
John Streamas describes the film as an indictment of both racism and McCarthyism. He comments on the unusual means of denunciation that it employs, because with no Japanese-American characters in the story, there is no liberation of an oppressed victim. Instead, the plot delivers justice for the victim of a murder that occurred four years earlier.