Stadt in Angst (1955)

Stadt in Angst: Directed by John Sturges. With Spencer Tracy, Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger. A one-armed stranger comes to a tiny town possessing a terrible past they want to keep secret, by violent means if necessary.

“Bad Day at Black Rock turned out to be the final film that Spencer Tracy did on his MGM contract. The following year he was fired off the set of Tribute to a Bad Man and left MGM abruptly. Some reward for an actor who brought so much prestige to that studio.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eTracy gets off a train at a hole in the wall, whistlestop, speedtrap of a town called Black Rock located somewhere in the Mojave desert. Heu0026#39;s looking for a Japanese farmer named Komoko who seems to have vanished. And the townspeople are downright unfriendly to the stranger.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIt gradually dawns on Tracy that by probing about Komokou0026#39;s whereabouts, heu0026#39;s stepped in one big festering pile and heu0026#39;s put himself in danger. What he does about it is the rest of the film.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eJohn 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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAs 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. Iu0026#39;m not sure why chief villain Robert Ryan wasnu0026#39;t.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA 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.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor 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.”