Bad Day At Black Rock

Considerable excitement is whipped up in this suspense drama, and fans who go for tight action may not be that fascinated with the picture. Besides telling a yarn of tense suspense, the picture is concerned with a social message on civic complacency. Basis for the smoothly valued production is a story by Howard Breslin and adapted by Don McGuire. To the tiny town of Black Rock, one hot summer day in 1945, comes Spencer Tracy, war veteran with a crippled left arm. He wants to find a Japanese farmer and give him the medal won by his son in an action that left the latter dead and Tracy crippled. Tracy is greeted with an odd hostility and his own life is endangered when he puts together the reason for the cold, menacing treatment. The film is paced to draw suspense tight and keep expectancy mounting as the plot crosses the point where Tracy could have left without personal danger and plunges him into deadly menace when he becomes the hunted. There’s not a bad performance from any member of the case, each socking their characters for full value. To top it off, the movie was made in one of the best locations in the world, Lone Pine, California.