On Dangerous Ground

"In One Strange Night she met both LOVE... and MURDER!"

1951 1h 22m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

★6.6TMDB · 166

DramaCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A big-city cop is reassigned to the country after his superiors find him too angry to be an effective policeman. While on his temporary assignment he assists in a manhunt of a suspected murderer.

“In One Strange Night she met both LOVE... and MURDER!”

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Cast

Ida Lupino
Mary Malden
Robert Ryan
Jim Wilson
Ward Bond
Walter Brent
Charles Kemper
Pop Daley
Anthony Ross
Pete Santos
Ed Begley
Capt. Brawley
Ian Wolfe
Sheriff Carrey
Sumner Williams
Danny Malden

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Nicholas Ray
Writers: A.I. Bezzerides
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

82 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

75 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Nicholas Ray, shot by George E. Diskant. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Bernard Herrmann. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Roland Gross shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan and Ward Bond carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "In One Strange Night she met both LOVE... and MURDER!".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0043879 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Nicholas Ray directs. George E. Diskant behind the camera. Bernard Herrmann scores. Roland Gross cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

182 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
275 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
3Directed by Nicholas Ray, shot by George E. Diskant. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Bernard Herrmann. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Roland Gross shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan and Ward Bond carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "In One Strange Night she met both LOVE... and MURDER!".
8IMDB entry: tt0043879 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Classified under 9 themes, including "small town", "police brutality", "based on novel or book", "redemption".

The technical file

Cinematography: George E. Diskant
Original score: Bernard Herrmann
Editing: Roland Gross
Makeup / hair: Mel Berns
Runtime: 82 min · 1h 22m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): NR
IMDB: On Dangerous Ground (1951)

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Nicholas Ray

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2018-12-30
★ 8/10
Garbage, all we handle is garbage. On Dangerous Ground is directed by Nicholas Ray and stars Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan & Ward Bond. It's loosely adapted by Ray and A. I. Bezzerides from Gerald Butler's novel Mad With Much Heart. Cinematography is by George E. Diskant & the music is provided by Bernard Herrmann & Paul Sawtell. The story concerns Ryan's weary, lonely and psychologically bothered cop, Jim Wilson. Who after finally snapping the patience of his superiors is sent to Westham in the rural north to aid a murder case there. The idea is to get him off the streets he's so bitter about and to stop him finally going over the violence tinged edge. It's here, amongst the wintry landscapes, that he is brought into contact with Mary Malden (Lupino). A practically blind woman, Mary holds all the keys to the mystery and to the door at the end of Wilson's journey. Right from the outset we are in no doubt that Nicholas Ray is about to take us on a noir journey. Herrmann's pulse like score accompanies its nighttime opening, Diskant's photography immediately painting a harsh city where life on the streets is tough. A place where loneliness can eat away at the soul and bleakness pours down off of the bars and the cheaply built apartments. It is in short, firmly encapsulating of Jim Wilson's bitterness and frame of mind. Wilson, once a prime athlete, is mired in solitude, his only telling contribution to society is his work, but that is ebbing away by the day. His mood is not helped by his partners, Pop & Pete, who can easily switch off once their shift has finished; but they have family to go home too, Wilson does not. Wilson's only source of joy comes courtesy of the paperboy he briefly plays football with out on the street (a rare ray of light in the film's moody atmospheric first half). Then the film shifts for its second act, a shift that has made On Dangerous Ground a most divisive picture in discussions over the years. Sent north to effectively cool down by Captain Brawley (Ed Begley), we find Wilson leaving behind the dank city and entering the snowbound countryside in the north. Dark has become light as it were. The whole style and pace of the film has changed, yet this is still a place tainted by badness. A girl has been murdered and Wilson is still here to locate potential evil. An evil that the murdered girls father (Ward Bond as Walter Brent) wants to snuff out with his own vengeful fury. As the two men track down the killer, Wilson sees much of himself in Brent's anger, but once the guys arrive at Mary Malden's isolated cabin, things shift just a little more. Said to be a favourite of Martin Scorsese, and an influence for Taxi Driver, On Dangerous Ground has often been called Nicholas Ray's best film by some of his fans (I'd say In A Lonely Place personally). Odd then that Ray himself wasn't happy with the film, calling it a failure and not the finished product he had envisaged. Ray had wanted a three structured movie, not the two part one it is; with the final third being far bleaker and more noirish than the one we actually get. However, and the ending is a bit scratchy for the genre it sits in, it's still a fabulous film that is more about the journey of its protagonist than the diversity caused by its finale. Ryan is terrific, a real powerhouse and believable performance, while Lupino beautifully realises Mary's serene impact on Wilson and the counter opposite to the darkness within the picture. It's a given really, but Herrmann's score is potent, listen out for the opening, the crossover section from city to countryside and the rock face pursuit. While Ray directs with his customary knack of blending the grim with the almost poetic. 8/10

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