Bad Day at Black Rock

original title:
Bad Day at Black Rock
other titles:
(Stadt in Angst)
country / year of production:
original length:
81 min. , color
premiere:
7 January 1955
based on:
Howard Breslin. Bad Day at Hondo.
New York: Fawcett Publications, 1954.
director:
producer:
cinematographer:
composer:
plot synopsis:
The arrival of a one-armed stranger at the tiny station of Black Rock is no diversion the villagers are to fond of; they met him with open distrust and hostility. Macreedy, that is the name of the stranger, even has a hard time finding a hotel room. As he inquires the sheriff on Komoko, a farmer of Japanese decent, he is given an obviously false answer: the sheriff claims the man has been deported during the Second World War. Macreedy wants to visit Komoko to hand out a medal his dead son, a comrade of Macreedy, was awarded. He therefore tries to find the disappeared Japanese whwo has become the victim of a vile crime: On the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Habour he was killed on his farm. The murderer and his confidants now have to reckon to be trialed for their deed, if Macreedy informs the state police. With all means necessary they attempt to prevent him from doing so. So save Macreedy from also being killed a young girl offers to take him away in her jeep, not forebording that she leads him to a trap. The girls is shot, but Macreedy stands up to his adversaries and eventually manages to bring them behind bars.
literature:
remarks:
John Sturges, Spencer Tracy and Millard Kaufman were all nominated for an Oscar in 1956. But only Tracy was awarded as best actor a year later at the Cannes Film Festival.
availability:
VHS, DVD