Rating: 
Summary: All star cast in gripping thriller directed by John Sturges
Review: "Bad Day at Black Rock" is a riveting suspense thriller with several memorable performances from a first rate cast. Spencer Tracy (in one of his best roles) excels as John J. MacReedy who is in Black Rock to take a medal to the father of one of his wartime colleagues now that the war is over. He encounters unexpected resentment and hostility from some of the residents, in particular from Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin who make a trio of formidable villains. When threats and intimidation have no effect on Tracy (who doggedly continues to pursue his investigations) the three then resort to violence. Also in the impressive cast are Anne Francis, Walter Brennan, Dean Jagger, John Ericson and Russell Collins. With the help of Brennan and Francis and after surmounting many obstacles Tracy eventually gets the upper hand bringing the film to its exciting climax.Some favourite lines from the film: Spencer Tracy (to train conductor): "Oh, I'll only be here for 24 hours". Train conductor: "In a place like this that could be a lifetime!". Russell Collins (to Spencer Tracy): "Important? It's the first time the streamliner has stopped here in four years". Tracy (to Ernest Borgnine): "You're not only wrong - you're wrong at the top of your voice!". Dean Jagger (to Tracy): "This ain't no information bureau". John Ericson (to Tracy): "If you're in such a hurry you should have never got off here". Tracy: "I'm inclined to agree with you". A brilliant and satisfying film expertly directed by John Sturges who later went on to make other classics including "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape". Sturges was fortunate in having such a remarkably good cast - Borgnine and Marvin in particular were excellent as Robert Ryan's menacing henchmen and Spencer Tracy was at his peak in one of his most powerful and demanding roles ever. He was in fact nominated as Best Actor for his performance in this film but was beaten by Ernest Borgnine for "Marty". "Bad Day at Black Rock" is a tense and captivating film with the action taking place over a tight time period of just 24 hours. Clive Roberts.
Rating:
Summary: All star cast in gripping thriller directed by John Sturges
Review: "Bad Day at Black Rock" is a riveting suspense thriller with several memorable performances from a first rate cast. Spencer Tracy (in one of his best roles) excels as John J. MacReedy who is in Black Rock to take a medal to the father of one of his wartime colleagues now that the war is over. He encounters unexpected resentment and hostility from some of the residents, in particular from Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin who make a trio of formidable villains. When threats and intimidation have no effect on Tracy (who doggedly continues to pursue his investigations) the three then resort to violence. Also in the impressive cast are Anne Francis, Walter Brennan, Dean Jagger, John Ericson and Russell Collins. With the help of Brennan and Francis and after surmounting many obstacles Tracy eventually gets the upper hand bringing the film to its exciting climax. Some favourite lines from the film: Spencer Tracy (to train conductor): "Oh, I'll only be here for 24 hours". Train conductor: "In a place like this that could be a lifetime!". Russell Collins (to Spencer Tracy): "Important? It's the first time the streamliner has stopped here in four years". Tracy (to Ernest Borgnine): "You're not only wrong - you're wrong at the top of your voice!". Dean Jagger (to Tracy): "This ain't no information bureau". John Ericson (to Tracy): "If you're in such a hurry you should have never got off here". Tracy: "I'm inclined to agree with you". A brilliant and satisfying film expertly directed by John Sturges who later went on to make other classics including "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral", "The Magnificent Seven" and "The Great Escape". Sturges was fortunate in having such a remarkably good cast - Borgnine and Marvin in particular were excellent as Robert Ryan's menacing henchmen and Spencer Tracy was at his peak in one of his most powerful and demanding roles ever. He was in fact nominated as Best Actor for his performance in this film but was beaten by Ernest Borgnine for "Marty". "Bad Day at Black Rock" is a tense and captivating film with the action taking place over a tight time period of just 24 hours. Clive Roberts.
Rating:
Summary: Bursts
Review: A superbly-crafted thriller, 'Black Rock' is the archetypal 'small town with something to hide' film. A minor classic, it manages to weave a surprisingly daring anti-racism message (for 1955) into the framework of a slow-boiling thriller. As with 'Assault on Precinct 13' and 'The Terminator' it's also a precisely minimalist example of how to make a film - it has a cast of nine, is filmed mostly on location, and takes place, like an expanded 'High Noon', over a single 24-hour period. There are only a couple of 'action' moments, but the build-up is so intense that they seem shattering. The acting is solid - Spencer Tracy is Spencer Tracy, really, and Ernest Borgnine is cast effectively, and unusually, as a bad guy. This should be out on DVD by now.
Rating:
Summary: An underrated film driven by stupendous acting
Review: Although well directed by John Sturges, this film set immediately after the end of WW II is driven by great performances by a great, great cast. Spencer Tracy's role as the one-armed John J. Macreedy, who has come to Black Rock to deliver a war medal to the father of a Japanese-American hero who died fighting in WW II, is sufficient by itself to have made this a great film. But luckily, it features several other stellar performances, including several of the best tough guys in American film history, Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin, and Ernst Borgnine. The cast is rounded out by the extraordinarily beautiful Anne Francis (a beautiful and not untalented actress who despite a long career never managed a break out role that might have propelled her to stardom), the reliable Dean Jagger, and the great Walter Brennan. Although John Sturges is known as a great action director--and this film does have some great action sequences near the end--this film is driven by interpersonal conflict and confrontational dialog. Nearly every line spoken by one character to another seems to contain a mystery or a threat. As a result, there is an edge to this film from beginning to end. The script is brilliant, with a good mystery but even better dialog. It is impossible to overpraise Spencer Tracy's performance in this one. He is always completely natural in his acting, but no less so in this film playing a one-armed man. He hardly comes across as someone with a handicap, but a tough-as-nails force of nature. As tough as Ryan, Marvin, and the others are in the movie, Tracy can match them grimace-by-grimace.
I'm not sure why this film isn't better known than it is. Given the quality of the performances and the stature of the principle actors, you would think it would be a mainstay on TV and rental shelves. Anyone unfamiliar with this film should do him or herself a favor and get it as soon as they can.
Rating: 
Summary: The First of the Karate Movies!
Review: Before 'Enter the Dragon' and 'Billy Jack' there was 'Bad Day at Black Rock'. Alledgedly, this movie started the first karate craze in the U.S. This is a taut, tense thriller about bigotry, fear, and wasted lives. There are five actors in this movie who won Oscars at one time or another (Spenser Tracy, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnie, Lee Marvin and Dean Jagger). And then there is Robert Ryan who is at his vulpine best. 'Bad Day at Black Rock' is a figure of speech that has entered the vernacular that signifies that one is having a bad day. See this movie and you'll know why the phrase caught on.
Rating:
Summary: Has black rock ever had a good day?
Review: Black Rock. A town out in the middle of nowhere in the California desert. Yet one day, shortly after the end of World War II, an exciting event occurs here. For the first time in four years, the streamliner makes a stop here. Out of it comes one man named Macready (Spencer Tracy), who is also crippled in his left arm. The other townspeople become suspicious when Macready asks to go to Adobe flats to see a Japanese man named Komoko. Macready can't understand why; he's just wants to speak to Komoko about his son, whom Macready served with in Italy. Komoko's son had died defending Macready and, for this, he was awarded a medal that Macready wants to present to Komoko. But something is fishy about this town. It's concealing a secret past, a past that Reno Smith (Robert Ryan) and his henchmen, Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine) and Hector David (Lee Marvin) want to keep secret. "Bad Day at Black Rock" doesn't have too much action. There are a few action scenes, but they are spaced apart. The thing that keeps this movie exciting and suspenseful are the strong, convincing performances. Tracy as the crippled, mysterious and tough loner Macready. Ryan, Borgnine and Marvin are all great as men who want to push Macready over the limit, yet can't seem to faze him. They also run the town, although neither of them is officially sheriff. The real sheriff is a drunken coward played by Dean Jagger. He is also one of the few who befriends Macready. The others include a friendly doctor, T.R Velie, (Walter Brennan) and Liz Wirth (Anne Francis), the sister of Pete Wirth (John Ericson). The music score, cinematography and direction are also excellent. The score gives the movie another emotional level while the photography gives the desert a foreboding look. And the direction is able to keep up the excitement and the pace. The only thing I really hate about this movie is a lack of character development. Many of the people are the same way at the end as they were at the beginning. A few have changed somewhat: Jagger's sheriff becomes less of a coward, for one thing. But Ryan, Borgnine and Marvin switch to be bad guys at the drop of a hat when they first spot Macready. Macready, however, is rather different from other such western heroes of the period. For one thing, he is almost impossible to break. He knows that if he strikes first, the others will beat him up and call self-defense. He also doesn't react because he can't do much with one arm (Or so we think). The movie may serve as a political allegory to the McCarthy Era; Macready was instantly suspected and accused by the townspeople before they could even get to know him. All he had to do was walk into town. The movie also serves as a statement against the racism suffered by Japanese-Americans in World War II. Now some of this is excusable (We shipped them off to internment camps out of paranoia and, contrary to some beliefs, they were not death camps but rather large prisons). But what happened to guys like Komoko is not easy to excuse. I mentioned that the movie has elements of film noir. Macready has the toughness of someone like Sam Spade or Phil Marlowe, yet is also calm and collected. And often, he is a loner. The people in the town, the males at least, are bad guys the like of those that were dealt with by Spade and Marlowe. And Anne Francis as Liz Wirth is, to some extent, a female fatale. She doesn't turn out to be as friendly to Macready as originally thought. And her fate is similar to those that noir tough girls usually got. Film noir. is also a genre concerned with guilt and crime, two things which are definitely part of this town's history. The screenplay was written by Don McGuire and adapted from the short story "Bad Time at Hondo" by Howard Breslin.
Rating: 
Summary: How hokey can you get????
Review: Got this movie from the library, thinking it would be a good watch, even though I am not a fan of Spencer Tracy. To be blunt, I felt this film was a real let down. It started out fine, there was enough interest and suspense in the opening, but then it went downhill pretty fast. To me, it seemed silly that a town could be like this. That the outside phone lines are cut...so NOONE in town can call out? That noone could have left town, under the pretense of visiting relatives or something, and go to the police somewhere and get it all straightened out? Why didn't the folks who weren't involved with the bad thing just leave town and live somewhere else? I mean,there was absolutely NOTHING at Black Rock to miss if you left!! It was just hokey to me all the way thru. The "karate" fight of Spencer and Ernest Borgnine was so silly. Why didn't some of the other men in the room help Borgnine fight him if they really wanted to scare him? And later on, with the jeep scene, it was silly that the man who had the gun just didn't come down from the rocks and shoot Spencer Tracy, who had no gun? But no, first he shoots the only woman we ever saw in the town, and then he hangs out in the rocks, waiting for what, I don't know, but it gives Spencer time to make a fire bomb of sorts out of gasoline and an old bottle, which Spencer just happens to throw perfectly at the bad man with the gun and thus Spencer wins out against the evil men in this town. Sure, the photography was good, the music was a bit out front for my taste ( to me, music should compliment, but not be too obviously heard, as it was here), but the story was just too staged and unreal. It also bugged me that Spencer's "one arm" business didn't seem convincing enough to me; it seemed at times you could see an arm in the supposedly empty sleeve.
Rating:
Summary: A Superior Precursor to Bronson Movies
Review: I first viewed this movie when I was 12 years old and it still holds up, after repeated viewings. Tracy was one of the strongest actors to ever grace the screen and this might have been his greatest performance. The tension builds as he walks into hicktown USA and becomes an immediate target for the local redneck bullies. He has only one arm and is an old guy, so he is perceived as an easy mark. I don't want to spoil the climax, so suffice it to say that perceptions are not always on the mark. This is a great turn by a great screen actor, who had his problems in real life, but never let them get in the way of his work.
Rating:
Summary: Where's the DVD?
Review: I saw this film a couple of times as a kid and never forgot it. It still has the same effect on me. I have a widescreen copy on vhs and recently played it to a friend who is an up and coming film maker. He said it was one of the best movies he'd ever seen and is easily as good, if not better, than anything similar of its type produced today. Personally, I think it would even make a great stage play. It HAS to be seen in widescreen which brings me to the big question for MGM: WHERE IS THE DVD? C'mon, MGM! I hope you guys read these reviews!
Rating:
Summary: A great '50s classic
Review: I would just like to say that this film, which in its original format offers close to 50% more image than what the 'modified to fit your screen' vhs tape does that I went out of my way to purchase a widescreen laserdisc version that MGM released in the mid '90s. A true film buff or anyone with insight would find it difficult to watch otherwise. It is unfortunate that there are still a large number of movies from this era that need to be restored and released on dvd. I am constantly amazed at the number of titles the studios bring out that are basically a waste of time. Understandably many older films need much time and money to restore but the demand is certainly there.Hopefully this and many other classics will one day benefit from the dvd treatment. The Criterion Collection laserdisc version also had a very good commentary as well.
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