Bad Day at Black Rock

Theatrical Release Date: 1955 02 01 (USA)

UPC: 012569690226

Studio: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Violence, Questionable for Children, Western Violence]

Summary: This powerfully tense, fast-paced suspense drama also yields a grim social message about racial prejudice. Spencer Tracy is John J. MacReedy, a one-armed stranger who comes to the tiny town of Black Rock one hot summer day in 1945, the first time the train has stopped there in years. He looks for both a hotel room and a local Japanese farmer named Komoko, but his inquiries are greeted at first with open hostility, then with blunt threats and harassment, and finally with escalating violence. MacReedy soon realizes that he will not be allowed to leave Black Rock; town boss Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), who had Komoko killed because of his hatred of the Japanese, has also marked MacReedy for death. MacReedy must battle town thugs, a treacherous local woman (Anne Francis), and finally Smith himself to stay alive. The entire cast is flawless, especially Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin as the mean-spirited town bullies, and the relentlessly paced action never eclipses the film's sobering themes. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

Category: Thriller

Awards: Best Film - Any Source – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences International Prize- Best Actor – Cannes Film Festival Best Picture – National Board of Review

Features: ccCommentary by film historian Dana Polan
Theatrical trailer
Languages: English & Fran?ais
Subtitles: English, Fran?ais & Espa?ol

Bad Day at Black Rock

Format: Digital Video Disc (DVD)

Release Date: 05/10/2005

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono, DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo

Runtime: 81 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French

Subtitles: English,French,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
1. Credits [1:42]
2. Macreedy Arrives [3:28]
3. Crowding the Newcomer [4:18]
4. Out of Gas [4:14]
5. No Further Questions [4:15]
6. Transportation [3:47]
7. Infection and Prescription [6:56]
8. Adobe Flat [2:38]
9. Road Hog [3:45]
10. What's Wrong With This Town? [3:41]
11. Two Big Men [5:54]
12. Consumed With Apathy [3:23]
13. Upsetting Wires [4:00]
14. Picking a Fight [5:40]
15. Legal Maneuvers [3:47]
16. Jumping-Off Place [4:27]
17. Backstories [3:34]
18. Getaway After Dark [3:11]
19. Under Fire [2:20]
20. Flame Thrower [3:07]
21. Something to Build On [2:37]
22. Cast List [:34]

Brendon Hanley

Director John Sturges received his only Academy Award nomination for his work on 1955's Bad Day at Black Rock. Sturges is best-known for his action-suspense movies (Gunfight at the OK Corral, The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape); in his hands, the story of Bad Day at Black Rock -- a good-guy stranger comes to town and ends up the object of town hatred -- slowly comes to a boil. The film is similar in its ever-increasing intensity to many westerns, most notably Fred Zinnemann's High Noon. Archetypal good-guy Spencer Tracy is his usual honorable self, though without any of the characteristic whimsy; he was nominated for his fifth Oscar for the role, and was named best actor by the Cannes Film Festival and the New York Film Critics. Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin also deliver distinguished performances as Tracy's antagonistic enemies. Screenwriter Millard Kaufman was nominated for his second Academy Award, the first of which was for his previous effort, Take the High Ground. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Howard Hoffman  Producer 
Millard Kaufman  Screenwriter 
Don McGuire  Screenwriter 
Andre Previn  Composer (Music Score) 
Dore Schary  Producer 
John Sturges  Director 
Spencer Tracy  Actor 
Robert Ryan  Actor 
Anne Francis  Actor 
Dean Jagger  Actor 
Walter Brennan  Actor 
John Ericson  Actor 
Ernest Borgnine  Actor 
Lee Marvin  Actor 
Russell Collins  Actor 
Walter Sande  Actor 

Country: USA