“Bad Day At Black Rock” is the
January Film Classic in Bigfork
The opening film, for the 2019
Classic Movie Series in Bigfork is one that has an unusual number of stars in
it. Starting with Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan as the headliners, you
can add Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, Lee Marvin and Ernest
Borgnine. That is a lot of talent for even the big screen to handle. The
title is “Bad Day at Black Rock”. It is a 1955 thriller film that combines
elements of both the western and film noir genre in a mixed story about a
stranger arriving in a small desert community who stirs up quite a storm for
the residents to handle. The cast is predominantly male and the action
fast and furious at just the right times. With Tracy as a one-armed war veteran as the star
who can take very good care of himself. The soft side is only in the fact
that he is trying to find the father of a Japanese-American veteran who saved
his life in the Pacific war to give him his son's medal. This January Movie
Classic will be shown at the Edge Theater in Bigfork by Jack Nachbar. It will
be accompanied by Jack’s presentation providing a better understanding of the
time period of the movie. Date: Thursday January 10th .
Time: 6:30PM. Price: FREE of charge
The film was released only 10 years after the war ended. The
country was still in a “healing” mode. Good movie, good cast, lots of
audience acceptance, positive reviews, awards, nominations and a profit for the
studio. A good one to see and it is hard for me not to tell you more because of
the really good plot. Just a little trivia about this film: the studio wanted
to call it “Bad Day at Hondo”, but John Wayne had just made the movie “Hondo”
and there might be some confusion. The title came about when a studio staff person
was on a train going by a town called “Black Rock” in California , where a lot of movie work was
done, and the ideas came together: they called the movie a “Bad Day at Black
Rock.”
Spencer Tracy was “cool” to the
idea of doing the movie. But when they made the character both with one arm and
a real tough guy, he could not turn it down. The fact that he was a
“mysterious stranger” showing in a small town with probably no reason to be
there, made the close-knit town nervous anyway and allowed the movie to have
its mysterious “edgyness.”. And then there is his reason for being there: to
put a medal on the grave of a Japanese-American serviceman. Who knows how he
died and why? All good plot builders.
In 2018 the film was selected for
preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of
Congress for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically
significant."
Here is a little about the movie
that Bosley Crowther said in his February 2, 1955 review of this movie.
“The streamliner hasn't stopped in
four years, and apparently few people ever pass through. Especially are they
wary of this stranger when they discover that he is interested in a certain
Japanese farmer who they tell him left town a few years back. They wonder if he
is a detective, seeing how he noses around. And he, in turn, wonders darkly why
everyone is so hostile toward him. Slowly, through a process of guarded
discourse, which Director John Sturges has built up by patient, methodical
pacing of his almost completely male cast, an eerie light begins to
glimmer….”
Come and see a film that has met the test of time and is a
good movie. And also why the town was so suspicious. Place:
The Edge Center for the Arts, Bigfork. Date
and time: Thursday the10th at 6:30PM. It will
be worth going to Bigfork, because Jack will provide you with background about
the movie and a cartoon. An appropriate snack will be served courtesy of
Jack and his wife/projectionist, Lynn. The Classic Movie Series is part of the
District 318 Adult Education Program.