Saturday, March 12, 2016

Another TCM Movie Night: On Dangerous Ground

We're still working our way slowly through our TCM films noir. For the most part, it's taken long because I want to pay attention to the films. Often I watch TV or movies while doing other things.

On Dangerous Ground stars Robert Ryan, Ida Lupino and Ward Bond. I didn't like it.

I couldn't root for any of the characters. Ryan is too violent and out-of-control even for his fellow cops. Lupino is covering for a murderer because he's her brother, Bond is a gun blazing father haphazardly looking for revenge, shooting at everything in sight.

The acting was good, but Lupino as a blind person bothered me. I'm no expert, but in other movies blind people knew their own surroundings. Lupino lurches from landmark to landmark, feeling her way across the room. Maybe that was the way films treated the blind in 1951.

The film's happy ending felt tacked on. Because it was. The TCM host explained that the original ending was too downbeat, and the studio required a new ending. 

I did enjoy Bernard Hermann's score.

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