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39 out of 42 people found the following comment useful :-
Nicely Crafted., 26 March 2004
Author: Robert J. Maxwell (rmax304823@yahoo.com) from Deming, New Mexico

The first half is noir. Ryan is an embittered cop with violent tendencies, even exceeding those of his comrades. A bit too much of the old ultra violence and he's sent "upstate to Siberia" for a rest, seconded to a rural sheriff trying to find a young murderer. The second half stands in stark contrast to the first. In the course of the chase across snow mountains he meets and falls for Ida Lupino, the blind sister of the perp.

It's not really a crime story but a story about character development, mainly Robert Ryan's. There's little violence in it. But there is a great deal of sadness -- well, loneliness, really, and effectively conveyed by Nick Ray. The man who trusts nobody meets the woman who has to trust everybody. He comes back to her at the end, one of the few good ideas he's had. He's going to turn from the beady eyed monster of the city's streets (all shot at night) into a human being caring for another human being, breathing fresh mountain air. It's going to be difficult but it will work out okay.

Bernard Hermann's score, like the movie, is bifurcated. The chase scenes give us a melody and rythm that he would recycle and use in several science fiction movies and in "North By Northwest." But he lavishes his considerable talents on a simple yet beautiful theme associated with Ida Lupino. (We first hear it when Ryan and Ward Bond break in on her and she sits in a chair.) The lead instrument is a viola da gamba played by Virginia Majewski. The viola is a strange instrument, like an overgrown mutated violin played under the chin. It doesn't have the sparkle of the violin. Nobody's going to play "The Flight of the Bumblebee" on it. But it's tone is dark and rich, like Lupino's character, like the relationship between her and Ryan.

What a neat simple black and white movie. It doesn't shred your mind. It moves along and asks you to move with it, the way Ryan treats Lupino. Very humanistic, very appealing.

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34 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
Poignant study of loneliness ,pain and redemption is a neglected masterpiece, 26 October 2004
Author: DrLenera

Ignored at the time of it's release and still criminally underrated, On Dangerous Ground is a masterpiece from director Nicholas Ray, and maybe his best film {yes, better than Rebel Without A Cause}, a powerful yet poignant study of loneliness, urban alienation and finally redemption. It's both tough and tender, both thrilling and thoughtful, both sad and uplifting. In fact, the film itself is comprised of two halves, and both are simply brilliantly handled.

The first half is classic hard boiled film noir. Set almost entirely at night, Robert Ryan's policeman patrols the streets, getting so sickened by the filth he deals with that he has become dehumanised. As he deals with the gangsters ,the tramps and the thieves, the film has an almost documentary style, but it's also an extremely powerful study of a man caught in limbo, perhaps not that many stages away from Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle.

By contrast, the second half takes place mainly in daylight and forgoes the forbidding city scapes for snowy countryside. Ray gives us two terrific outdoor chase sequences, but just as striking are the beautifully written and played scenes between Ryan and the blind Ida Lupino, this tentative almost-romance between two lonely souls being so incredibly poignant. The last reel is somewhat rushed, due partially to pre-release cutting, and maybe the happy ending is un realistic. However, the final embrace has a tremendous sense of release.

Ryan superbly portrays his character's sickness and gradual melting while the gorgeous Ida Lupino has never looked more vulnerable. Bernard Herrmann's score is one of his best ever, ranging from thrilling hunt music for the chase scenes to music of almost unbearable beauty for Lupino. The score alone is a work of art ,but so is this wonderfully compact {at around 80 mins!}and excellent film.

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28 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
Minor masterpiece film noir/film blanc, 6 October 1999
10/10
Author: wrygrass (wrygrass@hotmail.com) from Washington State

I consider this short, unpretentious film to be a minor masterpiece. The movement from the familiar cityscape of the film noir to the white of the snowy countryside, from the damned, despairing world of the detective to the redeemed world of love offered by the heroine is captured in minimalist dialog and with outstanding cinematography. That one kiss at the end is worth a thousand sex scenes.

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25 out of 26 people found the following comment useful :-
Is it a thriller? Is it a character study? Romance? One of the most interesting movies of the 1950s with another superb performance from Robert Ryan., 20 August 2003
Author: Infofreak from Perth, Australia

'On Dangerous Ground' is a very original and striking movie, one of the most interesting to come out of 1950s Hollywood. The movie is in two halves. The first is urban and sees Robert Ryan play Jim Wilson a brutal but seemingly moral cop who appears to be on the brink of a complete breakdown. His character could well be the toughest cop ever seen on screen until the early 1970s heyday of Dirty Harry and Popeye Doyle,etc. The second half is rural, with Wilson being sent out of the city to investigate the murder of a young girl (shades almost of Stellan Skarsgard in 1997's 'Insomnia'). There he encounters a local blind woman (Ida Lupino), the sister of his number one suspect. The first half is as I said, extremely tough, the second half is ALMOST a mystery (yet it's obvious who the murderer is), and ALMOST a romance (but handled in a very subtle and "unHollywood" way). It's an odd combination but really works because the script lacks cliches, Nicholas "Rebel Without A Cause" Ray's direction is very fresh and inventive, and the acting is first rate. Lupino makes the most of her supporting role, as does Ward Bond ('The Searchers') as the father of the murdered girl, and Sumner Williams as Lupino's disturbed younger brother, but Robert Ryan steals the movie. I'm beginning to regard Ryan as one of the most underrated screen actors of all time. Just watch him in this, the boxing classic 'The Set-Up', 'Crossfire', 'Bad Day At Black Rock', and of course, 'The Wild Bunch' and see what I mean. 'On Dangerous Ground' deserves a much larger audience. Highly recommended.

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23 out of 24 people found the following comment useful :-
The Big Thaw, 9 May 2002
9/10
Author: telegonus from brighton, ma

The Nicholas Ray-A.I. Bezzerides On Dangerous Ground is a modestly budgeted film that tries to be different, and succeeds. Tough, brutal city cop Robert Ryan is sent upstate to help solve a murder case, and also to be got rid of, since he seems to be on the verge of mental breakdown. Along the way he runs into a blind woman, the father of the murdered teen, and a few locals. This is the bare bones of the story, such as it is, which on the surface appears mundane. But writer Bezzerides and director Ray were up to other things, and the crime picture trappings of this film are deceptive. The movie is really about that most modern of issues, alienation, and more generally, anomie, the feeling of displacement, namelessness, uselessness, that so many people have in such a fast-paced and mechanized society as ours. Ryan's character is a solitary, apparently celibate cop, who loves no one, and doesn't even like his job. He has a sense of morality, which is maybe what keeps him going. It also, alas, gets him into hot water with his superiors when he punches out one too many suspects, which is the reason for his being sent upstate, to Siberia, as he puts it. Ida Lupino, the blind woman he falls for, is equally isolated, but more serene. Her intuition tells her that Ryan is far more sensitive than he seems (or even understands), and they become close (but not lovers). She represents his good side, the part of him he has repressed all these years. Ward Bond, as the vengeful father of the murder victim, is like a caricature of Ryan, and also skeptical of him as a "city cop", as he puts it.

There's much to recommend in this film. Bernard Hermann's music is excellent. Ray's handling of the chase scenes in the snow, and his evocation of a small rural community, is masterful. The movie seems a little too short to me, for what it's trying to do, and at times spreads itself too thin. It's at various points a crime film, a romance, a mystery, an action picture and a psychological study. The actors, Ryan in particular, are outstanding. No one could play a brooding loser like he could. His emotional outbursts early on feel almost psychotic. Later, mellowed out in the frozen north (irony of ironies!), his vulnerable side begins to emerge, and he becomes sympathetic to us, and eventually empathetic toward the woman. One senses his cluelessness about what's happening in him emotionally, as we, the audience, get it, and he doesn't. He's almost fragile trying to deal with tender feelings, especially since if he messes up or things go wrong he can't very well punch his way out of this one.

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19 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Worthy of Hitchcock's Finest., 7 June 2000
9/10
Author: 349thHWC from Walnut Creek, CA

The musical score is worthy of Hitchcock's Finest thrillers and is part of what raises this "On Dangerous Ground" to the level of classic film noir. In fact, one might say that it stands on its own as one of the movie's characters - that, plus strong direction and stunning photography with unusual close-ups. For example, the opening shot shows a WOMAN picking up a shoulder holster with a gun in it. Is she some one's long-time gun moll? Is this movie about her?

"On Dangerous Ground" surprises you again and again with its many plot twists and excellent, though sometimes frightening characterizations. Mr. Ryan's character purposely lacks the charm exhibited by tough, film noir leading men like those portrayed by Dick Powell, Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum. And Detective Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) is just too brutal for the audience to admire.

Ida Lupino doesn't come onto the scene until about 37 minutes into the movie. Ms. Lupino takes what could easily be a one-dimensional supporting role, normally given to a second rate actress, and turns Mary Malden into an intelligent, sensitive and complex character.

Ward Bond, the always-competent supporting actor, is excellent as the avenging father. He is so blinded by his loss and rage that he repeatedly misses important clues that are right before his own eyes. Like Mary's blindness, or a critically important fact about the murderer.

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15 out of 18 people found the following comment useful :-
A Film Noir With A Heart, 3 December 2006
9/10
Author: ccthemovieman-1 from Lockport, NY, United States

I liked this better than I thought I would. I read a number of reviews (here, but mostly elsewhere) before seeing it, so I knew the two main things to expect: a hard- hitting film noir in the first half and a melodramatic romance in the second. What I found was an interesting, fairly intense movie for all but the last 10 minutes (but I liked that part, too.) That second half was still a crime story a lot more than any romance as two guys tracked down a killer.

To digress, the first part was in the big city and it portrayed Ryan as a too-gung- ho cop who's fast getting burned out on the job. He's sick of all the punks in the world and just wants to beat the crap out of everyone. When he is one punch away from being suspended and losing his job on a police brutality charge, the boss sends him up north to snow country to find a murderer on the loose in the great outdoors.

That second half isn't some slow melodrama, as it's so often described. It's mostly more adventure as Ryan and Ward Bond track down the killer. Bond, whose daughter was the victim in this crime, is hell-bent for revenge. He makes Ryan like a calm-and-collected guy. Along the way, they meet "Mary Malden" (Ida Lupino), who is the sister of the kid on the run. She's also blind. Ryan befriends her and she pleads with him to promise to bring her brother in unharmed. Her trust in him helps bring about his personality change. You can see he's starting to soften up, become a little more caring toward his fellow man.

The ending of this film is not hokey - either in what happens in the manhunt or what happens to Ryan afterward. It's just a nice job of screen writing. I think this is a fine story, perhaps even underrated. I also think it is one of Ryan's finest acting jobs because he shows callous brutal toughness, loneliness and compassion all in the same film and he shows it convincingly.

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12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Loneliness, Trust and Redemption, 11 June 2008
8/10
Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The lonely and tough Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) is an efficient detective that frequently uses excessive violence to resolve his cases and even his partners do not approve his behavior. While chasing two cop killers, he blows the bladder of another suspect during the interrogation to get the information to catch the assassins. He is warned by his chief Captain Brawley (Ed Begley) to cool off, and when he beats another suspect on the street, Brawley sends him "upstate to Siberia" in the cold Westham to calm down and help the locals in a murder case of a girl. When he arrives, he visits the family of the victim, whose father Walter Brent (Ward Bond) is decided to kill the murderer. They chase the man through the snow, and after a car accident, they reach the isolated house of Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman that lives alone in the middle of nowhere with her brother Danny (Sumner Williams) that has mental problem. Brent and Jim are lodged by Mary to spend the night, and Jim is affected by Mary in a process of humanization and redemption.

"On Dangerous Ground"is a simple movie with a tale of loneliness, trust and redemption developed through two totally different characters that have only loneliness in common. Jim Wilson lives in the big city, is brutal, trusts nobody and is in the edge in his career, acting like a gangster wearing a badge. Mary Malden lives in the countryside, is gentle, has to trust everybody and sacrificed her chance to see again to take care of her mentally unstable brother. The process of humanization of Jim Wilson is depicted through his relationship with Mary and is very touching. Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan have great performances under the direction of Nicholas Ray in this credible story. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Cinzas que Queimam" ("Ashes that Burn")

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12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Nicholas Ray's Tense, Powerful Noir of Redemption..., 13 August 2006
10/10
Author: Ben Burgraff (cariart) from Las Vegas, Nevada

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"On Dangerous Ground", Nicholas Ray's short, yet powerful drama of one cop's journey from destruction to redemption, took nearly two years to reach the screen upon completion, was panned by critics and ignored by audiences when released, and still generates discussion to this day (How much is actually Ray's vision, and how much did Howard Hughes change it, prior to release?) Fortunately, time has given perspective to the film, and it is recognized, today, as one of the greater film noir classics of the era, and a showcase of it's star, the unfairly underrated Robert Ryan.

The film, based on Gerald Butler's "Mad with Much Heart", of a British policeman finding renewal during a manhunt in the English countryside, was rewritten, by director Ray and screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides, into a three-movement 'symphonic' piece: big city cop (Ryan), sliding toward self-destruction as the corruption and filth he deals with, daily, destroys his soul (1st movement); exiled into the mountains to observe and aid in a manhunt, he meets a blind girl (Ida Lupino) with the purity and innocence he once had, and a local (Ward Bond), whose brutal single-mindedness mirrored the man he had become (2nd movement); and his metamorphosis, falling in love, attempting to save the girl's brother instead of simply crushing him, and rediscovering in himself the 'good' man he had been, and could be, again (3rd movement). Contemporary audiences, expecting a straight-forward action tale, couldn't understand this subtle character study (even co-star Ida Lupino called the script 'weak'), but Ray, who loved stories of alienation and spiritual rebirth, particularly in an era when many of his peers were being 'blacklisted' in the Communist 'witch-hunts', refused to sacrifice the richness of characterization and structure, simply to make the tale more 'commercial'. While Howard Hughes' tinkering diluted the symphonic format, somewhat (adding a romantic climax, as Ryan and Lupino end the film in each other's arms), he actually improved the film, clarifying the action, and 'cleaning up' a few ambiguous elements. This is one film where 'too many cooks' didn't ruin the 'recipe'! Of particular importance is the remarkable music score, by Bernard Herrmann. The brilliant composer was returning to Hollywood after conducting the CBS Symphony Orchestra for a few years, and he demanded, and got, an unprecedented amount of control on how his music would be used in the film. The end result was one of his best works, exciting, dramatic, and lushly romantic, and it would foreshadow his equally remarkable score for "North by Northwest".

It would take over thirty years for "On Dangerous Ground" to be recognized as the classic it actually was, and, sadly, many of the principals would never live long enough to see the film receive the attention it deserved. Martin Scorsese called it one of the most influential films on his work ("Taxi Driver" incorporated many of the film's visual and character elements, and would be scored by Bernard Herrmann, as well).

The film is, if not a masterpiece, among the handful of the 'film noir' genre of films that truly deserve to be called 'Classic'!

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Hot headed cop on shaky ground gets rocked, 31 March 2006
8/10
Author: johno-21 from United States

Nicolas Ray who directed a string of good films, most notably In a Lonely Place, Flying Leatjernecks and They live by Night and would become best known for Rebel Without a Cause directed this fine film-noir flick from 1952. He had taken the idea for the story based on the Gerald Butler novel Mad With Much Heart. Ray teamed with Albert Bezzerides for the screenplay who had written They Drive by Night, Desert Fury and Thieves Highway for the screen and would become best known in film for Kiss Me Deadly. He would become better known in television as the creator of the long running western series The Big Valley. Excellent photography in this film from cinematographer George E. Diskant. Robert Ryan is one of Hollywood's most underrated actors and in the staring role of a burnt out city cop on the road to redemption and awakening, turns in yet another great performance. Ida Lupino is another of my favorites and this time around plays a blind woman living alone in rural upstate Mew York. This is a film in two acts that are almost like tow separate films. Part one we find the Ryan character as a violent tough and over the edge cop who once was a popular high school football star and has become burned out in his job and dissatisfied with his lonely small apartment so he hates his job and his life away from work. The first half of the film is mostly night scenes. He is sent by his superiors to cool off in the frozen north and try to help solve a local murder. In the Ward Bond character as the Father of a murdered woman he meets someone even more angry and violent than he is. Bond delivers a strong supporting role performance. Rounding out the fine cast are Ed Begley, Charles Kemper and Anthony Ross. Famed, prolific composer Bernard Hermann provide the musical score. The story might be a little simplistic at times and predictable but it is still a strong film and I would give it an 8.5 out of 10.

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