Noirvember Watch: On Dangerous Ground (1951)

Watched:  11/20/2024

Format:  Criterion

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Nicholas Ray - w/ Ida Lupino

It's a Noirvember to Remember, and I am way behind on my noir intake.  I am also way behind on my Ida Lupino intake, in general.  

I'd watched this one previously on Noir Alley, and liked it pretty well.  On a second viewing, I think I appreciated it more - likely because I knew where and how Lupino was showing up, and I wasn't halfway through a movie wondering where the hell the co-star was.

I can't always account for how some movies stick with you, but certainly the imagery in this movie has come back to me in ways I wasn't really expecting from the first time I saw the movie.  The film moves between a post-war noir setting of urban squalor to the snowy mountains of Colorado, shot on location.  Ryan in his city-cop coat chasing down our killer in two sequences against the natural backdrop is something.  As is the darkened cottage where where Lupino lives, with her tactile posts to guide her through her own home.

It doesn't hurt that both Ryan and Lupino are memorable in almost any role.

In the time since I'd seen the movie, I'd forgotten about the killer score by Bernard Hermann - which I discuss a bit more in my first visit with the film.  

The structure of this film is, admittedly, very odd.  The first act is almost it's own, overly complex film about Robert Ryan as a cop on the edge - who has let the job of being a cop get to him after more than a decade.  What could have probably been illustrated as a few scenes of Ryan roughing up crooks for information becomes its own story about Ryan chasing down witnesses, grabbing the wrong guy, and - I think I missed the first time - clearly having sex with Cleo Moore to get her to spill information.  Moore's thanks for her participation is her getting her killed (I am very turned around on Moore these days.  I used to shrug if she showed up, but no longer!).

Twice Ryan is brought in for things like - kicking the spleen out of an informant.  So - you know, things are not good with Ryan, and his colleagues suggest he needs a life outside of police work to remember life is not just crooks and crime.

By the way - This is the first act!  The set-up!  

This portion of the film is an interesting mix of studio filming at its best and some more immediate - seemingly hand-held shots that maybe we're influenced by Naked City or documentary.  It has a particularly gritty feel Ray was playing with.

The second half takes us out of the city, when Ryan is sent to both cool off from his ACAB-type behavior and gets sent "upstate" to help track down a person who killed a young woman/ girl, and the locals are understandably furious about it.

Ryan brings his "I cannot wait to kick the shit out of this guy" vibe with him, and with the victim's father, Ward Bond, chases him across a couple of counties in the snow.  This is a lot of the imagery that really stuck with me, by the way - filmed near Granby, Colorado.

Taking the cop out of his environment and dropping him in a new one turns his world over a bit - and he sees in the girl's grieving father how fury can drive you to make bad decisions.  They track the killer to a lonely house where they find a blind woman, Lupino, living seemingly alone.  And, for the first time, Ryan thinks he's met someone untouched by the world he's been living in and falls for her, wordlessly.

requisite Lupino pic

It does turn out she's protecting her brother, who she always knew needed help.  She asks Ryan to bring him in without killing him, but Ward Bond is still bent on murder.

Contemporary reviews are not particularly kind.  Modern reviews are much more so, and I think this movie does play better on a second viewing, and to an audience with notions of who Nicholas Ray, Ida Lupino and Robert Ryan are in your head.  This is a movie about turning away from anger and rage and not so much that the love of a good woman will fix you, but understanding that the world can be good if you look for it and embrace it.  That's a pretty good message.

Curiously, the ending is tacked on.  It wasn't how the movie was supposed to go, but Lupino and Ryan improved a scene - and it works.  If the movie were simply about "whoops, lonely people die of loneliness" I'm not sure that's actually a story unless you're a mopey 20-something.  Maybe it's noir, but there's no real angle there.  I do wish the denouement lasted a bit longer, or we got a little more about these two needing each other despite what just happened.  It's implied, but not carried very far, especially after a lengthy first act.  And so it's not a homerun by any measure, but... I'll take it.

So, yeah, the movie is trying for something a little poetic, and I dig it.  I dig the melodramatic poetry of what Ray is doing with the frigid world of loneliness, the cozy cabin, etc...  Maybe Lupino's character is too perfect, but she's still got some things going on that give her something to work with.  

Oh - fun fact.  Lupino was only starring in the movie, but when director Nicholas Ray fell ill, Lupino put on her director's cap and stepped in for him. I'm assuming this was for the stuff in the cabin, but who knows?  Lupino handles thrillers just fine, but that's when she was on set most.