"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'!
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'!