- Joined
- Feb 8, 1999
- Messages
- 18,426
- Real Name
- Robert Harris
If you've ever Amtrak'd across America, you'll recognize the tiny almost non-town of Black Rock, as one of those places that almost isn't.
A handful of buildings, just off the tracks, that could be a ghost town, or something still functioning, that's at the very edge of society.
From a credit perspective, you'll find that Bad Day at Black Rock is yet another Dore Schary production -- he also produced Battleground.
You'll undoubted note that director John Sturges makes wonderful use of early CinemaScope frame, as he did for The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. More in exteriors than interiors, the cast fills the wide frame in a natural way, that some other filmmakers were yet to figure out.
It's a simple story of an unknown man, played by the great Spencer Tracy, arriving in town, on a train the never stops there. Why he's there, the secret held by the locals, and what they have in mind is the basis of this wonderful film.
It's a small film, with just a handful of wonderful players, directed in typical Sturges fashion.
Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin round out the cast.
While I saw this film theatrically, I have no memory of how it looked or sounded.
The new Blu-ray is typically for Warner Archive, superb.
Produced from a recent interpositive derived from the original negative, colors, density, grain and stability, make this an extraordinary experience for anyone seeing this for the first time.
Audio is 2-track (left/right) stereo, as the original 4-track mag did not survive.
Image - 5
Audio - 5
4k Up-rez - 5
Pass / Fail - Pass
Highly Recommended
RAH
A handful of buildings, just off the tracks, that could be a ghost town, or something still functioning, that's at the very edge of society.
From a credit perspective, you'll find that Bad Day at Black Rock is yet another Dore Schary production -- he also produced Battleground.
You'll undoubted note that director John Sturges makes wonderful use of early CinemaScope frame, as he did for The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape. More in exteriors than interiors, the cast fills the wide frame in a natural way, that some other filmmakers were yet to figure out.
It's a simple story of an unknown man, played by the great Spencer Tracy, arriving in town, on a train the never stops there. Why he's there, the secret held by the locals, and what they have in mind is the basis of this wonderful film.
It's a small film, with just a handful of wonderful players, directed in typical Sturges fashion.
Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin round out the cast.
While I saw this film theatrically, I have no memory of how it looked or sounded.
The new Blu-ray is typically for Warner Archive, superb.
Produced from a recent interpositive derived from the original negative, colors, density, grain and stability, make this an extraordinary experience for anyone seeing this for the first time.
Audio is 2-track (left/right) stereo, as the original 4-track mag did not survive.
Image - 5
Audio - 5
4k Up-rez - 5
Pass / Fail - Pass
Highly Recommended
RAH
