On Dangerous Ground
| On Dangerous Ground | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by |
Nicholas Ray Ida Lupino (uncredited) |
| Produced by | John Houseman |
| Screenplay by |
A. I. Bezzerides Nicholas Ray |
| Based on | the novel Mad with Much Heart by Gerald Butler |
| Starring |
Ida Lupino Robert Ryan Ward Bond |
| Music by | Bernard Herrmann |
| Cinematography | George E. Diskant |
| Edited by | Roland Gross |
| Distributed by | RKO Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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82 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
On Dangerous Ground is a 1951 film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and produced by John Houseman. The screenplay was written by A. I. Bezzerides based on the novel Mad with Much Heart, by Gerald Butler. The drama features Ida Lupino, Robert Ryan, Ward Bond, and others.
Bitter, cynical police detective, Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan), is known for beating information out of suspects and witnesses. His violent tendencies are noticed by both his partners and the police chief. After Wilson ignores the Chief's warnings, he is relegated to a case up-state so that he might cool off. He joins a manhunt for a killer—teaming with the father of the victim, Walter Brent (Ward Bond). Wilson and Brent are separated from the others in the manhunt and track the killer to a remote house.
Initially, they do not locate the killer, but, rather, find Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman by herself in the house. They learn that she lives with her brother, Danny (Sumner Williams). Wilson is drawn to Malden and her selflessness and, when he learns that the killer is her brother and that he is mentally ill, he offers to protect him from Brent.
New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther found the screenplay a failure that produced poor performances. He wrote, "the story is a shallow, uneven affair, as written by A. I. Bezzerides from Gerald Butler's Mad With Much Heart. The cause of the cop's sadism is only superficially explained, and certainly his happy redemption is easily and romantically achieved. And while a most galling performance of the farmer is given by Ward Bond, Ida Lupino is mawkishly stagey as the blind girl who melts the cop's heart. For all the sincere and shrewd direction and the striking outdoor photography, this R. K. O. melodrama fails to traverse its chosen ground."
Fernando F. Croce, film critic for Slant magazine, liked the film and wrote, "Perched between late-'40s noir and mid-'50s crime drama, this is one of the great, forgotten works of the genre... Easily mushy, the material achieves a nearly transcendental beauty in the hands of Ray, a poet of anguished expression: The urban harshness of the city is contrasted with the austere snowy countryside for some of the most disconcertingly moving effects in all film noir. Despite the violence and the steady intensity, a remarkably pure film."
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