The One-Armed Detective – Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

Not taking kindly to strangers. So this is about a one-armed man (Spencer Tracy) who comes to the small town of Black Rock. He’s looking for a man named Komoko, but all of the residents seem determined to hinder his search. What is going on here? Now I didn’t know a ton about this one, as it’s not one of the more popular Westerns to circulate in conversations. I just wanted to keep my string of Westerns going, and I saw that it was rated favorably. I also love a movie that is short and sweet. You can’t beat 81 minutes, so I decided to rent this one. Bad Day at Black Rock may work better as a crime mystery than it does a traditional Western, but I still loved what I saw.

A town that is filled with jerks.

Now it does not take long for you to recognize that this town has some bad vibes about it. It’s plain to see that there is something rotten just beneath the surface, so much so that I even entertained the possibility that this may be a fake town set up for some nefarious purpose. It’s not a large establishment, and the fact that everybody seems in on what appears to be a cover-up only bolsters that idea. The mystery keeps you hooked with this one, and the whole time you want to know what the big secret is. Could this be a Murder on the Orient Express situation? Or is there more to this stranger than meets the eye? Every character in this has personality, and you’ve got some reasonably big names in small parts. Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin play the role of enforcer muscle in this, and they light up the screen whenever they appear. There’s just something about Lee Marvin that is just manliness incarnate, and he has so much screen presence that you can never take your eyes off him. This is also my first Spencer Tracy film, and I think this served as a worthy introduction for me.

The fact that he gets to keep a hand in his pocket at all times just adds to the cool factor.

Like I said before, this finds more success at being a crime mystery, and it is only ostensibly a Western. Yes, it takes place in the desert, and there are cowboy hats, but that’s about it. There are cars instead of horses, and the script deviates from the pack as far as traditional Western story structure goes. I was still invested from start to finish, and when one man takes on all the animosity of an entire town, there is sure to be electric friction. I enjoyed Bad Day at Black Rock from start to finish, and it didn’t even have the chance at outstaying its welcome.

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) ****

– Critic for Hire