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On Dangerous Ground (1951)
In Nicholas Ray's classic, black and white, noirish
rogue-cop drama, with a memorable, bold and moody Bernard Herrmann
score:
- the portrayal of embittered, repressed, sadistic,
violently-brutal and relentless veteran, urban NYC cop Jim Wilson
(Robert Ryan), a lonely, hardened workaholic bachelor living by
himself in a tenement apartment; in one of his first encounters
during a night patrol, a flirtatious underaged teen prostitute
propositioned him: "Hello, junior. How's about buying me a
drink? I'm all dry" - but he was disgusted by her
- Wilson's partner Bill "Pop" Daly (Charles
Kemper) noted how Wilson was becoming more difficult to work with: "He's
sore, all right. All we ever see is crooks, murderers, winos, stoolies,
dames. All with an angle. You get so you think everybody's like that.
Till you find out different, it's kind of a lonely life... Jim just
takes it harder than the rest of us"
- in a frightening scene, after bursting into a grungy
Harbor Hotel waterfront room and threatening a low-life thug Bernie
Tucker (Richard Irving), sado-masochistic cop Wilson insisted that
he be left alone to viciously beat him up to force him to betray
his criminal partners Mushy Castro and Gordy Miller, two cop-killers;
Wilson shouted with a hint of self-arousal and compulsiveness: "You're
gonna make me crack you, aren't you?...Why do you make me do it?
You know you're gonna talk! I'm gonna make you talk! I always make
you punks talk! Why do you do it? Why? Why?"; his partner "Pop" questioned
his meanness:
"What's the matter with you, Jim?"
- Police Captain Brawley (Ed Begley) chided and reprimanded
Wilson for his brutality and violent vigilante tendencies toward
Bernie Tucker who had suffered a ruptured bladder (and subsequently
his lawyer threatened a civil suit):
"You let yourself get out of hand...Another deal like this, and
you know what it means...Take it easy"; Wilson was threatened
with being removed from the force
- after the warning, shortly later, Wilson pursued and
beat up another 'goon' who was caught murdering female informer in
an alleyway, gangster moll Myrna Bowers (Cleo Moore) - Wilson's partner "Pop" reminded
him of his jeopardized position: "You know what Brawley told
you when he put you back on the job. What are you trying to do? Get
thrown off the force?"; Wilson portrayed his frustration with
his job: "Okay, so I get thrown off the force. What kind of
a job is this anyway? Garbage - that's all we handle, garbage"
- Wilson asked how "Pop" coped with the lonely
profession: "How do you do it? How do you live with yourself?";
"Pop" replied: "I don't. I live with other people"; "Pop" chided
Wilson for his personal brutality: "When I go home, I don't take
this stuff with me. I leave it outside. But you, the way you carry
it around inside, you must like it. Maybe you think that makes you
a good cop. The way you're goin', you won't be good to anybody. Not
even yourself! Somebody had to tell ya. To get anything out of life,
you gotta put something in it. From the heart"
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Thug Bernie Tucker
(Richard Irving)
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To Bernie Before Beating Him Up: "Why do
you make me do it?"
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Wilson: "Garbage - that's all we handle,
garbage"
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"What are you trying to do? Get thrown off
the force?"
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- for being unruly, acting as "judge, jury and
executioner,"
and for 11 years on the job as a "gangster with a badge," Brawly
reassigned (or banished) Wilson to an upstate NY investigation in
the wintry, rural northern community and mountain town of Westham:
the sexually-induced murder (after a rape and knifing) of Sally Brent,
a teenaged girl whose body was left on the side of the road; Wilson
was paired with the victim's vengeful, vigilante father Walter Brent
(Ward Bond) who wielded a shotgun [Note: Brent was Wilson's own raging
mirror-image]
- upon meeting Wilson who was asking lots of questions,
Brent threatened to kill the murderer by himself without any judicial
process: "You ain't gonna ask no questions. We've asked them
all and we know the answers. It was my kid. And it's gonna be my
gun that takes care of him when we get him...I'll get him, don't
you worry. And when I do, there won't be any of your city stuff.
No fancy trials. No sob sisters. I'm just gonna empty this shotgun
in his belly. Anybody tries to stop me will get the same thing"
- the manhunt by Brent and Wilson through deep snow
led them to the remote cabin of kind, tolerant, self-sacrificing,
loving, extremely evasive and blind Mary Malden (Ida Lupino) - she
later revealed that she was protective of her mentally-ill and unstable,
immature brother Danny (Sumner Williams) - the prime murder suspect,
and he was hiding in a storm cellar; she feared he would either be
killed by Brent or captured and incarcerated in an institution
- after becoming acquainted with Wilson and feeling
his face to get to know him ("You can tell a lot of things about
a person from his name. And his voice too. If only I could really
see you. If I could be sure. You can't make me tell you. I don't
have to (tell you)... where he is"), she entreated him to protect
her brother: "My brother's name is Danny. I know he has to be
caught. But if Brent catches him, he'll kill him. With you, he'd
be safe. Please, promise me he'll be safe. Danny isn't like other
people. Sometimes he's all right, other times he's...I knew something
terrible had happened. I want to do what's best for him. Anything
I can to help him. He's my brother. But I don't want Brent and the
others hunting him down like some animal. You'll see that they take
care of him, won't you? You will, won't you? Please promise me";
all that Wilson could do was say: "As long as he's with me,
nobody will hurt him. That's all I can promise...I can't promise
things that aren't in my power, but I won't let him be hurt"
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Touching Wilson's Face to Get to Know Him
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Pleading with Wilson to Not Hurt Her Brother Danny
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"As long as he's with me, nobody will hurt
him. That's all I can promise"
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- the confrontation scene when Wilson came face-to-face
with Danny threatening him with a knife; Wilson attempted to calm
him:
"I don't wanna kill you, Danny. Why would I wanna kill you?" -
and he tried to persuade him that Mary wanted him to be taken away
peacefully; Danny explained how Mary had denied herself an operation
to restore her sight in order to stay with him and protect him ("She
wouldn't go because of me"); he also admitted to the crime: "She
had a blue dress. She was laughing. When she saw me, she stopped
laughing. There were two of them. The other ran away. She wouldn't
smile. I wanted her to smile, but she wouldn't. I tried to make her
smile"; their conversation was interrupted when Brent burst
in and fired his shotgun
- the concluding scene of a chase after fugitive Danny
up an icy rocky cliff and his sudden fall to his death - as Brent
and Wilson looked down at the boy's body in the snow, Brent was aghast: "He's
just a kid, that's all he is. Just a kid"
- after Wilson told Mary about Danny's accidental death,
she offered a tearful prayer for her dead brother: "Father,
hear my prayer. Forgive him as you have forgiven all your children
who have sinned. Don't turn your face from him. He didn't know what
he was doing. Bring him at last to rest in your peace which he could
never have found here"
- the sentimental concluding scenes showed Wilson's
growing, semi-compromising infatuation with his romantic savior Mary;
although he wanted to help her now that she was alone, she stressed
her independence to him and told him: ("Leave me alone! You
don't have to worry about me....You're feeling sorry for me. I don't
want anyone feeling sorry for me. Why don't you go? The way you are,
I don't see how you can help anybody") - she bumped into items
in her living room and fell to the floor, but he acquiesed to her
demands and left when she insisted that he go
- while driving back to the city, Wilson had a change
of heart; he recollected Mary's voice-over: "Sometimes, people
who are never alone are the loneliest. Most lonely people try to
figure it out, about loneliness"; he also heard "Pop's" earlier
warning:
"Somebody had to tell ya. The way you're goin', you won't be good
to anybody. Not even yourself! Somebody had to tell ya. To get anything
out of this life, you gotta put somethin' in it. From the heart!" -
he was ultimately redeemed with an awakened humanity by her when he
decided to leave his self-destructive job, and drive back north to
be with her
- the final image - the two of them joined outstretched
hands on the stairs in her home, in the tacked-on, upbeat ending
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NYC Cop Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) Propositioned by a Teenaged
Prostitute in a Bar
Chasing the Suspect Through Deep Snow to Remote
Cabin in Upper State NY
Wilson with Vigilante Father Walter Brent - Speaking
to Mary: "We're lookin' for a - killer!"
Blind Mary Malden
(Ida Lupino)
Fugitive Danny, Mary's Brother, Threatening Wilson with
a Knife
Danny's Fall to His Death - Brent's Reaction: "Just
a kid!"
Wilson Revealing News of Danny's Death to Mary
Mary's Prayer Over Her Brother's Body
Driving Back to the City - Change of Heart
Ending: Mary's and Wilson's Outstretched Hands
Joined
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