On Dangerous Ground

A police film that takes place in two separate worlds. Jim Wilson is a detective in the city. He spends his nights in the street, beats people in interrogations and his colleagues warn him. He lives alone and has nothing besides the work; the anger comes from that. When one incident goes too far his superior sends him out of the city. He is sent to snow country in the north, where a girl has been killed and the local men are looking for the killer. The girl's father has taken his gun and gone after him; he wants revenge, not justice. Wilson sees his own anger in someone else. The trail leads them to a house. The woman living there is blind and is the sister of the man they want. The second half takes place entirely in that house and the register changes. The city section is hard and fast, the snow section quiet and slow; the two halves are nothing alike and the film builds that difference on purpose. Robert Ryan plays Wilson and Ida Lupino the woman. Ward Bond is in the cast. Bernard Herrmann wrote the music, and the passage under the chase is one of his most remembered. Nicholas Ray directed. An interesting production for anyone who likes noir and narratives that break the patterns of a genre. For a viewer expecting a police film in one register, this turns into a completely different film halfway through.