On Dangerous Ground

As this movie begins, it is truly a great film noir. Tense, quick moving with great characters. Then Ida Lupino shows up. This starts a long slow love interest sub plot that really brings the movie down. Lupino plays her part oddly too -- practically whispering her lines every time she has something to say. And nothing startles her, which is even odder. She just plays her role like an automaton. Bummer. Watching this movie, it's almost as if there were two directors -- a talented on one who directed the first third, and then an incompetent one for the remaining two thirds.. This could have been a truly great movie if it was written differently and directed differently.

Tough city cop Wilson begins to let the crime get to him and is sent upstate to work on a sex crime in a small rural town. When there he meets Mary and begins to realise that not everyone is like the criminals and rediscovers his humanity. This is a nice film - very short and with the simple subplot of redemption and rediscovery. The story in the city is very gritty and paints Wilson as a forerunner to Dirty Harry. Upstate the pursuit of the criminal is tense but is mixed with the Mary story well. Ryan makes a great performance as Wilson, but Lupino is not always convincing as blind Mary. The romance between the two happens too quickly and is less convincing than Wilson's returning belief in human nature. A performance worth noting is Ed Begley - father of the junior of the same name. Overall a tense drama with a uplifting redemption towards the end. Despite the short running time only the final bit feels rushed.