ON DANGEROUS GROUND

One of Nicholas Ray's masterpieces and certainly his most underrated film. It begins in the mean streets of the city where Robert Ryan is a brutalizing cop who likes to beat confessions out of suspects. When he goes too far he finds himself reposted to a small, snowbound town which is in complete contrast to the sleazy city streets he's left. He's there to help in the investigation of a young girl's murder and soon finds himself becoming romantically involved with a blind woman he meets, (a superb Ida Lupino).

It's a highly unusual picture in which the murder becomes secondary to the study of Ryan's character and Ryan is simply magnificent here. He's always at his best as taciturn loners with a mean streak and several chips on his shoulders and he's matched by Lupino in her most beautifully understated performance. Essentially classed as a film noir, thanks largely to George E. Diskant's superb black-and-white cinematography and Bernard Herrmann's score, it is rather a psychological thriller about two people who discover their true nature in the way in which they interact with each other. It was adapted by Ray and A.I. Bezzerides from Gerald Butler's novel "Mad With Much Heart".