Underplayed Gems

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)

Bad Day at Black Rock poster
Directed by
John Sturges
Genre
drama film, crime film, mystery film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 21m
Rated
NR
Rating
7.3 of 10 from 422 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

A one-armed stranger arrives in a small desert town in 1945. He soon discovers a dark secret that the entire community is hiding.

tensesuspensefulclaustrophobicslow-burnbleakgrittybroodingunsettling

What happens

Bad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 American neo-Western film directed by John Sturges with screenplay by Millard Kaufman. It stars Spencer Tracy and Robert Ryan with support from Anne Francis, Dean Jagger, Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. The film is a crime drama set in 1945 that contains elements of the revisionist Western genre. In the plot, a one-armed stranger (Tracy) comes to a small desert town, and uncovers an evil secret that has corrupted the entire community. The film was based on a short story called "Bad Time at Honda" by Howard Breslin, published by The American Magazine in January 1947. Filming began in July 1954 and the movie went on national release in January 1955. It was a box office success, and was nominated for three Academy Awards in 1956. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.