Very disappointed :(

Memorable, crazy movie

Great Film overall

Expected more

Nicholas Ray with an assist from Ida Lupino directed this offbeat noir where halfway in the story moves from the form's comfort zone of the metropolis to the great outdoors. The darkness that drives it remains however. Detective Joe Wilson (Robert Ryan) is experiencing burn out at an alarming rate. He gets results but brutalizes suspects in the process forcing his chief to farm him out to work on an ugly homicide case in the boondocks. There he encounters the rage filled mirror image (Ward Bond) of a grieving father while having to adopt different methodology in questioning a suspect's blind sister (Ida Lupino).On Dangerous Ground offers up the quintessional Ray protagonist in the alienated Wilson played with disturbing menace by Ryan. His chilling attempt to stay in check before exploding reeks with unglued intimidation. Bond and Lupino hold their own with Ryan in what is basically a three character film while director Ray maintains a steady pace that is powerfully informed by Bernard Hermann's re-lentless score.

My TV was still tuned to TCM from the night before, so when I hit the remote to watch the morning news, the first image I had was of what I thought was a gritty, gumshoe tale. A glimpse of Robert Ryan kept me from switching channels, and when I clicked for more info on the remote and saw the summary, and the name: Ida Lupino, there was no turning away. The most compelling parts of this film is the story's attempt (probably maintained from the novel upon which the film is based) to explain the hardness and inhumanity which can occur when you're a cop. Jaded, and now dangerous, cop Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) doesn't have an outlet to balance the harshness of the tough, city streets he prowls everyday. Even his fellow cops point out that he needs to find a way not to take his work home with him every night. When his anger spills over one too many times, he's sent off to help on a case away from the mean streets. Where he meets, and falls in love with a blind woman (Ida Lupino). Lupino is uncredited as a director but you can see her deft touch in the scenes where she navigates domesticity as a blind woman. The second thing to become enamored with in this film is the music. Bernard Herrmann's musical themes can be heard all over this film, but especially the rural scenes which invoke North by Northwest, Psycho, and the haunting strains of Marnie. In this film, Herrmann establishes some of the themes he liberally borrows from in later projects, in particular his TV work on westerns like Have Gun Will Travel. But this film, released in 1952, was obviously influenced by his work the year before on one of my favorite films, The Day the Earth Stood Still. By the way, it's easy to imagine that the Master, Hitchcock, may have borrowed a few cinematic techniques from On Dangerous Ground director, Nicholas Ray, in the mountain chase scene. Imagine Mount Rushmore instead of the snowy, rural mountain in this film, and you'll see what I mean.

A unique film of most unexpected development, an ambiguous morality causing a confusion of afterthought, and naturally few know how to really assess this masterpiece of a mysterious noir at its best. Of course, it depends very much on what kind of character you are yourself, you will not understand it if you are not a romantic, and you will find the first part objectionable if you are. But for a psychologist, this film is a gold mine.Robert Ryan was never more convincing in this sleeping volcano of a role, a policeman embittered by the constant humdrum nightmare of his job, getting more and more difficult for his colleagues to work with and having a problem with controlling his own violent outbursts. You almost expect him to go mad any moment, and his difficulty in checking this is evident and masterfully displayed. This is the kind of policeman with hidden psychopath tendencies that you have to fear the worst of.Enter Ida Lupino in one of her most sensitive and gripping roles as a blind woman, which she enacts with heartrending subtlety and convincing passion. She lifts the film from the abyss of the constant city nightmare into a level of poetry. The story that follows increases all the time in human interest and suspense. I have no objection against the ending.The amazing qualities of the film are additionally stressed and heightened by an overwhelmingly eloquent score by Bernard Herrmann, which secures a full ten point vote - this is almost like a prelude to "Vertigo".In brief, I agree with most reviewers here, that this is a hidden masterpiece that deserves some positive attention and definitely should be recommended for all times.

"On Dangerous Ground" is a powerful psychological drama about the loneliness and despair experienced by a police detective. The causes of his emotional state, the damaging effect it has on how he does his job and also the means by which his feelings of isolation and anguish are gradually eased, are all depicted with great skill and intensity and produce a very human story which illustrates the immense value of achieving a successful work/life balance.Whilst involved in a hunt for the killers of another police officer, detective Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) beats up a contact of the suspects and successfully elicits information which leads to the arrests of the culprits. Later, however, he's told by Captain Brawley (Ed Begley) that the lawyer who represents the man who he beat up is considering legal action over the level of brutality which his client suffered. Brawley advises Jim about the need to use a more proportionate amount of force in future but very soon after this warning another incident occurs where Jim again uses excessive violence. He is then told by Brawley that he's becoming a liability to the Department and as a consequence he gets assigned to assist in a murder case being investigated in an upstate rural community.When Jim arrives at his snow covered destination, the local Sheriff briefs him on the details of the case (which involve the murder of a young girl) and very soon they receive information which leads to both of them and the victim's father Walter Brent (Ward Bond) chasing the main suspect on foot. Later, when the fugitive steals a car, Jim and Walter continue their pursuit in another vehicle but their journey ends suddenly when they veer off the road and run into a ditch close to the suspect's car which had just crashed into a tree. They then follow his footprints which lead to a remote cabin where they meet Mary Malden (Ida Lupino). Mary is the blind sister of the mentally retarded murderer. She has a generous and gentle disposition and quickly recognises Jim's loneliness. Her main concern is the care of her brother and she conscripts Jim's assistance in trying to ensure that he's caught unharmed so that he can be given the kind of professional help that he so obviously needs. Meeting Mary eventually leads to the murderer being caught but also, more unexpectedly to Jim's life and temperament being profoundly affected in a way that he could never have imagined was possible.A striking feature of the film is the sharp contrast which is made between the two environments in which the action takes place. The city is presented as dark and threatening whereas the snowy countryside is depicted as more open, calm and almost pristine in appearance. These impressions are consistent with Jim's experiences, as working in the city had brought him into contact with every type of criminal imaginable and brutalised him in the process. The result was that this tough, honest and efficient cop had actually transformed into someone who was sadistic, bitter and on the verge of a breakdown. In the rural environment he became more even tempered so that when the volatile Walter Brent expressed his determination to personally kill the murderer, Jim found himself acting as a restraining force and an advocate of balance and reason.Jim's loneliness and the negative effects that his work had on him were exacerbated by his lack of personal relationships, an inability to socialise successfully and a failure to separate work from his personal life. His colleagues were family men with hobbies who could leave the strains of the job behind them whilst Jim, by contrast, found that the anguish of dealing with human garbage was something which he carried around with him all the time. When he met Mary, he responded to her warmth and kindness and achieved a level of contentment which he previously would've considered to be impossible.The work of Nicholas Ray (a director known for his sensitivity and compassion for his characters) and strong performances from Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino ultimately produced a movie which was unpretentious, memorable and sometimes also rather disturbing.