(aka 'Dark Highway" or "La Maison dans L'Hombre")

On Dangerous Ground (1951) seems like two movies. The first section takes place in the city, and features a tough urban atmosphere familiar to us in film noir. The second section shares the same protagonist, the tough cop played by Robert Ryan, but otherwise introduces completely new characters and plot. This second mystery case takes place in the countryside, in a frozen mountainous area referred to as "upstate".

Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954) shows plot and character similarities with the second part of the earlier On Dangerous Ground (1951). Both films have a character who is driving the authorities forward to arrest someone for a crime: vengeance for a murdered relative. This character is fanatic, relentless and unsympathetic in both films. Both have a young criminal, who is just a teenage boy and who barely knows what he is doing. Both criminals are protected by a sympathetic woman, whose house is a central location in the film, and who has a romance with the hero. Although she is protecting criminals out an emotional attachment, she is honest herself in both films. There is also a mild mannered, easily influenced sheriff who tends to fade into the background of both movies. The hero in both films is an outsider, a stranger to the community. All of the others have known each other and lived in the same town, but he is a visiting newcomer. He is far more neutral and dispassionate than the others, viewing events calmly and with skepticism. He is also pretty macho: a gunslinger in Johnny Guitar, an obsessed cop in On Dangerous Ground. Both men are trying to recover from emotional problems brought on by excessive involvement with a violent job. Both heroes are played by tall actors who tower over the other characters in the film. These five characters are virtually the whole cast of the last hour of Ground. But in Johnny Guitar, they are expanded to a host of others who have no parallel in the earlier film. These include The Dancing Kid, the Borgnine character, and the employees as Vienna's place, plus Mercedes' brother. Admittedly, except for the Dancing Kid, these are all supporting types.

Excerpt from The Films Of Nicholas Ray located HERE.

Posters etc.

Theatrical Release: February 12th, 1952 - NY, NY - USA

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Recommended Reading in Film Noir (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)

The Third Man by Graham Greene	The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir by Foster Hirsch	Somewhere in the Night: Film Noir and the American City by Nicholas Christopher	Shades of Noir: A Reader by Joan Copjec	The Art of Noir: The Posters and Graphics from the Classic Era of Film Noir by Eddie Muller	The Little Black and White Book of Film Noir: Quotations from Films of the 40's and 50's by Peg Thompson, Saeko Usukawa	Film Noir by Alain Silver	Film Noir Guide: 745 Films of the Classic Era, 1940-1959 by Michael F. Keaney	Detours and Lost Highways: A Map of Neo-Noir by Foster Hirsch

DVD Review: Éditions Montparnasse (re-release) - Region 2 - PAL

Screen captures courtesy of Herb Kane