Bad Day at Black Rock is a 1955 American neo-Western film noir 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.

Plot

In late 1945, one-armed John Macreedy gets off a train at Black Rock, an isolated California desert hamlet. The residents are suspicious, as this is the first time in four years that the express train has stopped at the flag stop station. After Macreedy inquires about a man named Komoko, several local men become hostile. Hastings, the telegraph agent, tells him there are no taxis; the hotel desk clerk, Pete Wirth, claims he has no vacant rooms; and Hector David threatens him. Later, Reno Smith informs Macreedy that Komoko, a Japanese-American, was interned during World War II.

Awards