Race hatred was still a forbidden subject in the movies when this melodrama was made, but Spencer Tracy made it a classic in the role that many consider his greatest. As a one-armed man, Tracy arrives in a present-day bleak desert settlement, where he discovers that the town has a closely guarded old secret involving murder and vengeance. And the townspeople slowly realize that he just may know the victim who's disappeared, and be an investigator of some kind. It's a classic "everyone in town knows a horrible secret" movie. With one of the best casts ever assembled for any movie, and with incredible wide-screen Cinemascope photography to bring out the vastness of the desert, this film hurtles forward at a dizzying, suspenseful pace. With Robert Ryan, Anne Francis of Forbidden Planet, Ernest Borgnine of The Devil's Rain, Lee Marvin, John Ericson, Walter Brennan. 

© 2000 Joe Bob Briggs. All Rights Reserved. Not an AOL Time-Warner Company in this lifetime.

For this and more movie reviews by the artist formerly known as the host of MonsterVision, go to
Joe Bob Briggs.com

Fun fact:
Bad Day At Black Rock was used as an episode title of the TV-series "The A Team," and Knightrider has an episode titled "Good Day At White Rock."

Back to Monstervision or Sci-fans.com

Elvis has left the building, and he took Joe Bob with him.