City in fear

Movie
German title	City in fear
Original title	Bad Day at Black Rock
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Publishing year	1955
length	81 minutes
Age rating	FSK 12
Rod
Director	John Sturges
script	Millard Kaufman ; Don McGuire
production	Dore Schary
music	André Previn
camera	William C. Mellor
cut	Newell P. Kimlin
occupation
	Spencer Tracy : John J. Macreedy; Robert Ryan : Reno Smith; Anne Francis : Liz Wirth; Dean Jagger : Sheriff Tim Horn; Walter Brennan : Doc TR Velie Jr.; Ernest Borgnine : Coley Trimble; Lee Marvin : Hector David; John Ericson : Pete Wirth; Russell Collins : Mr. Hastings; Walter Sande : Sam;

City in Fear is a 1955 American thriller directed by John Sturges and starring Spencer Tracy .

action

In the late summer of 1945, shortly after the end of World War II , the streamlined train stopped for the first time in over four years at the stop in the remote small town of Black Rock in the southwestern United States. A one-armed stranger named John Macreedy gets out of it. Its unexpected arrival immediately caught the attention of suspicious locals. Macreedy is staying at the local hotel.

The nervousness and hostility of the residents increase noticeably when Macreedy declares that he is looking for a Japanese farmer named Kamoko. The rancher Reno Smith, more or less boss at Black Rock, approaches Macreedy. He tells the stranger that Kamoko was taken to an internment camp after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and has since disappeared. In truth, however, he was lynched out of xenophobia by Smith and several other men shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . Macreedy becomes suspicious and soon suspects that Kamoko was murdered.

Meanwhile, some residents of Black Rock are already planning to dispose of the unwelcome stranger in order to prevent their dark secret from being revealed. Only Sheriff Tim Horn and Doc Velie are against this plan. They reproach themselves for not preventing the lynching of Kamoko and now fear another bloody act.

The pretty young Liz Wirth, sister of the hotelier Pete, rents out her jeep to Macreedy and receives a serious reprimand from her friend Reno Smith. Macreedy drives to the Japanese man's former court, which he finds burned out. On the way back, the rabid hothead Coley Trimble pushes him off the road and accepts the damage to his own car.

Doc Velie advises Macreedy to leave town as soon as possible, before it is too late. The hostile majority faction of the residents is adopting an increasingly threatening stance. Macreedy's telegrams and calls to the state police are not forwarded, and there are no opportunities to leave the place. Finally, he is even threatened openly. When the sheriff demonstratively takes the stranger's side, Smith simply declares him deposed and appoints his henchman and accomplice Hector David as the new sheriff. In the village pub, Trimble provokes the stranger again in front of everyone, only to be able to kill him in apparent self-defense. Macreedy manages to fight off his skin again. With a few skillful karate blows, he beats the massive Trimble hospital-ready.

Macreedy can talk young Pete Wirth into conscience. Finally, he reveals the background to his visit: Kamoko's son served with him in the war in the US Army in Italy. He saved Macreedy's life once. As a final service, he wanted to bring a war medal from the Japanese-born US soldier who did not survive the war to his father. Pete Wirth agrees to take the stranger to safety. Together with Doc Velie he can put David out of action. Wirth's sister is supposed to take Macreedy out of town in her jeep. However, she drives him into the ambush prepared by Smith. In order to have no more witnesses, Smith first shoots his girlfriend and then wants to kill Macreedy too. He holed up behind the jeep and made a Molotov cocktail from a bottle and some gasoline , which he threw at Smith. Smith is caught in the flames. Macreedy overwhelms the incapacitated opponent. Together they drive back to Black Rock, where Sheriff Tim Horn has meanwhile arrested those involved in the lynching.

Before Macreedy leaves the city by train, he leaves the medal to Doc Velie at his request.

background

City in Fear is based on the novel Bad Day at Hondo by Howard Breslin. This was also the working title of the film, but it was given up because in 1953 a western with John Wayne came out, which was also called Hondo .

To get Spencer Tracy to act, the producers turned the main character into a one-armed man, assuming no actor could withstand such a challenge. The opening credits of the film, in which a moving train can be seen, was shot after a test audience did not like the original opening scene.

Nicholas Schenk, then MGM president, was against the production because he thought it was " subversive ". Similar to 12 noon , the film was accused of subliminal criticism of Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communism policy . Ironically, both works are among the most screened films in the White House .

Just fifteen kilometers northwest of the location near Lone Pine was the Manzanar War Relocation Center, one of ten internment camps for Americans of Japanese descent.

City in Fear was one of the first MGM films to be shot on CinemaScope and Spencer Tracy's last collaboration with the studio, with which he had been under contract for twenty years.

By using the cinemascope format, John Sturges achieved expressive images that give the hero a strong expression of isolation.

The film celebrated its premiere on January 7, 1955 and also opened in West German cinemas on October 18.

Filming

For the recordings in Black Rock, a set-up settlement was built especially for the film. It was in the Owens Valley , about two miles northeast of Lone Pine on the Lone Pine Branch, a branch line of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company. From the backdrops there are no more remains to be seen and the railway line has meanwhile been shut down and dismantled. Further filming, especially that of Kamoko's former farm, took place in the Alabama Hills just a few miles to the west .

The streamlined train pulled by an F7 double locomotive, with which Macreedy arrives and departs again, is modeled on the Sunset Limited .

German version

The German dubbing was created in 1955 in the MGM synchronization studio in Berlin . There is also a DEFA dubbing version from 1986. While the cinema dubbing can be heard on DVD, the DEFA version is shown by ARD .

role	actor	Voice actor (MGM 1955)	Voice actor (DEFA 1986)
Macreedy	Spencer Tracy	Ernst Schröder	Walter Niklaus
Reno Smith	Robert Ryan	Carl Raddatz	Rolf Römer
Doc Velie	Walter Brennan	Alfred Balthoff	Fred-Arthur Geppert
Hector David	Lee Marvin	Stanislav Ledinek	Hansjürgen Hürrig
Hastings	Russell Collins	Hans Hessling	Karl-Maria Steffens

Reviews

Lexicon of international films : “A film in the setting of the western, reminiscent of Hemingway and also a little of Graham Greene . (...) Staged in an exciting manner at a high level, with an excellent acting performance by Spencer Tracy. "
Time , January 1955: "It is a tight film, told in quiet words and simple pictures that give it an uncommon quality of economy."