Bad Day at Black Rock

(John Sturges, US 1955, 81 min., 35mm)

Ernest Borgnine. Smoldering rural hatred erupts as Spencer Tracy fights postwar bigotry in the male-dominated town of Black Rock, New Mexico. Tracy shines in an Oscar-nominated performance as the one-armed stranger whose presence threatens to expose a deadly secret. Director Sturges creates an aura of impending doom, and Ernest Borgnine, Lee Marvin, and Robert Ryan provide the menace in this seminal dissection of small-town prejudice.