The MoFo Top 100 Film Noir Countdown

no votes. wasn't overly fond of on dangerous ground. haven't seen act of violence.

__________________
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

My first 2 for 2. Ground is my #12 while Violence is my #10. My writeups:

On Dangerous Ground

This is a lean yet affecting film noir from Nicholas Ray. After 11 years on the police force in a crime-ridden metropolis while mourning the loss of the football career that never happened, Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) is at his wit's end. After brutalizing one too many suspects, Captain Brawley (Ed Begley in a small and functional role that he still makes memorable) assigns him to a small town in the mountains to join the hunt for a murderer on the run. There, he meets Mary (Ida Lupino), a lonely blind woman with whom he bonds and sees a little bit of himself in (no pun intended).

Jim's pursuit of the killer and his time spent with Mary amount to an affecting story about the importance of not letting your work rob you of your humanity. His assignment ends up being just what he needs to realize this because aside from meeting Mary, he sees how he would have ended up if he had stayed on his previous path in Walter (J.K. Simmons ringer Ward Bond), the father of the murder victim who only has vengeance on his mind. Luckily, the movie is not all human drama: those who love film noir for its tension and action will find it here, the highlight being when Jim and Walter pursue a suspect through the Colorado wilderness. Again, the movie is lean - perhaps too lean - and while the ending is sweet, it seems a little tacked on and studio-mandated. The movie is still guaranteed to satisfy even die hard film noir fans, especially ones who aren't particularly satisfied with their jobs. Oh, and Bernard Herrmann's bombastic score is one of his best.

Act of Violence

L.A. resident Frank Enley (Van Heflin) has an outstanding life: big house, beautiful wife (Janet Leigh), a baby, a successful construction business, etc. Suddenly, a man from Frank's past named Joe (Robert Ryan) he never wanted to run into again starts asking around for him. What does he want? I won't say, but I'll at least mention that he makes Frank's life a lot less comfortable. What follows is a tense noir that more than successfully explores one of the genre's main components: America reckoning with its involvement in World War II and its resulting good fortune.

From the foggy nighttime skyline of New York in the opening frames to the shadowy streets and alleys where most of the movie takes place, L.A. (do any other places in Hollywood's America matter?), the movie certainly nails the vibes associated with film noir. The look and feel of the train station in the finale is the highlight, which I partly wanted to last longer so I could take it in. This movie wouldn't work if the one playing Frank didn't convince at expressing the kind of guilt and remorse about something that would force an involved party to travel across America, and thankfully, Heflin is up to the task. Another moment involving a train, for instance, made me forget to breathe and fear for his safety. Ryan, who I also enjoyed in the noir On Dangerous Ground, also deserves praise for how unwavering he is in his mission. Another review I read compared Joe to the Terminator, which I agree with. Again, I don't want to say what drives Joe, but it's a dilemma that will make you wonder who to root for or if there's anyone to root for at all with each revelation. The perspectives of the much more forgiving women in Frank and Joe's lives make the dilemma even more interesting to ponder, especially for how they make you wonder how different the world would be if they had more say at the time.

The specter of World War II lurks in the corners of pretty much every film noir, but it's especially obvious in this one. If that is your least favorite component of the genre, I still think you should seek it out. Regardless of your interest in that subject, the ways the movie successfully exploits the fear of someone not only coming out of the blue to threaten your stable existence, but also who won't listen to reason makes up for it. For this reason, it would pair well with movies like Cape Fear and Caché.

Haven't seen either film.

__________________
IMDb
Letterboxd

Definitely turning the table into the more familiar titles...both films are great.


Both films had solid production values...

Watched both of these for list prep. Enjoyed both, but neither moved the needle enough to get my vote.

__________________
Letterboxd

On Dangerous Ground was in semi-contention. Not really. But it would make a top 50. The direction of Ray adds to the overall quality of the film. I haven't seen Act of Violence.

__________________
"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

I've seen both of today's reveals, twice. I really like both too, but surprised so many MoFos knew about On Dangerous Ground. I didn't realize that was a noir that people were really familiar with...glad they were though!

2 for 2. I've seen both of these Robert Ryan noirs, On Dangerous Ground and Act of Violence. No one did low boil, seething anger like him. But such was his talent that his two characters were distinctly different. I liked ODG's snowbound setting and Ward Bond and Ida Lupino's supporting performances. The ending was a bit too Hollywood but all in all it was a satisfying watch.

AoV had some great supporting roles too with Janet Leigh and Mary Astor and Berry Kroeger as the thuggish Johnny. Van Heflin and Robert Ryan made for a really intriguing dyad as the pursued and the pursuer.

Neither of these were on my ballot. I must have miscounted somewhere. I'm actually at 17 of 40 seen.

On Dangerous Ground was never one of my favorites, although the acting is good. Nicholas Ray is a fine director (They Live By Night; In a Lonely Place), but I've never felt this to be much of an example of noir. Nice score by the great Bernard Herrmann.

Act of Violence is the real McCoy. Some comments:

This is an interesting but uncomfortable and tawdry message tale of a man with a past who is tracked down by a fellow surviving soldier who seeks vengeance against that man who had been responsible for the death of his comrades in a Nazi prison camp.

Cool, a Robert Ryan two-fer! Both are on my Watch List but neither made my personal list. I do have a Robert Ryan film on my list and I hope it makes it. I saw one the other night that I wish I'd watched before the Countdown and I'd like to see it make it.

#15 He Walked By Night List Proper #88
#22 This Gun For Hire List Proper #78

__________________
"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Is either of them

I gave On Dangerous Ground back in 2016.

Don't know if I've seen Act of Violence.

Two more misses for me!

4/40 seen

__________________

I saw Act of Violence for one of the latest Hall of Fame's. I really liked it, but barely missed my ballot. You can read my review here, but here is an excerpt from it:

I haven't seen On Dangerous Ground.


SEEN: 6/40
MY BALLOT: 2/25

__________________

If anything, you have a lot of stuff to look forward to.

I think you'd like Act of Violence way more than On Dangerous Ground.

As usual I hae reviewed today's reveals sometime ago on MoFo. Previously I wrote this in the Noirvember 2023 thread:

The last time I watched this I looked for that above shot in the movie, but it wasn't there. The tough cop (Robert Ryan) did go to the blonde's apartment. She was wearing a black robe and he even gave her a cigarette. But he never lit it, the scene ended before that. I wonder if there's a longer version of this? Or was that image a still photo used for publicity? Oh well just wondering.

The sad thing is, I was sure I hadn't seen this and yet once again as I watched the movie I realized I had indeed seen it before. After the movie was over I checked MoFo and it was only two years ago that I had watched and reviewed it! At least I did start to recall the movie when Ryan heads up to the snowy north.

Now the funny thing is, I didn't like On Dangerous Ground the first time I I seen it...but the second time around I thought it was pretty good. I'm a sucker for a romance story and even though this is about the pursuit of a killer, tough cop Ryan eventual softens some after encountering a blind Ida Lupino. And why not, she's pretty and has a nice house too, ha...while Ryan lives in a crappy one room apartment.

Loved all of the on-location exterior shots in the countryside. The exterior shots done in the city was a nice choice too. And what a score, bam! It hits hard, I liked it.
+

And I reviewed this in the Noir HoF IV that I ran to support this countdown. I wish more people had joined in, it was a blast!

There's a saying on Broadway, 'If it isn't on the page, it's not on the stage.' Same is true for movies and luckily Act of Violence has one well crafted screenplay. Another noir could've just simply focused on the war vet with the dark secret and built tension from the mystery man with the limp who stalks him....That would've worked too, but what I really appreciated was just how fleshed out the characters' back stories were. Van Heflin isn't just a man being chased by some psycho, who believes he's guilty...He is guilty and by degrees we learn just how guilty he really is and in that way we understand his reluctance to fight back. Those background details added much depth to the story.

Van Heflin is great here, he's a favorite actor and this is one of his best performances. But for my money Mary Astor steals every scene she's in. She was totally believable as a b-girl who looked as cheap as her character was, she made this movie much more than just a chase movie. Janet Leigh was also very good in a role that might have been handled by another director as a two dimensional role. But Janet Leigh gets a lot of mileage out of her screen time, thanks to her and the director.

Gotta say I loved the score and normally I don't notice that. What blew me away was the way the last scene was filmed...With the sound of wind howling in the night and two men approaching each other down a wide empty street...all filmed from above, on a crane. It reminded me of a shootout in a western. Very satisfying film.

I guess I should add Act of Violence to the old watchlist.

Stats: Pit Stop #4

---

After hitting our fourth pit stop (60), here's were we are now:

Yearly Breakdown

• 1940 = 2
• 1941 = 0
• 1942 = 1
• 1943 = 1
• 1944 = 5
• 1945 = 2
• 1946 = 3
• 1947 = 4
• 1948 = 7
• 1949 = 2
• 1950 = 5
• 1951 = 1
• 1952 = 1
• 1953 = 2
• 1954 = 0
• 1955 = 2
• 1956 = 1
• 1957 = 0
• 1958 = 1
• 1959 = 0

1948 still at the top with 7 entries, but 1950 and 1944 are both getting closee with 5 entries each.


Repeating Directors

• Otto Preminger = 3
• Fritz Lang = 2
• William Wyler = 2
• John Cromwell = 2
• Robert Rossen = 2
• Robert Wise = 2

Otto Preminger is the only director so far with three consecutive entries, while Fritz Lang joined the group of 2 in this last batch.