Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), directed by John Sturges.
The sleek modern diesel electric train never stops at Black Rock, a shabby set of buildings in the California desert. One day it does stop and off steps a white-haired WW2 vet with one hand. They don't like strangers or questions in Black Rock. He persists in asking the wrong questions and finds himself in a death trap.
A well made thriller with an efficient 81 minute noir plot, unusually in color and Cinemascope (MGM's first), and set in the desert rather than city streets. The tension builds right to the action finale: what is the stranger after, and what are the locals concealing? Is he going to get justice? Is he even going to get out of town?
We have an especially fine concentration of talent:
Spencer Tracy: the stranger, not looking for trouble but finding plenty.
Robert Ryan: the town boss and my favorite actor of the period. I love how he first appears wearing a ball cap instead of a stetson like the others. He doesn't need to put on a tough guy show; it's built in.
Anne Francis: a cutie and the only woman in the picture, last seen in Girl of the Night (1960) and Forbidden Planet (1956). She has a tom-boy automechanic thing going. I'd forgotten that John Ericson plays her brother here; they later co-starred in the Honey West (1965) TV series.
Dean Jagger: the useless drunken sheriff. Not a bad man, but weak and beaten.
Walter Brennan: the doc and vet, friendly but "consumed by apathy".
Ernest Borgnine: a stupid thug. He gets the wrong end of a karate lesson.
Lee Marvin: a less stupid thug.
Spencer Tracy had alcohol problems in his later years and it shows up in his acting. He's sometimes a bit mushy in his speech here, but I don't see that he's actually drunk.
Hard charging score by Andre Previn. Filmed at Lone Pine with gorgeous mountain backdrops.