Episode 309: ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951)

Trylove

Can you make things better? Can you make yourself better? What’s the difference between that and wanting to make things better for someone else?

Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) is a troubled cop. Misanthrope, former football star, loose cannon cop — he struggles to reconcile the stated altruism of his job with the ineffectual brutality that makes him so good at it. After he disables one witness and fails to protect another, it’s no surprise he’s sent upstate to investigate some small-time murder in some nowhere town.

But the three feet of snow isn’t the only thing he’s unprepared for: Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman with knowledge of the crime, is a mirror for what Jim hopes is good in him. That’s put to the test when Jim and a grieving father are finally put on the trail of the killer they’re after.

References:

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• “How To Properly Identify the Ending of On Dangerous Ground” by MH Rowe for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
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#IdaLupinoTripleThreat #DCP

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Show art by Emily Csuy. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: "The Death Hunt" by Bernard Hermann from the ON DANGEROUS GROUND soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 309: ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951)

0:45 - GLADIATOR II (2024) chat

5:14 - The episode actually starts

7:38 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

9:12 - Plot pacing, police politics, and a portrait of “a guy re-finding his soul”

18:23 - A story that “starts in the pits of hell”

28:18 - What changes when Jim goes upstate and meets Mary?

39:13 - Jim, Mary, and Danny’s shared “existential frustration”

49:58 - Danny Malden and the third act

56:57 - The debatable reality of the ending

1:05:37 - The Junk Drawer

1:09:00 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1951