Bernard Herrmann's Original Score to Nicholas Ray's On Dangerous Ground (1952)

By Soundtrack Fred

“On Dangerous Ground (1952) deals with the frustrated and rather violent city cop Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan), who is sent to the countryside to solve a murder. There he gets to meet the blind woman Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), who seems to see the good in Wilson, who, first afraid by the warmth of human kindness, starts to open up…

“Very much supportive to Nicholas Ray’s directorial craftsmanship, composer Bernard Herrmann came on board the project… and delivered! If one wouldn’t know the movie, it could be assumed to listen to a Hitchcock / Herrmann collaboration. In fact On Dangerous Ground could be called a musical predecessor to North by Northwest (1959). Enjoy!”

N.S.: Unbelievable, Fred! I saw this picture about ten years ago on TCM. It must have been on Red Eddie Muller's crime movie feature. While I vividly recall the splendid performances by Ida, Ryan, and the great Wardell Bond, and the chemistry between Ryan and Lupino, the score flew right under my radar.

You were dead on target about the passages that would re-appear in other Herrmann scores, especially North by Northwest (1959).

I figured this must have been one of RKO's B pictures. It was certainly a cheapie; then again, what RKO picture after Kane wasn't?

(The childless, womanless Ryan to his detective partner, who has a wife, and a house full of kids: "How do you live with yourself?!" Partner: "I don't! I live with other people!")

At the beginning of the story, Ryan beats a confession out of a perp, which destroys the case against him. His boss suspends him, and then gives him one last chance: He can help out a small, rural department a couple of hours north, where a retarded young man has kidnapped and murdered (and probably raped) a pretty, teenaged girl. The kidnapper-murderer is the kid brother to Ida Lupino's blind character. Ward Bond plays the vengeance-seeking father of the victim.

Very early in Herrmann's career, he was up for two Oscars the same year, 1941, if memory serves (for his greatest score, to Kane, and to The Devil and Daniel Webster, with an a/k/a, for which he won his only little man). Then he offended someone very influential. That man was unable to get him blacklisted--America was then the world's greatest home to talent--but he was able to see to it that Bernard Herrmann would never again be nominated for an Oscar, while he yet drew breath. Thus, no nomination for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, or any number of other masterpiece scores. The Academy only lifted its ban on him for his posthumous score to Taxi Driver.


Playlist:

00:00 Outtakes
00:19 Prelude
01:38 Pastorale
03:55 Hunt Scherzo
05:07 Snowstorm / The Silence
07:16 Blindness
08:48 Dawn / The Idiot / Fear / The Cabin
09:50 The Death Hunt
12:11 The Hunt's End
12:49 Grief
13:42 The Painting / The Return / The City / Finale