Film review: On Dangerous Ground (1951)

Nicholas Ray must like prepositions, what with this film and In a Lonely Place (also Rebel Without a Cause).  He also like melodrama, which this film certainly has, although its lead man, the granite-faced Robert Ryan, is certainly stoic, at least, when he's not beating the crap out of the scum of the streets, which he does a fair amount of in the first half of the movie.  He is a world-weary cop in the big city (which is probably Los Angeles, but we never see it in the daytime so it's hard to tell) whose two partners (or car-mates, as they drive around in plain clothes in an unmarked car) are getting worried about his increasingly sour mood.  At the beginning, they're searching for two cop-killing scum (one called "Mushy" the other called...Gordon) which is all the rationale our hero (Jim) needs to really work over the lowlife who has info on where they're hiding out (although he does chide the man (who certainly uses his few minutes of screen time to chew scenery) for making him do it.  Sadly, though, he ends up rupturing said lowlife's bladder, so his boss (Ed Begley Senior) tells him to cool it for a while.  Alas, the very next night he chances upon two hoods taking revenge on the dame who fingered bladder boy, and his rage takes the better of him.  So, to cool him off (literally) he is transferred "up north" to the middle of farm land, with the snow lying deep and crisp and even, to help with a man hunt for the murderer of a local farmer's daughter.  So begins the REAL movie, and the only actor in both parts is Ryan.  Turns out that the farmer is none too happy about a Big City Cop nosying into country affairs with his notions of not-just-summarily-executing the fugitive.  They pair up and very quickly get into a hot pursuit along icy roads in a snowstorm.  Both cars crash and they stumble out to find that there is just one house nearby... and the REAL film begins.  Because in the house is Ida Lupino (who is listed as co-director, and went on to be a pioneering female director of a string of film noirs) who is a very decent (melting the hard shell round our cynical hero) blind woman who is hiding something.  Oh, and you know how they say "if you see a gun in act 1 it will be used in act 3"?  Well substitute "cliff" for gun and you will get the idea.
Is this a good movie?  Well, as usual my standard is I was not bored, so I say yes.  A bit melodramatic, as I said (it's always risky when you've got a blind character - and throw in her "different" brother - oops, I've said too much), but Ryan is very good and Lupino carries off the blind role without a trace of treacle.  Plus, a happy-ish ending!  It's no In a Lonely Place, but it it's on TV you should sit down and watch it.