The Nicholas Ray Film Festival at Webster University Continues Tonight With ON DANGEROUS GROUND

By Tom Stockman | December 29, 2019

” The city can be lonely too. Sometimes people who are never alone are the loneliest. “

Webster University presents “The Other St. Nick”, a six-film Nicholas Ray Film Festival that runs December 27th-January 5th at the University’s Moore Auditorium(470 E Lockwood Ave). The films screen Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays at 7:00pm the weekends of Dec 27-29th and Jan 3-5th. The series continues tonight, December 29th at 7pm with ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951)

A film noir more often compared to the work of Carl Theodor Dreyer than its American contemporaries, On Dangerous Ground concerns the hot-headed detective Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan), who partners up with Walter Brent (Ward Bond), the father of a murdered young girl, in the solving of the crime. Along the way they encounter a blind woman, Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), who may offer a key to the case. Featuring a memorable score from master Bernard Herrmann.

Admission is:

$7 for the general public
$6 for seniors, Webster alumni and students from other schools
$5 for Webster University staff and faculty

Free for Webster students with proper I.D.

Here’s the rest of the series:

IN A LONELY PLACE (1950) Saturday, December 28 at 7:00pm

Considered by some to be Humphrey Bogart’s finest performance, and co-starring Nick Ray’s then-wife Gloria Grahame (It’s a Wonderful Life), In a Lonely Place is a film noir that has Bogie playing a prickly screenwriter named Dixon Steele, who is the last person to see a hat-check girl (Martha Stewart) before she’s murdered. Given Steele’s history of belligerence and temper flares,everyone inevitably assumes that he is the perpetrator of the crime.

ON DANGEROUS GROUND (1951) Sunday, December 29 at 7:00pm

A film noir more often compared to the work of Carl Theodor Dreyer than its American contemporaries, On Dangerous Ground concerns the hot-headed detective Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan), who partners up with Walter Brent (Ward Bond), the father of a murdered young girl, in the solving of the crime. Along the way they encounter a blind woman, Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), who may offer a key to the case. Featuring a memorable score from master Bernard Herrmann.

JOHNNY GUITAR (1954) Friday, January 3, 2020 at 7:00pm

A revisionist Western made at a time when a large section of the population didn’t recognize that the Western genre could use some revising, Nick Ray’s Johnny Guitar focuses on female leads who are much stronger than their male counterparts. Witness Vienna (Joan Crawford, never anyone to take lightly), a widely-disliked saloon owner who has to defend herself and her bar when accused of crimes she did not commit by her rival Emma Small (Mercedes McCambridge).At Vienna’s side is her ex-lover, Johnny Guitar (Sterling Hayden).

REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955) Saturday, January 4, 2020 at 7:00pm

Released less than a month after his death in a car crash, Rebel Without a Cause remains James Dean’s most iconic role. Here playing troubled teen Jim Stark, he takes up with Plato (Sal Mineo) and Judy (Natalie Wood) in a dangerous world of chickie runs and knife fights, thereby changing the tone and level of seriousness of every teen film released in its wake. Happily, Rebel also features some of Ray’s favorite cinematic flourishes, including strong use of the CinemaScope frame and an affection for the underdog character(s).

BIGGER THAN LIFE (1956)  Sunday, January 5, 2020 at 7:00pm

A film critical of the patriarchy and the nuclear family, Nick Ray’s Bigger Than Life has James Mason playing Ed Avery, a well-liked father and teacher in a quaint suburban neighborhood. When Avery falls ill and is prescribed the experimental drug cortisone, he becomes addicted and his life spirals out of control. One of the most exceptional samples of CinemaScope framing in Ray’s oeuvre, Bigger Than Life feels at once of its time and timely.