On Dangerous Ground, 3 stars

It's always refreshing to see the marvelously formulaic film noir genre try a few new tricks. By now we all know the hallmarks: urban setting, femmes fatales, expressionistic lighting, world-weary protagonist, etc. Here is a film, directed by the masterful Nicholas Ray, that tries a few refreshing twists on the old formulas.

At first it seems as though we are in for the same old, same old. Robert Ryan plays a cynical, washed-up cop with no hope or ethics left. He works the dirty city streets and has let them soil his soul. But just when we think we know where this is going, the story opens up. Ryan is assigned to a case in the country in the winter, and suddenly the film noir has gone blanc, with a setting of a countryside full of snow and a bucolic mountain cabin. Ida Lupino is no femme fatale, either; instead she is a gentle blind woman who is trying to protect her murderous but uncomprehending brother. And instead of seducing or destroying Ryan, she sets out to open his heart and make him forget the cynicism he embraced in the city.

Openness is a theme that resounds through "On Dangerous Ground". While its script and performances are fine if not outstanding, it deserves credit for attempting to toy with some very familiar conventions. The ideas of taking the police chase off the city streets and setting it in a snow-covered field or making the lone female a character of sympathy instead of disdain show a willingness to experiment with form that was all too infrequently attempted by noir directors. Ray, of course, would go on to prove himself a master at transcending genre, and "On Dangerous Ground" shows this tendency of his just beginning to take form.