Film Soleil, those sun baked, filled with light, desert/tropical Noir/Neo Noirs.
"Change the darkened street to a dry, sun-beaten road. Convert the dark alley to a highway mercilessly cutting through a parched, sagebrush-filled desert. Give the woman cowboy boots and stick her in a speeding car, driven by a deranged man whose own biological drives lead him less often to sex than to fights over money. Institute these changes [to film noir] and you have film soleil." - DK Holm
In the city it's usually what you can't see that can kill you. In the desert everything you see can kill you.

Directed by John Sturges (
Mystery Street (1950),
The People Against O'Hara (1951)). written by Millard Kaufman (screenplay), Don McGuire (adaptation) from the story Bad Time At Hondo by Howard Breslin. The film stars Spencer Tracy (
The People Against O'Hara (1951)), Robert Ryan (11 Classic Noir), Anne Francis, Dean Jagger (
Dark City (1950),
Private Hell 36 (1954)), Walter Brennan, John Ericson, Ernest Borgnine (
The Mob (1951),
Violent Saturday (1955)), Russell Collins, Lee Marvin (
The Big Heat (1953),
Violent Saturday (1955),
I Died a Thousand Times (1955),
Shack Out on 101 (1955)) and the spectacular panoramas of DEATH VALLEY which are breathtaking thanks to the absolutely beautiful CinemaScope cinematography of William C. Mellor. André Previn composed the score.
Desert, the anti-city. Wide open spaces, exposed, agoraphobia. A streamliner is snaking. A steel sidewinder.
Streamliner


Black Rock. Nowheresville. A Death Valley desert fly speck. Whistle stop. Somewhere on the California/Nevada border. The Southern Pacific RR. A dirt road main street. A baker's dozen collection of dilapidated buildings. The station. The beanery, Sam's Bar & Grill. A General Store abutting a barber shop. A two story hotel. A sawbones/morticians, a gas station, two residences and a rinky-dink hoosegow.
It must be Saturday. Hicksville. Everybody's in town. Cowboy porch lizards. Relaxin'. Shootin' the breeze. Waitin' for the Streamliner to blow through. She's Greased lightning. Like clockwork. The day's big excitement. A faint rumble. The train's a comin'. You can hear the drone of the F7's down the valley. The pitch changes. The horn blares. Station agent excited. She's stopping. A train hasn't stopped here in four years. What's up. Lizards all rubbernecking.
Black Rock
fly speck
Cowboy porch lizards
rubbernecking
Doc Velie (Brennan)A man gets off. Looks like a city slicker. Suit, tie, fedora, suitcase. A Stranger. Ex career vet. Manco, A one hand man, Macreedy (Tracy).
Mr. Hastings, Telegrapher: There must be some mistake. I'm Hastings, the telegraph agent. Nobody told me this train was stopping.
John J. Macreedy: They didn't?
Mr. Hastings, Telegrapher: No, I just told you they didn't. And they ought to. What I want to know is why didn't they?
John J. Macreedy: Maybe they didn't think it was important.
Mr. Hastings, Telegrapher: Important? It's the first time the streamliner's stopped here in four years.
John J. Macreedy: I want to go to a place called Adobe Flat. Are there any cabs available?
Mr. Hastings, Telegrapher: Adobe Flat?
John J. Macreedy: Yeah.
Mr. Hastings, Telegrapher: No cabs.
There must be some mistake? (Tracy & Collins)Adobe Flat! The name raises bristles. He's lookin' fer Komoko. It stirs the hornet's nest. The lizards get standoff-ish. Hostile. Downright rantankerous. The shit hits the fan. Oh Komoko, the Jap, he left town they tell him, sent to an internment camp.
Macreedy & Smith (Tracy & Ryan)Continued......