Wilson of responsibility and they walk back to her house. Wilson indicates he would like to stay with her but she insists he leave. As Wilson drives back to the city he cannot get the events of the past day – and Mary – out of his mind. Recognizing she is what he needs, and she him, he returns. Reluctantly, Mary reaches out her hand. They embrace, and emotionally kiss. Cast Ida Lupino as Mary Malden Robert Ryan as Jim Wilson Ward Bond as Walter Brent Charles Kemper as Pop Daly Anthony Ross as Pete Santos Ed Begley as Capt. Brawley Ian Wolfe as Sheriff Carrey Sumner Williams as Danny Malden Gus Schilling as Lucky Frank Ferguson as Willows Cleo Moore as Myrna Bowers Olive Carey as Mrs. Brent Reception Critical response Contemporary New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther was highly critical. He found the screenplay a failure that produced poor performances, writing, "the story is a shallow, uneven affair, as written by A. I. Bezzerides from Gerald Butler's Mad With Much Heart. The cause of the cop's sadism is only superficially explained, and certainly his happy redemption is easily and romantically achieved. And while a most galling performance of the farmer is given by Ward Bond, Ida Lupino is mawkishly stagey as the blind girl who melts the cop's heart. For all the sincere and shrewd direction and the striking outdoor photography, this R. K. O. melodrama fails to traverse its chosen ground." Modern critic Dennis Schwartz liked the film and acting in the drama and wrote in 2005, "Robert Ryan's fierce performance is superb, as he's able to convincingly assure us he has a real spiritual awakening; while Lupino's gentle character acts to humanize the crime fighter, who has walked on the "dangerous ground" of the city and has never realized before that there could be any other kind of turf until meeting someone as profound and tolerant as Mary." Fernando F. Croce, film critic for Slant magazine, admired the film and wrote in 2006, "Perched between late-'40s noir and mid-'50s crime drama, this is one of the great, forgotten works of the genre... Easily mushy, the material achieves a nearly transcendental beauty in the hands of Ray, a poet of anguished expression: The urban harshness of the city is contrasted with the austere snowy countryside for some of the most disconcertingly moving effects in all film