On Dangerous Sound

It pounds in his head like a drum
his hatred of criminal scum
Down dark dirty streets
confessions he beats
While loathing the thug he's become



Robert Ryan lays into a suspect in On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray, 1952). Image source: John K. Stuff. The film's score is one of Bernard Herrmann's greatest, its pounding, driving opening (using an anvil) giving way to a lovely romantic theme, "Viola d'Amour", just as the film shifts from urban to rural, from dark to light.