Build a movie plot around this: Who does Macreedy try to telephone? The police
In late 1945, one-armed John J. Macreedy (Spencer Tracy) gets off a passenger train at the isolated desert hamlet of Black Rock. It is the first time in four years that the train has stopped there. Macreedy is looking for a man named Komoko, but the few residents are inexplicably hostile. The young hotel desk clerk, Pete Wirth (John Ericson), claims he has no vacant rooms. Macreedy is threatened by Hector David (Lee Marvin). Later, Reno Smith (Robert Ryan) informs Macreedy that Komoko, a Japanese-American, was interned during World War II.Certain that something is wrong, Macreedy sees the local sheriff, Tim Horn (Dean Jagger), but the alcoholic lawman is clearly afraid of Smith and is impotent to help. The veterinarian and undertaker, Doc Velie (Walter Brennan), advises Macreedy to leave town immediately, but also lets slip that Komoko is dead. Pete's sister, Liz (Anne Francis), rents Macreedy a Jeep. He drives to nearby Adobe Flat, where he finds a homestead burned to the ground and wildflowers. On the way back, Coley Trimble (Ernest Borgnine) tries to run him off the road.When Smith asks, Macreedy reveals he lost his left arm fighting in Italy. Macreedy says the wildflowers at the Komoko place lead him to suspect that a body is buried there. Smith reveals that he is virulently anti-Japanese; he tried to enlist in the Marines the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, but failed the physical.Macreedy tries to telephone the state police, but Pete refuses to put the call through. Doc Velie admits that something terrible happened four years ago and that Smith has everyone too terrified to speak up. Velie offers Macreedy his hearse to leave town. Hector rips out the distributor cap and spark plug wires. Macreedy goes to Hastings' (Russell Collins) telegraph office and writes a telegram addressed to the state police. At the town diner, Trimble picks a fight with Macreedy, but Macreedy uses martial arts to beat him up. Macreedy tells Smith that he knows Smith killed Komoko and that he was too cowardly to do it...