Why do people rave about this film ???

It is easy to say what you like or dislike about a film, it is much harder to say why the film does or does not "work".
Art is in some kind a reflection of reality, through the mind of the artist. Ray evidently had his own lens on the world, I'm no film maven, it just looks like what he saw suited the low budget projects he directed. What he sees is a low budget world, populated by people who were nobody in particular, just doing the jobs they fell into, dealing with whatever fate dumps on them.
But Jim Wilson suffers, he sees, as maybe Ray saw, the rottenness of so much around him, and as a cop he saw more of that than was good for his health. The men Wilson works with have come to terms with their world, they can cope with it, he can't.
The film, and its world, are divided between the dark and the light. Not that the light is any easier to live in, indeed it is harder, as there you can see, and there is nowhere to hide.
Wilson is a man passing though a kind of purgatory, a test, an initiation, read it how you like. The four women he encounters illustrate the choices before him. In the bar he is propositioned by an under-age prostitute, she offers him the easy road of corruption and exploitation. He knows that one and rejects it. In the drug store the assistant is a brash and cheerful girl who wants nothing to do with cops, she is emotionally shallow and narrow, to Wilson she barely exists. Myrna Bowers, the "little girl" who he at least intimidates, we don't see that bit, into giving up the fugitive, she is raw sensuality. But that's not enough for Wilson, he knows there has to be more.
And so out of the dark and into the light. Where Wilson meets Mary, who is in her own darkness, but can see out of it, something Wilson has not been able to do. Sometimes people who should not have much in common come together and find in each other what they never knew they lacked. That happens here, simply and without fuss.
From the comments here I gather that the end we see is not what Ray intended. Possibly he could not see out of his own darkness to where the story should lead. It is our fortune that others could.
This may not be a great film, but I will remember it when other more elaborate confections have faded.

Because it's an excellent, well-written, acted and directed movie. Can't think of any other necessary reasons.

I've just seen this noir for the second time. And I have been able to understand it better this time round. A lot of these complex noirs from the 1940s need to re-watched. I had never heard of this as an acclaimed movie. And indeed I'd never come across this title until recently.

i didn't like it much either, it was a little too melodramatic for me towards the end, still a decent movie 6/10

it had atleast and interesting location for a noir film





so many movies, so little time

I'm 40 minutes in and it's standard fare.

As for an abusive cop finding his soul, this is nothing compared to Otto Preminger's WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS and I personally think Dana Andrews is, while not being nearly as famous, far more interesting than Ryan, who plays this type of character a lot...

He's good in it. He's good in everything. His cold eyes, almost blank slates and, when the camera is backed up they're almost Little Orphan Annie black holes but in a badass way but...

I have to agree with the OP about this movie, at least so far...

And who's the youngest teenage girl inside the cabin when he first arrives: She be hot?

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I found it to be enthralling. Robert Ryan's character was fascinatingly complex. Ida Lupino's character transcended the mawkishness which could have ruined it. She reminded me of some handicapped people whom I have known who overcame their apparent limits to be genuine heroes. The score was riveting. I especially loved the bell plate which I thought for years was the sound of a hammered anvil. It became a ringing leitmotiv that contributed to the suspense. I think that the theme of the film was that personal growth and personal redemption are possible. Because this is so rare it is inspirational to see it happening, if only on the screen.