RANCHO NOTORIOUS (director: Fritz Lang; screenwriter: Daniel Taradash/from a Sylvia Richards novel "Gunsight Whitman"; cinematographer: Hal Mohr; cast: Marlene Dietrich (Altar Keane), Arthur Kennedy (Vern Haskell), Mel Ferrer (Frenchy Fairmont), Gloria Henry (Beth Forbes), William Frawley (Baldy Gunder), Jack Elam (Geary), John Doucette (Whitey), Lane Chandler (Sheriff Hardy), Frank Ferguson (Preacher), Lisa Ferraday (Maxine), Lloyd Gough (Kinch), William Haade (Sheriff Bullock), Francis McDonald (Harbin), John Raven (Dealer), George Reeves (Wilson), Dan Seymour (Comanche Paul), Fuzzy Knight (Barber), Fred Graham (Ace Maguire), Stuart Randall (Starr), Felipe Turich (Sanchez), John Kellogg (Factor), Roger Anderson (Red), 1952)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
The Iverson Ranch at Chatsworth, a movie site rented out to all studios, was dressed up and used for the Technicolor production of RKO's Rancho Notorious, giving the film its artificial look. Nevertheless, Lang's Western overcame that obstacle and today is considered as one of the strongest and the most unusual Westerns of its kind, a film that could not be dragged down by the bickering between Lang and Dietrich during the filming, or by the low budget ordered by Howard Hughes which kept most of the work in the studio, or by Hughes' taking Lloyd Gough's name off the credits because he failed to testify in the HUAC's Hollywood witchhunt.
It was the first Westerns to make use of a folk ballad, which was played at various times during the film, called Chuck-a-luck, to bolster its theme of "hate, murder, and revenge." An old folk song in the film, "Auralee," was later turned into the theme song of Elvis Presley's, "Love Me Tender" (56). The film even had TV's superman, George Reeves playing one of the bandits hiding out at Dietrich's Chuck-a-luck, a safe haven for wanted bandits. Those who stayed at the combination ranch and hideout were willing to pay her a ten per cent cut from their robbery and the only rule in the place, was to ask no questions. This was a ludicrous concept to believe, as if one expected the bandits to be honest with her and give her the exact amount to stay, but it is fair to say, that reality was not one of the film's strong points.
Vern Haskell (Kennedy) is the happiest rancher in Wyoming, he will marry in eight days the lovely Beth Forbes (Gloria), whom he has just given a wonderful brooch to. His happiness will be shattered when two men ride into his small-town and one of them, Kinch (Gough), will go inside the general store where Beth works and rob the safe, steal her brooch, rape her, and kill her when she screams. The other man, Whitey (Doucette), who waited outside with the horses, is upset with his partner and wants to leave him and get his share of the robbery before they reach Chuck-a-luck. Kinch will have none of that and shoots Whitey in the back. But before Whitey dies, Vern, who was chasing the two before the posse decided to chicken-out and turn back, goes on alone and catches up with Whitey and hears his last words-- Chuck-a-luck.
Vern dedicates his life to catching the killer, even if it means he has to become like him to catch him. He will get his best lead in a barbershop, where the man getting a shave in the seat next to him, overhears him ask the barber about Chuck-a-luck. The man tells him it is a gunslinger's hideout run by Altar Keane (Dietrich) and he is not supposed to ask strangers about it. The two get into a fist fight, after the man pulls a gun on Vern, and Vern subsequently kills him and is arrested. When Vern uses his head and tells the sheriff that he only killed a wanted man, the sheriff confirms that it is so by looking at wanted posters and seeing that it is Ace Maguire he killed and lets him go, but not before telling him about a saloon in Virginia City with a chuck-a-luck wheel and a singer named Altar who used to work there.
In Virginia City he hears the story of how Altar got fired and paid off by the crooked saloon owner Baldy (Frawley), and got paid twenty dollars which she used to wager at the chuck-a-luck wheel. She won big and with the help of a fast-draw gunslinger, Frenchy Fairmont (Ferrer), is able to keep her money and leave town on the stage for Silver City safely under his protection. Baldy, embittered that since Altar left his place business plummeted, tells Vern that he heard that Frenchy was just arrested at a town called Gunsight.
Vern has become so obsessed with revenge, willing to do anything to get the killer, that he gets himself thrown in jail by causing a disturbance in a saloon when told he can't get a drink on election day. There are two cells, one occupied by crooked politicians and the other by Frenchy. Lang takes a jab at the politicians, as the jailer asks Vern which cell he prefers and he replies, "I'd rather be with an outlaw than with a politician, at least what they are doing is out in the open." Frenchy and Vern are able to escape and since Vern is now a wanted man, he brings him to Altar's place by the Mexican border.
Once there he notices Altar wearing the brooch he gave Beth and comes to suspect that one of the nine men staying there as being the one that gave that to her. It becomes a cat-and-mouse game for him, as he sweet talks Altar, getting her to like him. He is the good man that she had once been looking for, and will fall for him. Meanwhile, Frenchy becomes jealous, though he continues to teach Vern how to shoot like him. Vern turns indistinct from the others at the ranch, even robbing a bank with them.
When the cold-hearted, almost masculine-like, Altar, finally falls for Vern, he presses her about the brooch, thinking it was Frenchy who gave it to her. But she tells him it was Kinch and her temporary romantic bliss is destroyed, almost like Vern's life was destroyed when he learned what happened to Beth, as he goes into a rage, telling her he will kill Kinch and that he has no respect for what kind of life she is leading.
The final scene is a brutal one among the gang members: they have found out that Altar snitched on Kinch. They come into Altar's ranch and pull a gun on the bewildered Frenchy, the lifeless Altar, and the vengeful Vern. This results in a shootout and final confrontation between Kinch and Vern.
It's Lang's best and last Western, one that covers again the themes he successfully used in his noir films, and one that makes good use of his expressionistic style of filmmaking. The film compensates for having the 51-year-old Marlene being the sexpot in the film, a casting decision which seems to me based more for her star power than for looking the part, as two much younger men unbelievably fall for her. But aside from looking old, Marlene proved she was up to the part acting-wise, giving a mannered and brilliant performance, making this Western a legendary one. It has a certain electricity about it that makes it special, even if does seem a bit corny at times.
REVIEWED ON 2/1/2000 GRADE: A-
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews