Fritz Lang directed Rancho Notorious, a revenge Western, shot in splashy Technicolor, starring Marlene Dietrich as the matron of a criminal hideout called Chuck-a-Luck.
| Rancho Notorious | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster
|
|
Howard Hughes, then head of RKO Pictures, changed the original working title, “The Legend of Chuck-a-Luck.”
As scripted by Taradash, the tale is both familiar and corny, offering the trio of actors barely serviceable lines.
Vern Haskell, a Wyoming ranch hand, is enraged when his fiancee Beth Forbes is abused and murdered during a robbery.
He sets out after the two thieves, first with a posse, then by himself. He finds one, Whitey, shot in the back by his partner after a quarrel. Whitey’s dying words, “Chuck-a-luck,” offer the clue to the identoty of the second man.
Vern finally finds a man who reveals that Altar Keane (Dietrich) is connected with Chuck-a-Luck, a horse ranch near the Mexican border.
In the town of Gunsight, Vern learns that Frenchy is in jail, so he deliberately gets himself arrested. After breaking out, they get to the ranch, which turns out to be a hideout to any outlaw willing to pay percentage of his gains.
Vern, noticing that Altar is wearing a brooch that he gave to Beth, sets out to find out who gave it to her. Shamed, Altar decides to give it all up, when he expresses disdain for her occupation.
In a gunfight between Vern and Frenchy, Altar is killed while protecting the latter, and Kinch also dies, thus ending Vern’s quest.
Dietrich does her best to embody convincingly her sultry nature, though she may be too old (she was 52) to play the alluring femme fatale.
As in other films, she gets to display her shapely legs as well as throaty voice, here delivering a mediocre song titled “Get Away, Young Man.”
Credits:
Directed by Fritz Lang
Screenplay by Daniel Taradash, story by Silvia Richards
Produced by Howard Welsch
Cinematography Hal Mohr
Edited by Otto Ludwig
Music by Emil Newman
Color process Technicolor
Production: Fidelity Pictures Corporation
Distributed by RKO
Release date: March 1952
Running time: 89 minutes
