Rancho Notorious

Plot synopsis:
Wyoming ranch hand Vern Haskell is enraged when his fiancee Beth Forbes is abused and murdered during a store robbery. He sets out after the two thieves, first with a posse, then by himself. He finds one of them, Whitey, shot in the back by his partner after a quarrel. Whitey's dying words, "Chuck-a-luck", are the only clue to the second man's identity.
After questioning everyone he meets, Vern finally finds someone who lets slip that a woman named Altar Keane is connected with Chuck-a-luck. When the man realizes that Vern is just fishing for information, Vern is forced to kill him in self-defense. Vern is taken into custody, then released when the dead man is identified as a wanted outlaw. By a stroke of luck, a deputy knows Altar as a saloon singer from his past, though not her current whereabouts.
Vern learns that after Altar quit working for saloon owner Baldy Gunder, she bet her last $20 on his rigged chuck-a-luck game and won a lot of money, with gunslinger Frenchy Fairmont stepping in to help her. In the town of Gunsight, Vern learns that Frenchy is in jail, so he deliberately gets himself arrested.
After they break out, Frenchy takes Vern to the Chuck-a-Luck, a horse ranch near the Mexican border owned by Altar. The ranch is a hideout available to any outlaw who is willing to pay 10% of his ill-gotten gains. Vern finds a bunch of men in residence, but has no idea if the killer is one of them. One does, however, recognize him.
The newcomer quickly catches Altar's eye. One night, Vern notices that Altar is wearing a brooch that he gave to Beth. He sets out to romance Altar to find out who gave it to her. This makes Frenchy very jealous.
Vern is forced to go along on a bank robbery, during which one of the others, Kinch, secretly shoots at him. When he takes Altar her share of the proceeds, she finally informs him that Kinch gave her the jewelry. Vern reveals his true purpose and his disdain for Altar's profession. Altar is shamed, and decides to give it all up. However, before she can leave, a gunfight breaks out between Vern and Frenchy on one side and the rest of the outlaws on the other. Altar is killed protecting Frenchy. Kinch also dies, ending Vern's quest.

Tags: murder

Review:
Best known for his expressionist black & white suspense thrillers, director Fritz Lang brings the same qualities to this Technicolor western.Although she must have been in her fifties when the film was made, Dietrich looks absolutely gorgeous.
The tension leading up to Vern's discovery of the killer's identity is almost unbearable, and Lang makes us wait until the film's last five minutes for the inevitable score-settling gunfight.In a period of film history when westerns were a dime a dozen, this one really stands out as a true classic..
However in keeping his cover, Haskell finds himself drawn into their world more and more.The staples of westerns of the period are all here  revenge, Technicolor, songs and romance; however this film opens with a rape (and it is fairly obvious that it was a violent rape) and a nice man who descents into violent anger.
Chuck-a-Luck is a hole in the wall type ranch where men with prices on their heads hide out and are given protection by Altar Keane (Marlene Dietrich) and her lover Frenchy Fairmont (Mel Ferrer) for ten percent of the loot brought in my the outlaws.
His best acting was done in a movie that came out just before this one, "The Brave Bulls." But his second best role is as Frenchy in "Rancho Notorious." He fits his part much better than Arthur Kennedy fits his.
This was especially the case when the increasingly European production crews in Hollywood produced their skewed yet affectionate takes on this "most American of genres".Rancho Notorious at first comes across as a "noir" Western, at least if one looks at the Sylvia Richards story and Daniel Taradash screenplay, but it's much more than that.
Although Dietrich is not really known as a Western star, her only other appearance in the genre being Destry Rides Again in 1939, her character in Rancho Notorious seems to be a play upon her old screen persona.
The very worthy Arthur Kennedy is ostensibly the lead player, although it is appropriate he is billed below Dietrich not just because she was a bigger star, but because she really is the heart of this movie.Rancho Notorious is rather a cheap and cheerful offering, with the all the production values of the trashy B-Westerns that this era was full of.
I'm not a Marlene Dietrich fan and don't really see Arthur Kennedy as being charismatic enough to interest her, and am not usually keen on background ballads, but I enjoyed this film from beginning to end.Director Fritz Lang keeps the pace lively and brightens up the generally sombre mood with a couple of light-hearted sequences - first the "horse-race" with saloon girls riding cowboys and then the crooked politicians awaiting their fate in gaol."Variety" Film Guide calls the plot "corny", but it's no more so than many other films of the 1950s, or indeed of any other decade, and it's different to most Westerns of the period.
He ends up at Rancho Notorious, a hideout for outlaws run by Alder Keane, played wonderfully by Marlene Dietrich in one of her most memorable roles.
Also, the name Chuck-a-Luck inspired a lot of laughs in the audience (I was lucky enough to see it at a theater).Overall, though, Rancho Notorious is a great film, quite haunting in its own right.
I especially liked the line (I don't remember it exactly) spoken by a doctor who rattles off a list of a cowboy's injuries and sums up by saying, "So, really, he's pretty dead.""Rancho Notorious" isn't one of the genre's better entries, but see it some time just for its entertainment value..
Fritz Lang's superlative western teeters dangerously on the edge of campness, (it's that infernal 'Legend of Chuck-a-Luck' ballad pounding away on the soundtrack, continually reminding us that this is a tale of 'hate ...
Then, of course, there is that great gay icon Marlene Dietrich, looking extraordinary at fifty one as Altar Keane, boss of the outlaw hideout Chuck-a-Luck where Arthur Kennedy comes seeking the man who killed his girl in a robbery.
In many respects the film is a perfect companion to Nicholas Ray's not dissimilar "Johnny Guitar", made around the same time and both featuring dominant women and weaker men and both dealing explicitly with 'hate, murder and revenge'.This is a very tight piece of work, thematically dense and psychologically astute and directed by Lang in a truly classical style.
Fritz Lang-directed western was plagued with problems (both during the production and after), although Marlene Dietrich--allegedly the cause of most of the on-set turmoil--gives a must-see performance as the notorious Altar Keane ("They even named a railroad car after her!").
Arthur Kennedy is better than usual as the newcomer to Dietrich's brood of happy killers and robbers (he and Marlene have palpable chemistry), but Mel Ferrer is stiff and unsure as suave outlaw Frenchy Fairmont (the cartoonish name doesn't match the actor playing the role).
Thrilling Western of murder , hate and revenge ; being compellingly directed by the great maestro Fritz Lang.
Acceptable Mel Ferrer as Frenchy Fairmont , an outlaw really enamored to Altar and who defends his love .The film displays a brilliant cinematography in rich Technicolor by expert cameraman Hal Mohr who had previously photographed Marlene Dietrich in Arizona (1939) .
Fritz Lang's final western is watchable because of it's strangeness.We start with the nominal hero(Arthur Kennedy)in happy mood with his future wife,who is promptly brutally murdered by two villains,one of whom shoots the other afterwards over an argument over money.Kennedy's thirst for revenge eventually takes him to a ranch run by former showgirl Marlene Dietrich,which is a haven for various killers,bad guys,gunfighters,etc.The man who carried out the brutal killing(Lloyd Gough)is one of the said above,and it takes Kennedy until the film's last few minutes to find out.There are many positive aspects of the film,but as many negative.Lang's moody,Teutonic direction is a major plus here,as are fine performances by Arthur Kennedy and Marlene Dietrich,but others,such as a badly miscast Mel Ferrer,a very dated linking ballad which tends to provoke unintentional derision nowadays,and some highly unconvincing outdoor studio sets made even more so by colour(the film probably would have been more effective in Black and White).One interesting piece of trivia:Lloyd Gough,who plays the brutal killer Kinch,did not receive a credit despite his pivotal role in RANCHO NOTORIOUS.This was because his left-wing politics fell foul of the House Un-American activities Commitee,and RKO boss Howard Hughes.As a result,Gough was blacklisted from Hollywood after this film,and did not appear in another until 15 years later(TONY ROME,1967)..
He winds up at a place known as Chuck-a-Luck, a ranch and front for a criminal hideout that is run by smouldering chanteuse Altar Keane {Marlene Dietrich}.
But problems arise as both Haskell and Frenchy vie for the attentions of Altar and slowly but surely, as Haskell gets closer to his target, it's evident that he is so torn and twisted by revenge he's become as bad as the villains he now aims to bring down.Reference Fritz Lang, love, betrayal and retribution, cloak them in a decidedly feminist sheen and what you get is Rancho Notorious.
Thirteen years after Marlene Dietrich lit up the old west and the town of Bottleneck in particular in Destry Rides Again, she got another chance to play an older, but maybe not so much wiser version of Frenchie as Altar Keane in Rancho Notorious.Apparently at one time Marlene was as notorious a saloon entertainer as Frenchie back in the day.
The place is called Chuck-a-Luck and its known in the western criminal community.Enter Arthur Kennedy who is after the man who raped, robbed, and murdered his fiancé, Gloria Henry.
He's got a line on the guy who did the deed that he's headed for this mysterious place called Chuck-a-Luck.Kennedy joins a pantheon of male Fritz Lang protagonists who get terribly wronged and are seeking vengeance.
He's not a western type by any stretch, but the point is that he is a cut above the usual outlaw bunch at the Marlene hideaway.Rancho Notorious is not a great western, a great Fritz Lang film, and definitely not one of Marlene's better films.
You would think the combination of Lang and Marlene Dietrich would be amazing, but this is my fourth viewing of the film over a 35 year period, and not once was I impressed with this movie.
Once with the gang, however, like EVERYONE in this film he inexplicably falls for the charms of Altar Keane (Marlene Dietrich)--a woman who runs sort of a hostel for crooks called 'Chuck-A-Luck'.
This is a severe knock against the film as is the annoying song "Chuck-A-Luck", though otherwise it is well acted, written and directed (by Fritz Lang of all people).
The Story of a Rape and Murder and the inevitable, tireless, revenge rampage is hardly the stuff usually seen with Cowpokes among wide open spaces.The antithesis of aesthetics doesn't always work here and there is some miscasting, most notably Arthur Kennedy who has a great snarl but falls way short in the wooing Scenes, and cannot overcome being blown off the Screen by Marlene Dietrich.
In a small town in the Wyoming, the pacific cowboy Vern Haskell (Arthur Kennedy) and his beloved fiancée Beth Forbes (Gloria Henry) will get married in eight days, and plan their lives living in a ranch of their own in eight years with many children.
In his journey, Vern learns how to shoot and listens to many stories about the famous Altar Keane (Marlene Dietrich), a woman that worked in many cabarets and made a fortune gambling in a Chuck-a-Luck wheel helped by the hit-man Frenchy Fairmont (Mel Ferrer), the fastest trigger in the west.
I am not fan of the genre, but this western directed by Fritz Lang tells a solid and credible story, with characters very well-developed and supported by a magnificent cast leaded by Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer.
Altar's (Marlene Dietrich) story as it told to Vern is shown in flashbacks in the film.
**SPOILERS** Fritz Lang western circa 1874 about murder and revenge with Vern Haskell, Authur Kennedy, out by himself looking for the killer of his fiancé Beth Forbes (Gloria Henry), who was shot to death in a robbery.
That in the end leads him to the notorious Chuck-O-luck Ranch owned by former saloon singer and dancer Altar Keane, Marlene Dietrich.
The killer gets the jump on Vern first by realizing who he is, by the way he mounts his horse, and that he's at the Chuck-O-Luck Ranch only looking for him and is not a wanted man like the rest of the desperadoes there.
Off-the-wall cowboy film that has a lot of hidden meanings in it, like all of Fritz Langs movies.
In the end after the usual and customary western-style shoot-out with almost everyone in the cast ending up dead it was the two lovers of Altar, Vern & Frenchy, who rode off in the sunset together forgetting their differences about the rivalry that they had over her.The movie had a very irritating and annoying theme song all through it that made it come across more funny then serious.
It's more like a western with an European touch - Fritz Lang's touch (and also Marlene Dietrich touch).
With it being directed by the great Fritz Lang (a director with a great and distinctively Expressionistic visual and directing style, with 'M' and 'Metropolis' being two of the finest examples) and starring Marlene Dietrich (especially fond of her work with Josef von Sternberg and in 'Witness for the Prosecution'), 'Rancho Notorious' had a lot of interest value.
Marlene Dietrich was 51 years old when she appeared in Rancho Notorious and to be playing a sexy saloon singer and the owner of a horse ranch hideout for a bunch of fugitives on the run from the law, why did the producers think she could pull it off?
I'll tell you why this over the hill saloon singer with her strong German accent starred in this offbeat western, it was because the German born director Fritz Lang wanted her to star in it.There is a plot to this western which is a woman is murdered during the execution of a robbery by two gunmen and the husband of the murdered woman is a cowboy named Vern Haskell (Arthur Kennedy) so he rides out of town in hot pursuit of his wife's killer until he finds him at the hideout horse ranch Chuck-O-Luck run by aged and weathered actress Marlene Dietrich who plays Altar Keane.So there is double crossing, bandits, gunslingers, two gunmen vying for a woman's affection, and a man on a mission to revenge his wife's murder, but there is a also a really bad musical score chiming in throughout this offbeat western, and Marlene Dietrich's heavy German accent was too much of a distraction for me to take this western too seriously.
Fritz Lang broke all the conventional rules of the western when he made Rancho Notorious and he was succesful and made an unique film.
It is a story about the obsession of revenge and how it can make a basically good man like Arthur Kennedy become worse than some outlaws (Marlene Dietrich and Mel Ferrer).
The interesting thing about Fritz Lang's western "Rancho Notorious" (1952) is that it is very interesting.
Lang sets up the story with a goodbye scene between Beth Forbes (Gloria Henry or Mrs. Mitchell to "Dennis the Menace" fans) and her fiancé, cowboy Vern Haskell (Arthur Kennedy), who gives her a jewel-studded brooch on his way out of town.
Rancho Notorious (1952) *** (out of 4) Offbeat but entertaining Western about a man (Arthur Kennedy) who goes searching for the man who raped and killed his fiancé.
He eventually meets up with an outlaw (Mel Ferrer) who takes him to a notorious, secret ranch ran by Altar Keane (Marlene Dietrich).
Not since JOHNNY GUITAR became a cult classic, has there been an odder western than RANCHO NOTORIOUS with its studio-bound outdoor sets filmed in muted Technicolor and such oddities as: 1) MEL FERRER, who looks cast against type as a fast gunslinger; 2) FRITZ LANG of film noir fame as the director of a mechanical western; 3) MARLENE DIETRICH fatally attracted to ARTHUR KENNEDY, with whom she shares no chemistry whatsoever; 4) GEORGE ("Superman") REEVES looking a bit flabby in a thin bad guy supporting role; 5) A clichéd, banal theme song to establish the "love, hate, revenge" motif of the story; 6) The central role of a tough outlaw (MARLENE DIETRICH) giving rise to comparisons with another cult favorite oddity, JOHNNY GUITAR and Miss JOAN CRAWFORD.To Dietrich's credit, when out of her western garb and gowned in jewels and gown, she looks stunning.
I'll always go out of my way to catch any of Fritz Lang's Hollywood output, even the rare westerns like this and enjoyed this tightly plotted little tragedy of murder hate and revenge as Arthur Kennedy embarks on a vengeance mission against the villain who brutally raped and murdered his fiancée.Unlike say, John Ford or Anthony Mann, two of his western making contemporaries, Lang keeps our focus on the characters and their story so that we rarely get sprawling landscape shots of men (or women) seemingly dwarfed by nature.
Instead we get to peer into a little microcosm world where more down to earth individuals grapple with their emotional urges, usually to the detriment of others around them.Thus, Kennedy's avenging angel holds our attention from first to last and while he gets his revenge by the end, with the help of outlaw gunslinger Frenchy Freemont, played by Mel Ferrer, from whom he improbably learns to become the quickest draw around, the tragedy is compounded by the incidental death of Deitrich's wonderfully-named Altar Keane.Within the confines of 90 short minutes, the characterisations go deeper then than most westerns you'll see helped by conviction acting, especially Kennedy in the lead as another of Lang's "little man" heroes dogged by tragedy who strike back hard against the offending world.
Previously only knowing Lang for his Sci-Fi,Film Noir and late Adventure movies,I excitingly got set to enter Lang's Western metropolis.The plot:Working as a ranch hand, Vern Haskell finds his peaceful life to be left broken when his fiancée Beth Forbes is killed during a robbery.
Locating the main salon where the game is played,Haskell crosses paths with Altar Keane,who along with getting lucky on Chuck-a-Luck,is now wearing some of Forbes jewellery.View on the film:Locked from giving a full crack of the whip by studio owner Howard Hughes taking control of the editing and his relationship with the lead actress being so "frosty" that they ended up not speaking to each other during production,director Fritz Lang & cinematographer Hal Mohr are still able to find a saddle which allows them to enter the Wild West with style,as expertly delivered overlapping images cast an evil under the sun Film Noir atmosphere under the West,with the burning hot sun dimming as Haskell takes another step to finding Forbes killers.
His revenge leads him to Chuck-a-luck, Altar Keane's ranch set up to hide criminals, and he finds more than he bargains for.
Lang does a great job building Altar Keane's character with a series of flashbacks.Arthur Kennedy's lead character, Vern Haskell, abandons a posse and sets out on a solo epic journey to track down the killer/rapist of his fiancé.
Despite an interesting roster of supporting players barely two members of the entire cast - Mel Ferrer, Arthur Kennedy, Frank Ferguson, William Frawley, Jack Elam - are able to look as if they are in the same movie, or care either way.
Fritz Lang directs this film with a 50 year old Dietrich showing how the new 50 looked in 1952.
Produced by the little known Fidelity Pictures and distributed by RKO, it was directed by Fritz Lang, and is beautifully photographed in glorious Technicolor.Small time rancher Vern Haskell (Arthur Kennedy) is engaged to marry Beth Forbes (Gloria Henry).