Pretty Good

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Synopsis: Vern Haskell, a nice rancher, seeks out to avenge his fiancé's death when she is killed during a robbery. 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. Personally, I find most European "art" movies unwatchable. However, Fritz Lang's Hollywood movies are different. They have this weird arty European vibe, but combined with basic American entertainment practicality. This is what makes "Rancho Notorious" so worth watching.Here's a list of positives: This is just an great part for Marlene Dietrich. It fits her like a glove and she hits the ball way out of the park. 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. Six years later, a similar storyline formed the basis of the greatest Western ever made, "The Searchers". Unlike, Ethan Edwards, Verne travels alone, an alienated individual roaming the formless, vast West bent on revenge.Lang milks the concept of a community of outlaws, or brotherhood of outlaws to the maximum in this film. This is one of those arty European things that adds so much to the movie and makes watching it such a different experience from the average Western.The movie is limited by the following problems:You have to look past the silly song narration to enjoy this film.This was shot completely in Burbank on some of the phoniest sets I've ever seen.Not a single Indian, Civil War or Mexican theme introduced, outside of some Mexican servants.Poorly developed heavy. Kinch, the rapist/murderer, has a very small part and is a blatant coward.No comic relief.Mel Ferrer seems very stiff and out of place against fine performances by Dietrich and Kennedy.Hey, I love Arthur Kennedy. Although he gets the most out of his acting ability in this film, he's just not a legit romantic lead, especially opposite Dietrich. Some more starpower in that spot would have elevated this movie substantially. Kennedy was a great supporting actor, see is role as Vic Hansbro in "The Man From Laramie", or as Emerson Cole in "Bend of the River".

The third and last Western by Fritz Lang, Rancho Notorious is a weird, distinctive, film-noir infused Oater containing familiar Fritz Lang themes. Adapted by Daniel Taradash from an original story by Silvia Richards, the story follows Arthur Kennedy's frontiersman Vern Haskell as he trawls the West in search of the culprit responsible for the rape and murder of his fiancée. 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}. Posing as a criminal himself, Haskell hooks up with gunslinger Frenchy Fairmont {Mel Ferrer} and infiltrates the unsavoury mob behind the scenes of the Chuck-a-Luck. 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. That the film is an oddity is something of an understatement, yet it works in a very unique sort of way. The film opens with one of the most god awful title songs used in Westerns, "Legend of Chuck-A-Luck" song by Bill Lee, from then the tune is used at points of reference in the narrative. It seems like a joke song, hell it sounds like a joke song, but within the first quarter of the film a pretty young lady is raped and murdered, Haskell is informed that she "wasn't spared anything," this is completely at odds with the tone that had been set at that time. The Technicolour photography provided by Hal Mohr has a garish sheen to it, this too gives the film a confused feel, most likely the intention there is to convey a sense of gloom as Haskell's bile starts to rise. And then the first sight of Dietrich, astride a man, riding him like a horse in some bizarre barroom contest. All of which points to Lang perhaps being over audacious with his intentions. But he wasn't, and to stay with the film brings many rewards as he revels in the tale of inner turmoil. This ultimately becomes a perfect companion piece to Lang's brilliant film noir the following year, The Big Heat. The similarities between the lead male protagonist and the femme fatale are impossible to cast aside as being mere coincidence. Rest assured Lang was at home with these themes, and cinema fans are the better for it.It was a troubled production tho, one that belies the quality of the final product. Studio head Howard Hughes kept interfering {nothing new there of course}, even taking away control of the editing from the increasingly infuriated Lang. While the relationship between the fiery director and Dietrich broke down to such an extent they stopped talking to each other by the end of the film. Dietrich was troubled by her age at this time, often begging Mohr to work miracles with his photography to convey a more youthful look for the once "Babe of Berlin". Yet she need not of worried for her real life concerns dovetail with that of her character, which in turn gives the film a revelatory performance. With Dietrich backed up by the similarity excellent Kennedy, Rancho Notorious has much class to go with its odd and visionary touches. A different sort of Western to be sure, but most definitely a Fritz Lang baby, this deserves the classic status that is now afforded it. 8/10

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. But she's got a new line of work. She's taken her money and got a ranch now that doubles as an outlaw hideout. For a cut in their loot she gives them asylum. 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. It's a good group, Spencer Tracy in Fury, Glenn Ford in The Big Heat, Henry Fonda in The Return of Frank James. Lang's heroes are looking for vengeance and there's not too much they won't do to get it.Before Hitler came to power, Fritz Lang was the top German director and Marlene Dietrich their brightest female star. They had not worked together while in Germany, over here they got involved romantically for a bit, but never professionally. They were friends, but that ended with Rancho Notorious. Lang may have been anti-Nazi, but on the soundstage he was a regular Prussian martinet. Henry Fonda hated working with him on the two films he did and so did Dietrich.One of the sheltered outlaws is George Reeves, taking a hiatus from Superman. Reeves is a love and leave them type and for a while Kennedy thinks he's the one that killed Henry. He does a very good job in the part and it's tragic to think he was capable of so much more than a kid's television superhero.Mel Ferrer plays Marlene's boyfriend, a flashy gunman who curiously enough is named Frenchy. 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. But it's entertaining enough and there ain't no one like Ms. Dietrich as a saloon entertainer.

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. But most of the time the close-ups are less than flattering and only emphasize the modern make-up and hairstyle that doesn't exactly smack of the Old West. It's a bit jarring, to say the least.Most of the performances are standard for this genre, but ARTHUR KENNEDY stands out like a sore thumb as the biggest miscasting mistake in the film, aside from MEL FERRER. Kennedy's tough guy seems like a pose left over from so many other of his petulant performances and this time there's absolutely nothing visible in his chemistry with Dietrich. No sparks despite all of his tempestuous outbreaks.Summing up: A trifle that can easily be overlooked in the resume of Fritz Lang.