Customer Reviews

Rancho Notorious [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

At Last! Fritz Lang's final Western, "Rancho Notorious".

My main concern in buying a DVD is the quality of the transfer. And I only buy things of which I'm familiar and WANT to own.

With this disc I was more than pleasantly surprised. For the first time since it appeared on tape here is a copy to delight in. Not perfect, as at times it is a little muzzy, but the odd colouring and confined sets with painted back-drops have a beauty that suits the subject matter and Lang's interpretation of what the old West looked like. In fact, if memory serves me correctly it looks even better than it did on its initial release in the cinema. But that was a long, long time ago.

As a film it, like most of Lang's work, is an acquired taste. His characters are larger than life, they are highly emotional but well drawn, and he pushes on with his narrative. No longuers here - story, character development, action and romance -all completed in a fraction under one hundred minutes.

But what fascinates about Lang's work, expecially his Rancho Notorious, is his visual composition; his sparse use of objects in rooms so that there is nothing to distract the viewer from his sole purpose to tell a story; his almost obsessive way of framing his characters in doorways so that they receive our full attention.

This work, perhaps more so than many of his other American films, is a throw-back to the silent cinema of the Twenties. The emphasis is on the visual - camera movements, camera angles, composition (as stated above),and dialogue that is just slightly more informative than the captions that were once in use. And the jumps from one scene to the next often come as a surprise - give pause to grasp what has been happening and make us sit in awe at the confidence he had in his usage and understanding of the medium.

And the acting? Arthur Kennedy, as he was in the Westerns of Anthony Mann, intense, believable and gripping. Marlene, as ever, is in perfect control, regardless of the fact that she and Lang fought like cats and dogs during the filming. She was the consummate performer and had certainly learnt her lessons well from Joe

Verdict: Money well spent. A worthy addition to my DVD library.

With the exceptions of the truly delirious "Johnny Guitar" (only Western to my knowledge where the women shoot it out at the end, not the men) and the completely gonzo, '60's style lunacy of "Greaser's Palace," this is one of the oddest Westerns I've ever seen. That doesn't mean it isn't an entertaining, excellent film, however. Fritz Lang was one of the great film directors and Arthur Kennedy, the lead, excelled at portraying anguish and stress, two emotions very much on display throughout the film. Lang was a master of suspense and generates terrific tension and drama from the film's revenge motif, a theme that must have been getting pretty tired with Western movies even by the early '50's. First-time viewers will be on the edge of their seats.

The real show-stealer in the movie is Marlene Dietrich, however. She sings, hams it up outrageously (hilariously spoofed by Madeline Kahn later on in "Blazing Saddles"), loves the attention of being the only woman on an isolated ranch, and generally cows, browbeats, and defies every man in the movie. Get a load of her having the time of her life in the human horse race scene in the film's first flashback. Fans of old actors will have fun spotting people like George Reeves (the '50's TV "Superman")and William Frawley (Ethel's husband in "I Love Lucy").

Two other points: One: "Chuck-A-Luck" has to be one of the most tuneless, odd melodies ever selected for a movie theme song. Two: Lang really skirted the Hays Code in this film, the rigid set of rules as to what could and couldn't be portrayed by Hollywood. There's quite a bit of blood (pretty much a big no-no in those days); the fact that the protagonist's fiance is raped before being murdered is made fairly plain (again by the standards of that day); and the protagonist and a known outlaw are shown riding away at the end of the film even though the Hays Code required that any criminal in a film should be punished or die for his crimes (Lang got around this by having the theme song refer to both men dying that day, but, like a good bit of the movie, this really doesn't make much sense).

I recommend this film to fans of offbeat Westerns in particular and to fans of a well-made films in general.

This 1952 hour and a half film starring Marlene Dietrich playing Marlene Dietrich in another western, singing, hamming it up, and acting as if she were masterly and sexually irresistible, will undoubtedly be enjoyable by her fans. However the acting is heavy-handed and campy. We see actors expressing overly strong feelings of curiosity, hatred, jealousy, and the like. We see an actor laughing inappropriately. It is almost, but not quite, like the non-speaking films where the actors had to show their feelings on their faces because they couldn't vocalize them.

It is the 1870s. Dietrich runs a hideout for bandits and takes a tenth of their loot for housing them. Two bandits kill the fiancé of a man who gives up everything to revenge her death. One bandit kills the other, leaving him only one man to find. He comes to Dietrich's ranch, finds many bandits, but needs to identify which one is his fiancé's murderer and take his revenge.

In my estimation, Rancho Notorious rates up there with the best of the 1940 Western epics! Great acting & stars like Marlene Dietrich,Mel Ferrer & Arthur Kennedy,top the bill.
I would highly recommend this movie to any Western fan for both the story,the acting & scenery,as well!

Fritz Lang's last Western and, in many ways, his finest. One of the director's bleakest works, "Rancho Notorious" (1952) also serves as a vehicle for Marlene Dietrich, whose Germanic flavor almost lapses into self-parody. Lang's perverse, stylized "B" movie distorts reality in its use of artificial backdrops and shadowy interiors. The rugged individualism of "Rancho Notorious" is markedly different from the epic grandeur of John Ford, thus paving the way for the "psychological" Westerns of Anthony Mann and Budd Boetticher.

The interesting thing about Fritz Lang's western "Rancho Notorious" (1952) is that it is very interesting. Mostly that is style over substance because the story is rather routine and the cast is nothing to write home about. Yet somehow the way Lang tells the story transforms this film into something very special. Flashbacks were nothing new, even in 1952, but Lang uses them very efficiently at several points in the film to provide a nice bit of background and character development.

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. The story is told from Vern's point-of- view, so when later that day Beth is raped and killed in her fathers assay office, Lang has the violence occur off camera, showing only accomplice Whitey waiting outside the office. The murderer is only shown very briefly and his identity remains almost as unclear to the viewer as it is to Vern. The film is about Vern's efforts to track down a man who he cannot identify. This is what gives the film a complexity (to the first-time viewer) that is far greater than the standard "avenge your sweetheart's murder" story. Not unlike "High Noon", where the Frank Miller character provides all the motivational elements but is not actually seen until the last few minutes of the film. Lang understood how to structure a film and uses the language of film to play with his audience.

Vern continues alone after the town's posse turns back (insert "The Searchers" here) at the Wyoming border. Meanwhile the two outlaws have a falling out and the murderer shoots Whitey and leaves him for dead. Still being told from Vern's POV, Lang cuts ahead to Vern catching up with the dying Whitey who mutters "chuck-a-luck" when asked where his murderer is heading. Chuck-a- luck, the alternative title of the film, is a gambling wheel (sometimes a dice game) found in western saloons. It gives Vern very little to go on but in a town near the Mexican border he is able to link it to a legendary woman named Altar Keane (Marlene Dietrich). Altar runs a "hole-in-the-wall" type outlaw sanctuary and Vern gains admission by helping her boyfriend Frenchy Fairmont (Mel Ferrer) break out of jail.

There is immediate chemistry between Vern and Altar. She explains to him her rancho's "no questions" rule and introduces him to a group of outlaws who use the place as a base of operations, kicking back a percentage of their loot to Altar. A couple days later Vern knows that he is in the right place when Altar puts on Beth's brooch. The remainder of the film concerns Vern's attempts to deduce which of the resident outlaws is Beth's murderer.

Throughout the film, voice-over commentary is provided by a Frankie Lane style ballad, which would be nicely satirized by Nat King Cole in "Cat Ballou". The film also inspired a parody of Dietrich in "Blazing Saddles".

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

"Rancho Notorious" is a western film directed by none other than Fritz Lang, one of the fathers of film noir. More than anyone else he is responsible for popularizing the German school of expressionist film, with the "Dr. Mabuse" series (1922, 1933, 1960), "Metropolis" (1927), and "M" (1931). In 1934 he came to the US where he made such notable films as "Fury" (1936), "The Return of Frank James" (1940), "Western Union" (1940), "Hangman Also Die" (1943), "The Woman in the Window" (1944), "Scarlet Street" (1945), and "Clash by Night" (1952). While he was never nominated for an Oscar, his work influenced the work of many directors, including Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock.

The film revolves around a love triangle between Marlene Dietrich, Arthur Kennedy, and Mel Ferrar. Also on tap are William Frawley, John Doucette, and Fuzzy Knight, while resident at the Rancho are George Reeves, Jack Elam, Dan Seymour, and Frank Ferguson.

Marlene Dietrich appeared in more than a dozen films before her stunning role in "The Blue Angel" (1930). She would be nominated for an Oscar ("Morocco" in 1930) and a Golden Globe (Witness for the Prosecution" in 1957 - my personal Dietrich favorite). Her performance as "Frenchy" in "Destry Rides Again" (1939) has been parodied in many films. She reprises her role as a dance hall performer turned hotel keeper on the Chuck-a-Luck rancho where outlaws pay 10% for safe haven.

Arthur Kennedy plays the rancher whose fiancé is killed and hunts the killer, leading him ultimately to the Rancho. Kennedy made his film debut in "City of Conquest" (1940), and he went on to receive 5 Oscar nominations ("Champion", "Bright Victory", "Trial", "Peyton Place", "Some Came Running") although he never won (tying Claude Reins' record). He won a Golden Globe in 1955 for "The Trial" and the NY Film Critics Award in 1951 for "Bright Victory". He was one of the finest supporting actors in film history, appearing opposite Bogart in "High Sierra" (1941), Errol Flynn in "They Died with Their Boots On" (1941), Kirk Douglas in "Champion" (1949), and his good friend Anthony Quinn in "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962).

Mel Ferrer plays "Frency", Dietrich's right hand man. He appeared in more than 100 films, the most famous of which were "War and Peace" (1956) and "Scaramouche" (1952). He also worked as a director ("Green Mansions") and producer ("Wait Until Dark", "El Greco") and preferred behind the camera work to acting.

On the trail of the killer, Kennedy runs into -

- William Frawley, whose chubby face and round body are well known to "I Love Lucy" fans, but he had more than 100 films to his credit, starting in 1916. He was often the second banana and usually in comedies like "Alibi Ike" (1935) and "Miracle on 34th Street" (1947). Later he worked with Fred McMurray on "My Three Sons" (1960-5). Frawley plays a double dealing gambler named Baldy, one of his rare villainous roles.

- John Doucette, whose chubby face, deep voice,and heavy set frame are familiar to everyone from his 200+ films, usually as a heavy. He was said to be the fastest draw in Hollywood. He was equally at home in film and on TV and was comfortable in Westerns as well as biblical epics. He plays "Whitey", the lookout when Kennedy's fiance is raped and killed. For some strange reason, Lang has him wearing a blonde wig, which makes him look a little silly. In any event, Doucette is killed early on so we don't have to continually be amused by his long blond locks.

- Fuzzy Knight plays a barber. Knight made nearly 200 films, many of them as the comic sidekick in westerns, often with Tex Ritter or Johnny Mack Brown, although he was also utilized by such comedy stars as Mae West and W.C. Fields. He used a characteristic stutter to gain comic edge, but in fact he had no stutter and had a beautiful singing voice.

- Fred Graham plays a bandit slain by Kennedy during his search for the Rancho. Graham was one of Hollywood's best "brawlers" and was a stunt double to all the top actors, especially John Wayne who called him "Slugger."

Among the outlaws at the Rancho are -

- George Reeves, who is best known as Superman from the 1950s TV series but in fact he was a film actor and appeared in more than 50 films including "GWTW" (1939), "The Strawberry Blonde" (1941), "Blood and Sand" (1941), and "The Adventures of Sir Galahad" (1949). "Rancho" was one of his last films as the TV series started in 1952. Reeves plays a girl crazy bushwacker on the run.

- Crazy eyed Jack Elam is best known for his villaneous roles in westerns like Vera Cruz" (1954), "Wichita" (1955), "The Man From Laramie" (1955), and "Gunfight at OK Corral" (1957). I enjoyed him best as Alamosa Bill in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" (1973). Later in life he turned to comedy and gave many memorable performances in films like "The Apple Dumpling Gang" (1979) and "Cannonball Run" (1981) and on TV. He describe his career this way -"Who's Jack Elam? Get me Jack Elam! Get me a Jack Elam type. Get me a young Jack Elam. Who's Jack Elam?" Elam plays a thief seeking asylum at the Rancho.

- Frank Ferguson has the distinction of appearing in both "Rancho" and "Johnny Guitar" (1954), two of the strangest yet most appealing westerns of the 50s (indeed, of any period). He's best known as Gus on "My Friend Flicka" (1955-6) and Eli Carson from TV's "Peyton Place" (1964-9). I think his performance in "Johnny Guitar" was among his best.

- Dan Seymour was the poor man's Sidney Greenstreet, appearing as a villain in Bogart films such as "Casablanca", "Key Largo", and "To Have and Have Not." He was a good friend of Fritz Lang and appeared in several Lang films such as Cloak and Dagger" (1946), "The Big Heat" (1953), and "Beyond a Reasonable Doubt" (1956). His best role was as the French Vichy Captain in "To Have and Have Not".

Hal Mohr is the photographer. He worked with Dietrich on "Destry Rides Again" (1939) and got into several fights over her insistence that she look as good in 1952 as she had in 1939. Mohr was an Oscar winning photographer ("A Midsummer's Night Dream" and "Phantom of the Opera") and the truth is he did an excellent job and Dietrich looks really good for a 51 year old woman.

Daniel Taradash did the screenplay. Taradash won an Oscar for "From Here to Eternity" (1954) and authored more than a dozen films including "Desiree" (1954), "Picnic" (1955), "Bell Book and Candle" (1958) and "Castle Keep" (1969).

For Fritz Lang fans, there is a similar film, called "The Big Heat" (1953) that is a cop drama with similar themes as "Rancho". Glenn Ford plays a good cop whose wfe is killed and he gets involved with a femme fatale played by Gloria Grahame in his quest for revenge. The Mel Ferrer role is played by Lee Marvin, although Ferrar is much more gentile.

The film is classic Fritz Lang in that it explores Lang's belief that people are conflicted. Kennedy is the straight man, but he becomes comfortable as an outlaw. Ferrar is the outlaw who longs for the straight life, and Dietrich is the whore with a heart of gold.

Lang also loved to illustrate life's vicissitudes. Chance is a major player. It's by chance that Kennedy's fiancé is standing alone when the killer enters town. It's by chance that he gets thrown into the same jail as Ferrer, and it's by chance that the man who killed his fiancé is still at the Chuck-a-Luck and has given Dietrich a broach which Kennedy once gave his fiancé.

Lang also liked to show that heroism, like villainy, lay within each person, and wasn't the place of the superman. Thus Kennedy is a very average cowboy (he doesn't even carry a gun, at first) who must reach inside himself to become the hero, and he does this by finding his other self.

So far, so good. BUT...

The music in this film is so ludicrous it actually distracts. We expect to hear it in a Mel Brooks film. The sets look like a high school production. And the Technicolor looks flushed out.

Some people call this a noir western. Not true. There is very little noir about this film. The use of Technicolor, mostly day time shots, camera angles that are so traditional they look like silent films at some points (keep in mind that Lang was a silent film master), and no real treachery or double dealing all speak against any type of noir interpretation for the film. Yes we have flashbacks and yes the cast of characters are a motley group, and yes a few people get killed along the way, but these are incidental.

All things considered, this film should have limited appeal. Fanatic Fritz fans will enjoy watching a Lang western, but fans of westerns have plenty of places to look elsewhere. Dietrich fans should see "Destry" if they want to see Marlene in a saloon.

The scene where the actress plays cards with her not that adoring men is the partner in deja vu with Bridget Von Hammersmack's tavern (WHY the basement?) scene. I'm not a fan of Westerns but I watched this movie because I wanted to see Mel Ferrer opposite the ultimate World War 2 Skrull - he's so besotted with her ALLEGEDLY that he would do anything for her. I'm going to have a lot of fun watching this movie with my kids and discussing what love is and what it isn't and that's what this movie is about. It's about a girl and the cowhand who loves her and who doesn't want NO SKRULLS. This is a perfect movie because everything about it is intentional and accurate delivers the message, the truth about who really matters and who gets smoke blown up her 51 year old corseted ass.