Desert Fury (1947)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

best movie i've ever seen.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Film Noir and Technicolor have never really mixed well, so in the few of them made, the plot has needed to be extra colorful in order to make it work. For Paramount's "Desert Fury", the color isn't a metaphor for the lives of the characters here, but definitely a contrast to it. The film could also be considered an update of George Bernard Shaw's "Mrs. Warren's Profession" where a seemingly devoted mother is actually a madame, and the daughter (here played by Lizabeth Scott) is a seemingly sweet young socialite. But Scott, like her mother (Mary Astor), is attracted to the dangerous, and for her, that is gambler John Hodiak, whose right-hand man (Wendell Corey) is a bit too "devoted" to his boss.A young Burt Lancaster is cast against his normal type as the local lawman, patiently in love with Scott while out to get the goods on Hodiak. Tension arises as the possessive Astor has her own designs on Hodiak (not to mention a slight mustache, accentuated by the color photography and really obvious in a big screen revival of this which I saw) and Corey gets more possessive of his employer. Astor's showy part (her best since "The Maltese Falcon") outshines the others, although Scott's sultriness in this role makes her unforgettable as well. The truth of the matter is that Ms. Astor and Ms. Scott do not at all seem like mother and daughter, as if Lizabeth's character was actually one of Astor's "girls" rather than her own. The Arizona desert is even more impressive in color and is a unique feature to make this must-see film noir, even if it is filled with flaws.

****SPOILERS****It's when both not still out of her teens 19 year old Paula Haller played by 25 year old and looking much older actress Lizabeth Scott meets by the rickety old bridge gambler Eddie Bendix, John Hodiak,sparks start to fly in all the wrong directions. It seems that young Paula is a dead ringer for Eddie's late wife Angela who was killed in an accident two years ago at that very same bridge when her car was forced off the road! And the person responsible for that tragedy was Eddie Bendix himself! We get to see Paula's mom Fritzi, Mary Astor, who runs the town of Chuckwalla Nevada's casino furious at the sight of her daughter being in town instead of collage which she had dropped out of.This leads to tension between mother & daughter that in the end erupts to a fever pitch.With the now in love with Paula Eddie eloping with Paula to Las Vages that in fact ends , to everyone in the cast, in disaster.To round things out there's former rodeo rider now deputy sheriff "Handsom Tom" Hanson, Burt Lancaster, who's got his eye on Paula as well as his suspicions about Eddie whom he feels drove his wife Angela off the road two years ago killing her. It's in fact Eddie's friend Johnny who pulling the strings in all this which by manipulating the confused, about his sexuality, Eddie to stay with him at all costs and not get involved with anyone, man or woman, else. It was Johnny who had Eddie kill his wife by forcing her off the road and now plans to have him do the same thing with Paula! That in order for him-very possibly a closet gay-to have Eddie all to himself!***SPOILERS*** Strange for a movie in 1947 to have all these hidden subplots that at the time confused many of those in the audience watching it. It was Eddie break with Johnny that lead to the eruption of violence that happened at the end of the movie. Johnny got gunned down by Eddie and he later shared the very same fate that his wife did which opened the door for "Handsom Tom" Hanson to walk off into the sunset with Paula who realized that he , not Eddie, was the man for her!

I wanted to watch this film because the idea of a film noir in color that works always intrigues me….especially one with Burt Lancaster, Lizabeth Scott & Mary Astor…..unfortunately, it doesn't work here….which, for me, leaves "Chinatown" as the only color noir that's true to the genre….Desert Fury is not really film noir- more like a melodramatic soap opera with a very soap opera score by Miklós Rózsa…..and terrible 'soap opera' over-acting with the exception of Lancaster….add in a thin storyline and poor editing, leaving only the above average cinematography (great desert landscapes) to appreciate…..Plus it always cracks me up when characters in any movie of any era meet each other, kiss a couple of times and all of a sudden they're 'in love' with each other…and the storybook ending where the bad guys die and the couple walks off into the sunrise together is not remotely film noir…..for the real stuff, watch "Out of the Past", "The Killers", "Double Indemnity" or the "Asphalt Jungle"…..

After quitting school, the nineteen year-old quicksilver Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott) returns to Chuckwalla, Nevada, where her mother Fritzi Haller (Mary Astor) is a powerful owner of the casino Purple Sage. Paula meets the racketeer Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak), who is suspect of murdering his wife and is also returning to the town with his friend Johnny Ryan (Wendell Corey), parked on the bridge nearby Chuckwalla and she greets him.Paula does not have a good relationship with her mother Fritzi and when she sees how unpleasant Eddie is for her, she begins a relationship with the crook. Sheriff Tom Hanson (Burt Lancaster), who is an old friend of Fritzi and has a crush on Paula, advises her about the character of Eddie Bendix. Johnny, who is very close to Eddie, also tries to break up their relationship. But the resolute Paula does not give up easily until she knows the past of her beloved Eddie."Desert Fury" is a disappointing film where the most interesting element is the ambiguous relationship of Johnny Ryan and Eddie Bendix. In the present days, it is very clear that they are more than friends and Johnny is jealous and in love with Eddie. But the subterfuge adopted by Lewis Allen to disclose their bond in 1947 is witty. The colors of this film are also very bright, but in the DVD it is very clear the scenario in studio. Lizabeth Scott, performing a rebel character ahead of time, is impressively beautiful but does not convince as a nineteen year-old girl. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): "A Filha da Pecadora" ("The Daughter of the Sinner")