Western RoundUp: Rancho Notorious (1952)

Western summary: Rancho notorious (1952)

For the past few months, I’ve been writing about how I’ve recently caught up with a trio of Barbara Stanwyck’s ’50s westerns The Furies (1950), which I reported on in my column in early January.

This month I caught up with another ’50s western that was new to me, starring a remarkable actress, Marlene Dietrich. The movie is Rancho notorious (1952), which has just been released on beautiful Blu-ray by the Warner Archive Collection.

Rancho notorious was an RKO film directed by Fritz Lang and shot in Technicolor by Hal Mohr.

It features an interesting mix of actors in the cast, including Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer.

At the beginning of the film, cowboy Vern Haskell (Kennedy) is romancing his lover Beth (Gloria Henry), who will be his bride in just over a week.

Shortly after Vern leaves to return to his job, Beth is viciously attacked and killed in a robbery at her father’s business. Vern makes it his mission to find the man who murdered his love. The only clue he has is the word “Chuck-a-Luck,” which was the dying utterance of the killer’s hapless partner (John Doucette).

The winding path eventually leads Vern to the Chuck-a-Luck ranch owned by Altar Keane (Dietrich). The ranch serves as a hideout for robbers, including Altar’s longtime friend, Frenchy (Ferrer). Altar gains a 10% reduction when offering sanctuary and not asking questions.

Vern thinks Beth’s killer is at the ranch… but which man is it? One evening, Altar wears a brooch he gave to Beth, and Vern realizes it holds the answer he’s looking for…

How The Furies, Rancho notorious reminded of what came later Johnny guitar (1954), although I think the comparison is even more appropriate in this case. Like Vienna in the later film, Dietrich’s altar presides as queen over a bunch of rowdy men in a ‘palace’ she owns in the middle of nowhere.

Instead of the theme song “Johnny Guitar” sung by Peggy Lee, in this film we have the “Legend of Chuck-a-Luck” sung by another Lee, Bill – no relation to Peggy. Among Bill Lee’s impressive screen dubbing credits was Matt Mattox Seven brides for seven brothers (1954), John Kerr South Pacific (1958), Rod Taylor in One hundred and one Dalmatians (1961) and Christopher Plummer in The sound of music (1965).

I was particularly amused to see Frank Ferguson as one of the crooks hiding out at Altar’s ranch, dressed all in black and looking a lot like him Johnny guitar two years later.

While Rancho notorious is missing Johnny guitar‘s notable filming location in Sedona — it seems like it was shot on a backlot ranch, with perhaps some filming at Iverson Ranch — it shares some fake, almost surreal, exteriors. It’s also interesting to note that despite the film’s vivid colors, this is quite a dark story.

The film also includes a curious throwback to Dietrich’s earlier westerns, Destry rides again (1939), in which she played a character named Frenchy; The unusual name reappears here, but this time of Ferrer’s character.

The same year Rancho notorious was released, Kennedy would play a morally ambiguous character in one of my all-time favorite westerns, bend of the river (1952), which I wrote about in my very first column here in 2018. Here his vern is equally concerned but more admirable and I really appreciated his character’s journey from being a light-hearted romantic to a bitter avenger to a weary man who completes his mission and by the end of the film he has to deal with it figure out what to do with the rest of his life.

Some reviewers have complained about Kennedy being awkward with Dietrich late in the film, but I think that was on purpose and exactly the point – Vern didn’t love Altar the way Beth did, but pursued her for information. His uneasiness, as well as the falsity of his attraction, comes through loud and clear. Kennedy is quite good as a vengeful cowboy. As an aside, it occurred to me a few times that this might be a role that would have suited Van Heflin as well.

Dietrich’s altar is a woman who’s essentially had an empty life, save perhaps for her relationship with Frenchy, and she faces that fact near the end of the film. One of the liveliest scenes involves a slightly racy saloon “race” told in flashbacks, but while the character is said to be having a great time, the sequence struck me as very sad, illustrating Altar’s lack of self-esteem or restraint.

Ferrer’s Frenchy is something of an anti-hero: he’s clearly a villain, but he’s devoted to Altar, and compared to some of the creeps who hang out at Chuck-a-Luck he almost seems noble. The relationship that develops between Frenchy and Vern is one of the more interesting aspects of the film – one good, one bad, seemingly competing for altar, but ultimately they have each other’s backs. And by the end of the film, Vern has gone into such a dark place that there might not be much difference between the two men.

Gloria Henry is only briefly seen on screen at the beginning of the film, but her shadow hangs over the rest of the film, more like Coleen Gray than John Wayne’s lost love red river (1948). Henry has appeared in a number of B-Westerns throughout her film career, including a couple with Gene Autry. She was best known for her television roles Dennis the threat (1959-63). Henry passed away recently, in April 2021.

Rancho notorious has a massive cast with a remarkable roster of great character “faces” playing roles of varying sizes including George Reeves, Jack Elam, William Frawley, Harry Woods, Lane Chandler, Fuzzy Knight, I. Stanford Jolley, Dan Seymour, Russell Johnson, Kermit Maynard, Pierce Lyden, Harry Lauter, Dick Elliott, Lloyd Gough, and Emory Parnell. It’s great fun for a western fan to name each actor in turn as they appear on screen.

All in all I found Rancho notorious very worthwhile 89 minutes. I would even go so far as to say that this is a must-see 1950’s Western show to sit alongside Anthony Mann’s The Furies and Nicholas Rays Johnny guitar for an appreciation of notable Western female roles in what might be called the subgenre of “stylized Western melodrama”.

The Warner Archive Blu-ray is a beautiful print that online sources say is a new 4K master of the original Nitrate Technicolor negative. The soundtrack is strong and clear. The disc includes optional English subtitles, but there are no extras.

I recommend both the film and this Blu-ray release.

Many thanks to Warner Archive for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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– Laura Grieve for Classic Movie Hub

Laura can be found on her blog, Laura’s Miscellaneous Musings, where she has been writing about film since 2005, and on Twitter at @LaurasMiscMovie. A lifelong film buff, Laura loves classics like Disney, film noir, musicals and westerns. She regularly reports on classic film festivals in Southern California. Laura will be writing all about westerns at the Western RoundUp for CMH.