Hellen I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Diagonaldi Very well executed

Jemima It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Kayden This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

DKosty123 Fritz Lang directs this film with a 50 year old Dietrich showing how the new 50 looked in 1952. This color film was almost certainly one of RKO's more expensive films at this time. In 5 more years, 2 of their employees- Lucy and Desi would buy the studio. In the meantime, this is one of the more impressive films for RKO this long after King Kong was made. It has Dietrich quite aptly cast as an aging beauty queen who has gone to making a living by having men steal money for her and providing a safe haven for the crooks at her ranch.The plot line has more to do with a man losing his wife to be a week before the wedding to one of these crooks. He chases the guy to try to get revenge but winds up having to find the guy using Dietrich ranch and Marlene to locate him. Trouble is there are several guys in her haven and he can't figure out which one unless he can get her to tell him. In the process he falls in love with the aging woman who can still pack a wallop. There are plenty of character actors in support of the main cast. Even William Frawley who would eventually work for Lucy and Desi has a small role in this one. There is a lot of talent here and a bit of stock footage of the Monument Valley in the back drop. Overall, this is a film with lots of proved talent and a veteran director still proving they can do a solid film.Thing is in 1952, all of them are considered has be-ens so the film loses at the box office which is no help to the struggling studio. It is a really good forum for those of us who want to look back at the folks who did this one.

Michael_Elliott 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). This ranch hides criminals wanted by the law and our hero hopes that the guilty man is hiding here. I had never heard too much talk about this film, which seems to be hidden from conversations when one discusses the work of Lang or even Dietrich. I found the storytelling here to be quite different than what you'd expect and this is one reason why the film comes off so fresh even though the actual story isn't anything we haven't seen countless times before. The first thirty minutes shows Kennedy ridding from town to town trying to find out anything about the killer or this mysterious ranch. When he arrives to a new town we then hear the story, which is shown to us in a flashback. This approach makes for a rather offbeat form of storytelling but I found it unique enough to the point where I really enjoyed it. The final hour is when we finally get to the actual ranch and all the drama begins to happen with Kennedy searching for his man while at the same time starting a relationship with Dietrich. Lang's direction is top-notch from start to finish with some very good touches and some even more impressive editing. I really enjoyed the cinematography as well because Lang constantly keeps his camera moving and perfectly picking up all the action that is going on. I like how Lang lets the action start and then he slowly zooms in on the characters. Apparently there was a lot of production problems with Dietrich "demanding" to look as young as she possible could here and she does look attractive here. Her performance is also pretty good as she really digs deep into the character and makes us believe the changes she goes through. Kennedy is extremely good as well as he plays the anger and hatred of his character quite well. The two have a nice chemistry together and their relationship works rather well. Ferrer, Jack Elam, George Reeves and Frank Ferguson round out the supporting cast and turn in good work. There are a few problems besides the predictable story and that's a pretty silly song that is constantly playing throughout the movie and we even get a break in everything for Dietrich to sing a tune. These items we could have done without but overall this is an impressive little gem.

jc-osms 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. However, quite what a middle-aged female Teutonic bar-room balladeer like Deitrich is doing offering safe-home protection for on-the-run outlaws is anyone's guess but the grand dame still scrubs up well even in her fifties and convinces you that her personality can rule this unruly mob. There are a few minor Expressionist Lang touches to look out for, for example the moment when Kennedy's girl realises the extent of the danger she's in is conveyed in two brief close-ups of her and her attacker, a brawl involving Kennedy briefly reflected in a mirror and a "meet the gang" succession of front-facing portrait shots culminating in the driven, staring features of Kennedy. There's even a little sub-Weimar decadence brought to life in Deitrich's introduction scene with her riding "horseback" a adoring male in a slightly bizarre barroom scene from her younger days. I could have done without the contemporary sub-Frankie Laine balladeering interspersed throughout and wasn't quite convinced by the Kennedy/Ferrer/Dietrich triangle with Ferrer not quite exuding the swagger or danger of being the fastest gun but this unusual western, shot in garish Technicolour (no doubt Deitrich had the lights on full-pelt!) belies the convolutions of its plot to deliver a watchable film, worth seeking out.

bkoganbing 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.