desert fury movie review

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Desert Fury

The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them. The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them. The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them.

Lewis Allen
Robert Rossen
Ramona Stewart
A.I. Bezzerides
John Hodiak
Lizabeth Scott
Burt Lancaster
34 User reviews
33 Critic reviews

Eddie Bendix

Paula Haller

Johnny Ryan

Fritzi Haller

Claire Lindquist

Judge Berle Lindquist

Sheriff Pat Johnson

Mrs. Lindquist
Drunk in Jail
(uncredited)

Mike - Bartender

Pete - Cafe Owner
Dan - Deputy

A.I. Bezzerides (uncredited)
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Trivia The beautiful wood paneled burgundy convertible driven by Paula in the film is a 1946 Chrysler New Yorker Town and Country. These handsome cruisers weighed over two tons, and were 218 inches long, 15 inches longer than the longest sedans produced today. The Town & Country cars were virtually coachbuilt inside and out, and their prices reflected this slow method of production. Despite prices that rivaled Cadillac-a base of $2,725 in 1946, some 8,368 New Yorker Town & Country convertibles found willing buyers during those three years.
Goofs At 40 minutes in, when Tom Hanson (Burt Lancaster) pulls up to where Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott) is and parks, the car is at an angle to the walk, but then all of a sudden it is parallel with the walk.

Paula Haller : What did you tell her, Judge? That there's really no difference between us, that you're one of Fritzi's partners? That you make your money the same way Fritzi does except you get paid off in back alleys so that you can stay respectable?

Fritzi Haller : Oh don't talk like that! The Judge...

Paula Haller : Judge! Even the title's phony.

Fritzi Haller : He's trying to be nice, he said he'd talk to her.

Paula Haller : He's been talking to her ever since I was eight years ago.

Fritzi Haller : Well you're not eight years old anymore.

Paula Haller : No. I used to cry when I was eight.

Fritzi Haller : But you don't cry anymore?

Paula Haller : No, I'm like you now Fritzi. I'm getting more like you every day.

Judge Berle Lindquist : Like mother, like daughter, two very charming...

Fritzi Haller : Oh shut up!

Connections Featured in Wealth of the World: Transport (1950)

User reviews 34

HotToastyRag
Mar 7, 2019
How long is Desert Fury? Powered by Alexa
August 15, 1947 (United States)
United States
Desert Town
Clarkdale, Arizona, USA (car crash on the Tuzigoot Bridge crossing the Verde River)
Hal Wallis Productions
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 36 minutes

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Movie Review: "Desert Fury" (1947)

I've been reading about this movie for thirty years but never had much interest in seeing it. Your review makes me want to give it a try. Thanks, Ed

"Test Tube Baby" by Sam Fuller (1936)

Test Tube Baby is the second novel from Samuel Fuller (here credited as “Sam Fuller”). Published in 1936 by Godwin, Publishers, it is among...

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Desert Fury Reviews

I loved this film, which isn't afraid to play to its pulpy roots.

Full Review | Aug 31, 2022

It's as modern as the casino at Las Vegas and as rugged as the Battle of the Little Big Horn.

Full Review | Oct 21, 2020

Desert Fury is delightful melodramatic confection. It's not a good film by any means but boy is it enjoyable.

Full Review | Apr 22, 2019

If you could be sure that it was meant to be funny, you could relax and enjoy it thoroughly.

Full Review | Mar 2, 2018

As a self-described "front row performer," Cave is at home in this unusual film, backstroking in the ornate aquarium that Forsythe and Pollard have constructed for him.

Full Review | Sep 15, 2014

Mordant film noir, shot in a snazzy Technicolor.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 24, 2013

A star-studded cast regrettably cannot overcome the shortcomings of Robert Rossen's script.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 27, 2012

A beaut of a Technicolored mistake from beginning to end.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5 | Nov 27, 2012

It could easily have been a horrible jumble, but in fact it's compulsively watchable.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 27, 2012

Classic Film Noir exposes the myths by which we fulfil our desires — sex — murder — and the suburban American dream

Desert Fury (1947)

Racy, gaudy and melodramatic, Desert Fury (1947) commences as a somewhat typical if confused film noir.

The setup, despite the bright colours is as regular as can be. There is mystery ― why are these two men returning to the rubbishy mining town of Chuckawulla? There is threat ― they pose a threat to law and order, clearly, but more than that a threat to the pretty young female lead.

There is the resurfacing of the past, which bubbles away throughout, and takes an age to fully surface. And there is a night-club, the gambling den known as The Purple Sage ― the interior of which we see very little.

Mostly in fact, on balance, Desert Fury appears to be cars racing along the scrubland highway, to and from various ranches.

Lizbeth Scott and Mary Astor play a mother and daughter at war, and it’s really their film. You couldn’t win as a woman in Hollywood, at least in the Technicolor fat-rolls of the mid Twentieth Century. It’s a question of judgement.

This judgement isn’t just by the men, but women judge other women to a higher standard too. So you can’t win.

Mary Astor is the owner of The Purple Sage a successful business woman, which is not a good thing to be at any time. Her energy as a businesswoman is signalled in one scene in which we find her considering a roll of receipts.

Mary Astor’s business chops are also signalled however in the fact that she’s tough ― as tough as a man in fact. That is how it works.

And about a third of the way along its melodramatic and rather un-suspenseful course, Desert Fury seems to morph into a woman’s picture. As far as the action goes for the 1940s, these are women’s choices that are under the microscope. Mary Astor’s character Fritzi Haller is no Mildred Pierce, but the perils of being a woman in business are certainly touched upon.

The truth of the story of Desert Fury however concerns the choices of her daughter. Choice of suitor, choice of career ― she toys with the idea of following her hard nosed mother into running the local den of iniquity, although housewife seems to be her ultimate settlement ― and that other perennial ― whether to go for the bad boy, against her mother’s wishes ― or the good boy ― here modelled by Burt Lancaster.

After the subtleties and demands of The Killers (1946) and Brute Force (also 1947) ― two of the top film noir titles of the 1940s, of the entire canon in fact ― this is a slight dip, maybe even a comedown.

John Hodiak turns in a reasonable performance, although as with the others, he hasn’t a lot to work with. Hodiak's role requires that he looks shifty, act somewhat mean, and emphasis his past. And his own lover-boy and accomplice, Wendell Corey, carries the rest.

Dramatically, Desert Fury offers an unsatisfying waiting game for the end, and for Wendell Corey to spill the whole plot over a burger, coffee and handgun in a roadhouse. Once the truth is out there is a simple chase, and a predictable collision to round everything off. After which everyone can go home.

Here is Eddie Muller’s expert opinion, well worth quoting in full:

"Desert Fury is the gayest movie ever produced in Hollywood's golden era. The film is saturated - with incredibly lush color, fast and furious dialogue dripping with innuendo, double entendres, dark secrets, outraged face-slappings, overwrought Miklos Rosza violins. How has this film escaped revival or cult status? It's Hollywood at its most gloriously berserk."

And he's not wrong!

Despite being called "an incredibly bad picture" by The New York Times, Desert Fury still managed to make it to No. 37 in the top-grossing films of 1947 however:

Dark Passage, and Body and Soul seem to have done better though.

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Desert fury.

Directed by Lewis Allen

Two men wanted her love ... The third wanted her life !

The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them.

John Hodiak Lizabeth Scott Burt Lancaster Wendell Corey Mary Astor Kristine Miller William Harrigan James Flavin Jane Novak Anna Camargo Milton Kibbee Ray Teal

Director Director

Lewis Allen

Producer Producer

Hal B. Wallis

Writer Writer

Robert Rossen

Original Writer Original Writer

Ramona Stewart

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography.

Edward Cronjager Charles Lang

Art Direction Art Direction

Perry Ferguson

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Visual effects visual effects.

Gordon Jennings Farciot Edouart

Composer Composer

Miklós Rózsa

Sound Sound

Harry Lindgren Walter Oberst

Costume Design Costume Design

Makeup makeup.

Wally Westmore

Hal Wallis Productions

Releases by Date

23 jul 1947, 15 aug 1947, releases by country.

Premiere Salt Lake City, Utah
Theatrical NR

96 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by ele 🪷 ★★½ 2

lizabeth scott breaks up a gay marriage and then kisses her own mother. I wish the movie had more plot than this but it really doesn’t. the sad thing is that this is the first time i’ve ever been attracted to burt lancaster and his character is a cop. extremely frustrating.

Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★ 1

82th Review for The Collab Weekly Movie Watch

A film noir that conforms to many of its clichés with a strong amount of mystery and a decent romance with Lizabeth Scott, who many call "one of the most beautiful faces in the genre," doing a great job of displaying vulnerability but also as this type of femme fatale. Kate and Burt make a believable couple, and their romance is convincing enough. Though it shares many cinema noir conventions, the story does have a satisfying amount of tension. The music score, composed by the legendary Miklós Rózsa, successfully heightens the film's inherent sense of danger and romance in each and every moment.

All in all, a solid film noir that fans of the genre will definitely enjoy.

TODAY SCHEDULE Desert Fury The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter Barry Lyndon The Shining

Review by sakana1 ★★★½ 4

At its best, this is Sirk in the desert, with all of the heightened emotion and ridiculous stakes that the label implies. At its worst, its oscillates between the most clichéd of noirs and the simplest of simple romances. Usually, though, its somewhere in the messy, very sexually complicated middle, which isn’t a bad place to be.

Gangsters Eddie (John Hodiak) and Johnny (Wendell Corey) are about as explicitly gay as characters could be in 1947. Johnny is overtly jealous when Eddie falls into a mutual fascination with Paula (Lizabeth Scott, perfectly embodying the inexperienced college kid who is far too sexy for anyone’s good), and when Eddie tells Paula about his history with Johnny, it starts with “I went…

Review by theironcupcake ★★★★ 10

"What I like about this movie is that every character has moments in which you sympathize with them and see things from their point of view, and every character has moments when they just seem totally wrongheaded and unsympathetic. There's really no 'villain,' no one is evil, and no one is innocent or perfect either. [...] Very few guns are brandished in this movie until the very end. There are only a few scenes of physical violence, and the threat of it is quite submerged throughout most of the film. Nor do we really see any crimes being committed, we only hear about them. The violence is all emotional... people just hurt each other deliberately. Everyone can be hurt, because…

Review by Ziglet_mir ★★ 7

Viewed with the COLLAB .

If you read the title fast enough, like I did, you think you'll be in for a campy B-flick regarding a desert monster, a la those sci-fi films of the 50s. The good news is the ravishing color work radiates off of everything like Lancaster and Scott filmed near one of those government missile testing sites, so I still expected a monster to pop out any second. The epiphany in the final act is, within the folds of high-tier melodrama and soapy film-noir, Scott matches Stanwyck as one of the most ferocious femme fatales to ever lace 'em up, though here she is more subdued and Mary Astor states a case for herself with this performance alone…

Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★ 3

Pretty much only for people into epic psychosexual hang-up movies, but if that includes you Desert Fury is glorious.Cut from the same place as Leave Her to Heaven in its mix of late 40s crime fatalism and lush hyperbolic melodrama (only this is directed by Lewis Allen instead of John M. Stahl so zero auteurist credentials despite a very good Robert Rossen script). So overheated it starts at space and goes big and big from there save from the code aproved final scene no one can take seriously. Everyone wants to own Lizbeth Scott (including her mom) but Wendel Carey who is really really annoyed she is ruining his loving stable relationship with John Hodiak. The most perverse touch is probably having Burt Lancaster around as mountain of dull normalcy. It would be an all timer on the basis of Carey and Mary Astor performances alone.

Review by Stephen M ★★★★ 9

This one's a guilty pleasure. Kinda noirish but mostly pure melodrama set in the Nevada desert, fabulous 1940s Technicolor and a none-too-subtle queer context in not one but two of the major relationships. It's not a great film but eminently watchable.

The plot's complicated but here goes: Wayward daughter Paula (Lizabeth Scott) returns home to the small Nevada gambling town where mom Fritzi (Mary Astor) runs the biggest casino and has law enforcement do her bidding. Vegas hood Eddie Bendex (John Hodiak) shows up with his right-hand man - and implied lover - Johnny (Wendell Corey) in tow and begins romancing Paula. Mom is angry at both her daughter and Eddie (whom she previously slept with) and Johnny's also angry…

Review by Dr. Ethan Lyon ★★½ 38

2nd Lewis Allen (after The Uninvited)

It's amazing how the most chemistry here is between Burt Lancaster and Mary Astor as a dozy cop who crushes on Lizabeth Scott and her MILF of a mother respectively.

Speaking of Lizabeth, she plays 19 like I can do a Scottish accent.

John Hodiak is made of wood, but Wendell Cory drips poison in the most deliciously devious manner. Never moves his face, but he never needs to.

The use of colour is so exceptional that Christine Brinckmann devotes an entire essay to it. You can find it in the excellent collection of her works, "Colour and Empathy: Essays on Two Aspects of Film" (Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam Press,…

Review by Dizzle_Sizzle ★★★½ 10

"Two people can't fit into one life."

Torrid cocktail of conflicting power plays involving two similarly fraught relationships: Scott's Paula and her matronly oppressor Fritzi as intermingled with longtime BFFs and partners in crime Eddie and Johnny upon the untimely arrival of the latter. As Paula's actions remain consistently under scrutiny, it's clear she's wont to act out in service of an innate impulse to do as she likes to the chagrin of her lover's ex (her mother) and Lancaster's Tom as the independence she values remains out of reach albeit for good reason to be learned the hard way. Uniquely powered by the relationship dynamic Paula's interest in Eddie takes on as Wendell Corey sulks about like a jilted…

Review by trolleyfreak ★★★★

'You look good, baby, nice and fresh and alive... I like to see you dressed up..' (Mary Astor as Fritzi Haller, lustfully eyeing up her..... daughter!)

Anyone for a wacky and eccentric Technicolor soap opera/melodrama/film noir/modern day Western concoction with barely concealed homosexual and incestuous subtexts?!

Beautiful Lizabeth Scott - 25 at the time - plays a troubled nineteen-year old who returns to the fabulously named town of Chuckawalla, Nevada, after quitting her latest school, and soon hooks up with wooden gangster John Hodiak, much to the chagrin of his special 'friend' (Wendell Corey) and Mummy Astor, with nice guy cop Burty Lancaster - all hair and flashing teeth - hovering around on the sidelines looking very athletic and sexy…

Review by noir1946 ★★★½ 2

What do you get when you mix noir, Technicolor, a sexy broad, a sexy car, beautiful Western scenery, a Miklos Rozsa score, sexual ambivalence, car chases, and a little violence? Who said Wee Willie Winkie ? Nobody likes a smartass. Stand in the corner until I’ve finished. Not that corner, the far corner. The correct answer, of course, is Desert Fury .

Nineteen-year-old Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott) returns home to desert town Chuckawalla, somewhere between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, after being expelled from yet another finishing school. Paula, who can’t decide if she wants to be a good girl or a bad girl, has a love-hate relationship with her mother, Fritzi (Mary Astor), who owns and operates the local gambling casino.…

Review by Raphael Georg Klopper ★★★★

Another one for the pile of: pure B Noir drama/thriller through and through, just thrown colors in it , Lewis Allen ’s Desert Fury is competently sturdy melodramatic-crime fatalism running a love-square game of temptations as its charmingly evocative as its Technicolor budget allows it to look and feel.

It may feel like a smaller-scale less intrigue-rich Leave Her to Heaven for its genre-presentation, but it delves into its own well uniformly pulled-together beast of toxic ties and psychosexual desires leading to defiance of family core and running against the existential-threatening subjugation of societal norms of normalcy. Coming from Lizabeth Scott ’s character trying to escape her mother’s Mary Astor ’s control, while getting evolved with the shady promises running behind a rough complex…

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Everything But Horror

'Desert Fury' Review: Sunny Noir

Also: sylvester stallone succumbs to superhero-itis in 'samaritan.'.

I love stumbling upon films that surprise and jolt me. Desert Fury did both.

Released in 1947, Desert Fury features crackling dialogue by Robert Rossen and a lurid hothouse atmosphere, courtesy of director Lewis Allen, cinematographers Edward Cronjager and Charles Lang, art director Perry Ferguson, and costume designer Edith Head.

Shot on location in Technicolor, using a single-strip process that was still relatively news, the production looks, primarily, colorful, which fits its setting -- a small town in the wide open spaces of Nevada -- while flying in the face of its darker narrative themes, which identify it as film noir.

Lizabeth Scott, then 25, stars as the 19-year-old Paula Haller, who has just returned home from school Back East. Raised by the strong-willed businesswoman Fritzi Haller (Mary Astor), Paula wants to make her own way in life, but doesn't know what, exactly, she wants to do that will allow her to truly break free from her mother's dominant influence on her life.

Among her business interests locally, Fritzi owns the Purple Sage, a casino and saloon that serves as the heart of Chuckawalla, a fictional community where everybody knows your name. True trouble arrives to town in the person of Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak), who is married (basically) to his best friend and running mate Johnny Ryan (Wendell Corey in his debut role).

Eddie and Fritzi exchange meaningful glances once he arrives in town, which may or may not be related to a shared past of some kind. In any event, Eddie is a criminal figure from New Jersey who is trying to escape accusations that he murdered his wife. Fritzi is trying to escape memories of her deceased husband.

In the opening moments of the film, Eddie and Paula exchanged meaningful glances, even though they hadn't met yet, so that's gotta be resolve. Soon the simmering turns to outright boiling hot love, at least by 1947 standards. Naturally, that will eventually make things explode, especially with Fritzi seething in motherly romantic anger (toward her daughter and her former lover too!) and Johnny seething in jealous romantic anger (toward his "best friend").

There's a lot of simmering and a lot of anger, but you knew that already, because you saw that the film is titled Desert Fury and there's definitely a lot of Desert Fury in the film. Oh, and I forgot to mention that Burt Lancaster has the third-billed role, in support, as a local lawman With A Past Too, so of course he's got a lot of Desert Fury too.

I loved this film, which isn't afraid to play to its pulpy roots. The film is based on "Bitter Harvest," published in 1945, a story by Ramona Stewart, which she later expanded into a novel, Desert Town . The story was optioned by producer Hal B. Wallis; the film was shot on location in Piru (Ventura County), California. Some of the exteriors were shot in Arizona.

John Hodiak is not my fave leading man, but I adore Lizabeth Scott and her honey-coated voice, Mary Astor as a very manly woman who never lets you forget she's a woman, Burt Lancaster standing tall and talking tough, and the sneering Wendell Corey, who absolutely plays a tough man in love to the hilt.

I found the film thanks to The Criterion Channel's "Noir in Color" section, which is highly recommended. Its setting reminded me of another film in the section that I've seen before, Bad Day at Black Rock (1955). The section also furnished the basis for my previous article , "Color Me Desperate," which covered Niagara (1953) and Black Widow (1954). [ The Criterion Channel ]

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When Robert Redford, then 78, appeared in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), I knew the end was near.

Ten years younger, Sylvester Stallone, now 76, appears in Samaritan (2022) as a man haunted by his past. As Joe Smith, he is an ordinary garbage collector and amateur appliance repairman. He prefers a hooded sweatshirt and keeps a low profile in the working-class neighborhood in which he lives, which is not all that different, really, from the neighborhood in which Rocky Balboa burst forth upon the scene in 1976.

One day, Joe is called upon by circumstances to come to the rescue of 13-year-old Sam (Javon "Wanna" Walton), in the process inadvertently revealing his superhuman strength, which confirms to Sam that he, Joe Smith, is actually the long-lost (and presumed dead) superhero Samaritan. Hero-worshiping Sam has been looking for Samaritan for years, stumbling upon one potential (failed) candidate after another, so he rejoices.

Soon, though, a plot must manifest, and this is where Samaritan completely lost my interest. Director Julius Avery previously helmed Overlord (2018), which also had an interesting premise that got bogged down by blood and inertia, and followed a similar throughline of steadily decreasing reasons to keep watching.

Based on an original screenplay by Bragi F. Schut, the story certainly has potential, but quickly falls in line with conventional superhero narratives, as neighborhood gangster Cyrus (Pilou Asbeck) is irresistibly drawn to become a supervillain, simply because that's what every superhero movie needs, a way to pit "good" versus "evil" in the basest manner possible. No doubt due to its limited budget, the visual effects are not terribly convincing. Originally envisioned as a theatrical release, the film now has a more fitting home on a streaming service where many other screening options await. [ Prime Video ]

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Desert Fury

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Paramount, Hal Wallis Productions

Cast + Crew

A celebration of small town weirdness in gorgeous Technicolor, Lewis Allen’s Desert Fury is by no means an excellent film but it’s a must-watch for noir fans because of its outstanding cast, vibrant colors, and high degree of psychosexual ambiguity. Kicked out of boarding school, Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott) returns home to her overprotective mother Fritzi (Mary Astor), a wealthy casino owner in Chuckawalla, Nevada, where Paula resumes dating old flame Tom Hanson (Burt Lancaster), a former rodeo star turned local police officer, but finds herself physically drawn to gangster-widower Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak), who we soon learn has a secret past involving Fritzi. In his film debut, Wendell Corey plays Johnny, Eddie’s best friend, meticulous roommate, and probable gay lover (“He won’t leave me; I come in too handy to him”) who resents any woman who tries to come between them. Rossen’s script has plenty of holes and none of the performances are career bests, but Allen casts a dreamy haze over Chuckawalla that raises our eyebrows the more we watch: aside from Johnny’s romantic obsession with Eddie (“Some guys don’t know what they want”), the relationship between Paula and her mother (having brought Brigid O’Shaughnessy to life in The Maltese Falcon just six years earlier, Astor is far too young for the role) contains a perverse, quasi-incestuous dynamic which has Fritzi constantly referring to her daughter as “baby” and kissing her on the mouth. Indeed, the film’s only straightforward character is Lancaster’s, which, of course, means he’s also the least memorable.

By Michael Bayer

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Desert Fury

Film details, brief synopsis, cast & crew, lewis allen, john hodiak, lizabeth scott, burt lancaster, wendell corey, technical specs.

Eddie Bendix and his mentor and henchman, Johnny Ryan, two gangsters in the gambling trade, return to the small desert town of Chuckawalla, Nevada, outside Reno, and stop at a bridge where Eddie's wife died in a car crash. Having run into some trouble conducting business in Las Vegas, Eddie now hopes to get involved in the local gambling racket. Johnny is determined to move on to Los Angeles, however, where he is sure Eddie will make a fortune. Chuckawalla's gambling trade is run by Fritzie Haller, who owns the Purple Sage saloon and was once an acquaintance of Eddie. On the day of Eddie's arrival, Fritzie's nineteen-year-old daughter Paula returns home, having quit yet another boarding school, and meets Eddie when he stops near the bridge. Against the admonitions of deputy sheriff Tom Hanson, an old friend of Paula who is in love with her, Paula begins a love affair with Eddie, believing he is a virile man of action. Fritzie, who has always tried to maintain strict control over Paula, offers Tom a ranch if he proposes to her daughter. Tom loyally exposes Fritzie's scheme to Paula, whose anger at her mother deepens. Fritzie then forbids Paula from seeing Eddie, but she sneaks out to his ranch for secret rendezvous. Johnny, meanwhile, grows increasingly resentful of Eddie's blind devotion to Paula and his lack of ambition. One day when Paula comes to see Eddie, Johnny threatens to kill her if she ever returns to the ranch. After Eddie learns of Johnny's threat, he races to Paula's house and asks her to elope with him. Finally, Fritzie confesses to Paula that years ago Eddie had promised to marry her, too, but deserted her. Paula refuses to believe her mother, and leaves with Eddie. On their way out of town, they pick up Johnny. While they are stopped at a roadside diner, Johnny, seething with rage because Eddie has deserted him, tells Paula that it is he who has always made the important decisions for Eddie, who is really a spineless brute. Johnny then reveals that Eddie killed his wife on Johnny's orders after she learned too much about his criminal activities and tried to leave Eddie. In a panic, Paula runs to her car just as Eddie shoots Johnny dead. Eddie then pursues Paula, and Tom joins in the car chase and saves Paula before Eddie's car goes over the bridge in the same spot where his wife had perished. Tom pulls Eddie from the burning car, but finds he is already dead. After Fritzie races to the scene and embraces her daughter, Tom and Paula agree to marry and buy a ranch.

Kristine Miller

William harrigan.

James Flavin

Ana camargo, milt kibbee, ralph peters, john farrell.

Harlan Tucker

Ed randolph, a. i. bezzerides, edward cronjager, francis cugat, farciot edouart, perry ferguson, gordon jennings, natalie kalmus, charles lang, harry lindgren, ross mackenzie, richard mcwhorter, walter oberst, gerd oswald, robert rossen, miklos rozsa, ramona stewart, wally westmore.

This film's working title was Desert Town . Ramona Stewart's novel was serialized in Collier's from 24 November to December 8, 1945. Desert Fury marked the screen debut of Broadway actor Wendell Corey. Paramount borrowed John Hodiak from M-G-M for the film. Par News reported the following production information: The Main Street scenes were shot in the small town of Cottonwood, AZ, which was rented by the studio. Cottonwood residents appeared as townspeople along with actors. Locations also included Palmdale, CA and Sedona, AZ. Truckloads of Arizona's red sandstone earth and gravel were transported to Los Angeles for additional shooting. Although studio press releases claimed that a helicopter was used for the first time in motion picture production when flier Ross MacKenzie shot panoramic views of the desert, helicopters had been used previously to film the 1946 Columbia picture The Bandit of Sherwood Forrest .

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DESERT FURY (1947)/THE MIDNIGHT MAN (1974) – Blu-ray Review

Burt At Dawn And Dusk

DESERT FURY (1947)/DIRECTED BY LEWIS ALLEN

THE MIDNIGHT MAN (1974)/DIRECTED BY ROLAND KIBBEE AND BURT LANCASTER

STREET DATES: February 19 and 26, 2019/KINO LORBER STUDIO CLASSICS

Kino Lorber once again gives this reviewer a favorite reviewing opportunity in the latter half of February: to compare a youthful role of a film actor with a role from much later years. Transposing “4” and “7”, Burt Lancaster exudes force and formidability across 26 years, the broad-shouldered and barrel-chested star maturing in the midcentury years from postwar tough guy to Vietnam and Watergate era loner. Desert Fury , from 1947, and Lancaster’s second (co-)directed feature The Midnight Man , from 1974, offer a dawn-to-dusk view of a screen mainstay who embodied strong masculinity and firm control over a screen career that would span 45 years. Like echoes across time, the younger romantic highway cop and the aging, disgraced cop-turned-sleuth have much to say to each other at opposite sides of the night-filtered day.

Desert Fury , Lancaster’s third feature, following his breakthrough roles for producer Mark Hellinger in The Killers (1946) and Brute Force (1947), casts him as a screen-billed second, a poster-billed third, yet a trailer-billed first opposite feature leads Lizabeth Scott and John Hodiak. Co-starring Mary Astor and “introducing” Wendell Corey — the trio of Scott, Corey, and Lancaster would be reunited for the year’s later I Walk Alone (1947) — this Technicolor melodrama represents the property that initially brought Lancaster to Hollywood: the Broadway actor’s first contract role for independent producer Hal B. Wallis who, as Imogen Sara Smith’s commentary for Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray informs us, had ordered test footage of the quickly rising star enacting scenes from Desert Fury before the actor made his first features. Little seen since the 1940’s and 50’s, and long delayed on home video, this sunbaked scorcher can now be fully appreciated for its arid desert view of overheated passion and lurid desire.

A pair of shady gamblers (Hodiak, Corey) drive into remote, desert-bordered Chuckawalla, Nevada — presumably on the highway between gambling meccas Reno and Las Vegas — where they become embroiled in illicit smalltown business and pleasure between powerful vice queen Fritzie Haller (Astor) and her beautiful young daughter, Paula (Scott). Paula’s onetime suitor, rodeo rider-turned-highway patrolman Tom Hanson (Lancaster), watches warily as the flashier of the two, Eddie Bendix (Hodiak), who years before had been held under suspicion for a road accident off a bridge leading out of town that killed his wife, romances the daughter while ignoring the warnings of her strong-willed mother. As the past threatens to intrude tragically upon the present, and as revelations of former events and associations color future ones, the menacing figure of Johnny Ryan (Corey) also watches and waits, showing a peculiar yet persistent hold on his long-time partner-in-crime Bendix.

Seeming to invite a kinkier reading of these bare elements with each beige-walled, luxury sedan pursuit across the desert highway, the sleek-lined roadsters find equally complicated expression in lavishly-furnished interiors. The script credited to Robert Rossen (with an uncredited assist from A.I. Bezzirides) crackles with unusual intensity and unspoken depths, as if daring a seamier interpretation of story elements and character relationships through a combination of multi-layered dialogue, shaded performance styles, and unmistakable visual flourishes. Finally, the all-too-cool playing of Lizabeth Scott and Wendell Corey (which commentator Smith memorably terms “dreamwalking”) in contrast to the fiery performance of John Hodiak, and, even more memorably, to another assuredly acidic turn from genre trend-setter Mary Astor, may all seem to overshadow that of Burt Lancaster’s, whose role was expanded in adapting Ramona Stewart’s source novel. But his even-then firm characterization, while fulfilling the off-romantic role of the also-ran, is never less than measured and controlled in scenes he shares with the more apparently dynamic Hodiak and Astor, or the more seemingly spirit-gliding Corey and Scott.

Justifiably slapping a belt of liquid into loose-cannon Hodiak’s face, in contrast to Hodiak’s later and sadistic pour of hot coffee down the back of an unoffending trucker, or firmly rebuffing Astor’s patronizing (or rather, matronizing) offer of a down payment on a ranch, in contrast to her earlier and more imperious handling of the local judge; Lancaster’s straight-arrow role is none-the-flashier for its down-to-earth qualities toward these various over-the-moon characters. But like his demonstrated rough ride of an unbroken colt in one early scene, and despite the career-ending injuries his character sustained, the ramrod Tom Hanson will eventually ride (or more accurately, drive) these undermining and untoward elements down. The story-glue that holds this dangerous desert drama together, Desert Fury gives Lancaster an early opportunity to demonstrate a genuine character solidity that can directly influence a threatened community for the better.

The Midnight Man , co-directed by Lancaster with screenwriter Roland Kibbee — whose association with the actor goes back to scripts written for Lancaster’s starring roles in The Crimson Pirate (1952) and Vera Cruz (1954) through The Devil’s Disciple (1959) and Valdez is Coming (1971) — updates the type of strong-armed yet past-haunted roles that made the actor a film noir star in the mid-to-late 1940’s. A gothic-tinged, Southern-set murder mystery with a full roster of recognizable character actors who are not what they initially seem, Lancaster authoritatively dreamwalks his own way through increasingly sordid layers of deepening revelations and truly shocking plot reversals. Like the title, the sunup-to-sundown milieu of aging security guard Jim Slade strongly complements earlier Lancaster roles such as Swede Anderson ( The Killers ), Frankie Madison ( I Walk Alone ), and Steve Thompson ( Criss Cross [1947]); here displaced by time, geography, and shifting cultural currents.

Supporting great Cameron Mitchell’s brave yet foolhardy advance on a backwoods trio of stocking-masked thieves holding up a nightclub, which results in a broken leg for the security guard’s trouble, opens a nightwatch job at the local college for his former Chicago cop pal Jim Slade (Lancaster). Reporting to his sympathetic female parole officer (Susan Clark) weekly, Slade’s third-shift security gig, along with his old buddy’s sponsorship, offers the past middle-age, onetime police detective a quiet, afterhours way to spend the dawn of his twilight years. However, day-to-night matters are not as they first appear in this sleepy-seeming Southern college town, and the theft of a cassette tape containing a co-ed’s recorded psychiatric session, who turns out to be the daughter (Catherine Bach) of a US Congressman (Morgan Woodward), anticipates the traumatized young woman’s later, brutal murder. From a pornography-addled Bible-thumper (Charles Tyner) to a fey female-nude portraitist (Peter Dane), the false leads and falser personalities Slade encounters — all while, as an ex-con, diverting the suspicions of local law enforcement represented by the town sheriff (Ed Lauter) — threaten to unravel the darkly-wound fabric of a corrupt community to the light of day.

Kino Lorber commentators Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson’s reaching yet persuasive comparison to the David Lynch and Mark Frost TV series Twin Peaks (1990-’91, 2017 – ?) posits Lancaster’s starring and co-directed feature as an early dramatic rendering of a murdered town beauty revealing the sins of an entire community; where the detective figure doesn’t so much solve a murder as expose the dark heart at the beating center of a terrifying mystery. Careworn, heavier, his mottled complexion roughened and weathered by the weight of years, Lancaster at the outset of his seventh decade, and fourth in film, hearkens back to the hard-edged roles of his star-making youth while deconstructing his character’s violent past. Neither as well known nor as celebrated as a later role critiquing his own tough guy image, in Lancaster’s Oscar-nominated performance for Louis Malle’s 1980 Atlantic City , the actor’s much-lauded gravitas serves to expiate the crimes of the past while once again righting a “wrong” (and wronged) community.

Beyond Burt, a title serving as functionally as epilogue as it might a postscript, Kino Lorber’s Blu-rays of Desert Fury and The Midnight Man first and foremost provide the highest visual and audio presentation of hitherto little-known, underappreciated, and plain overlooked screen properties from a major presence in mid-twentieth century American films; all in firm keeping with the philosophical and commercial directive of the treasure-seeking home video company, uncovering screen gems of all studio classic stripes across seventy years of Hollywood entertainment. Both Blu-rays, beyond the immeasurable good of simple and sympathetically realized availability, gain much added value through commentaries that not only contextualize the films within the life and career of Burt Lancaster but also their important place within Hollywood history.

Imogen Sara Smith’s commentary on Desert Fury teases out the symbolic and structural oddities in terms of both story and form of a Technicolor film delineating psychosexual conflict. It’s a doozy of a film, and interpretation of a film, that from this review’s Burt-centric focus makes the young star’s story-course and patrol car-driving tie-up even more remarkable. Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson’s co-commentary on The Midnight Man brings the hindsight of life and career perspective to full bear on the second (and final) film Burt Lancaster performed double-duty as director and star on (the first and penultimate being the 20-years-earlier The Kentuckian [1955]), and the knowledge and, again, sympathy Berger and Thompson bring to their analysis may cause auditors to re-think their possible dismissal of the film due to its low (or lacking) reputation. In form-fitting uniforms across 26 years of film history, Burt at the dawn and dusk of his film career remains visually and symbolically upright and snappy.

Images are credited to DVDBeaver and are taken from Kino Lorber’s Blu-rays. Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing Blu-ray review copies.

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Blu-ray & Discs

From silents to the seventies: desert fury.

A Technicolor film noir with overt homosexual overtones, Desert Fury is a fascinating and wildly entertaining Golden Age anomaly that teems with tension and flirts with camp. How on Earth did this subversive, titillating flick ever get past the censors?

Desert Fury

Theatrical Release Date: August 15, 1947 Blu-ray Release Date: February 26, 2019 Directed by: Lewis Allen Starring: John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, Mary Astor, Wendell Corey Blu-ray Special Features: Audio commentary, theatrical trailer

“Technicolor film noir” is something of an oxymoron. With all those heavily saturated, eye-popping hues vying for attention, there’s not much room in the frame for the genre’s trademark black-and-white contrast. Film noir may be stylized (who doesn’t love all those shots of swirling cigarette smoke and shafts of light streaming through half-open Venetian blinds?), but it exudes a gritty, realistic feel that complements its violent, criminal yarns. Technicolor, on the other hand, embraces artifice and stokes our senses like a hallucinogen. Swashbucklers and musicals were made for Technicolor. Film noir? Not so much.

Though classics like Out of the Past and Double Indemnity would certainly lose their sting in brilliant color, the three-strip process somehow suits Desert Fury , a deliciously melodramatic study of twisted relationships, murder, and corruption in a two-horse Nevada town. Like a rich dessert, the film luxuriates in its excess, yet all the captivating color just might be camouflage meant to shroud the subversive, taboo themes lurking beneath the picture’s glossy surface.

More on that later. First, let’s set the stage. Small-time hood Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak) and his devoted sidekick Johnny Ryan (Wendell Corey) blow into Chuckawalla, a mining outpost in rural Nevada, just as headstrong hellion Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott) comes home to roost. The aimless, 19-year-old Paula has spurned college in favor of learning the disreputable business that has made her hard-as-nails mother, Fritzi (Mary Astor), the richest and most powerful figure in town. Fritzi runs the local casino-cum-brothel, and though she’s proud of the trail she’s blazed and relishes her clout, she orders her beloved daughter to stay far away from the shady, immoral establishment.

Chuckawalla’s hunky, straight-arrow cop, Tom Hanson (Burt Lancaster), takes a shine to Paula, but her rebellious streak and thirst for thrills lead her straight into Eddie’s crooked arms. That displeases both her clingy, controlling mom and the jealous Johnny, who doesn’t want a starry-eyed dame distracting Eddie – whose wife died a couple of years earlier under mysterious circumstances – from his business. As tensions heat up, secrets are revealed and conflicts reach their boiling point, leading to a couple of dramatic showdowns.

During the late 1940s, movies began exploring the human psyche’s dark side by using Freudian theories to propel the behavior and delineate the personalities of pivotal characters. Screenwriter Robert Rossen helped pioneer the formula with the previous year’s The Strange Love of Martha Ivers , but he expands its scope in Desert Fury . The film may seem like a typical noir, but look under its hood and you’ll find plenty of provocative elements fueling the narrative engine. First and foremost, bisexual and homosexual undercurrents permeate the script and infuse it with a shocking spiciness that flies in the face of the period’s rigid conservatism. In fact, director Lewis Allen and his esteemed cast so brazenly push the envelope with both imagery and innuendo, the real mystery is how the film’s final cut got past the censors. It’s all subtext, of course, but let’s just say I wasn’t at all surprised when I learned that noir expert and TCM host Eddie Muller labeled Desert Fury “the gayest movie ever produced in Hollywood’s golden era.”

Fritzi’s masculine wardrobe and hairstyle, brusque demeanor, and extreme possessiveness toward Paula denote latent lesbian tendencies. (Barbara Stanwyck would play a very similar character 15 years later in Walk on the Wild Side .) Fritzi always wants Paula close to her, and her suffocating attentions become ever creepier as the movie progresses. Eddie and Johnny’s relationship is equally complex and enigmatic. The two macho men initially appear to be just close business associates, but the subservient Johnny sticks to Eddie like glue, always hovering, protecting, conspiring, and catering to Eddie’s every need. His unwavering devotion goes beyond that of henchman, guy Friday, or bodyguard. The two men rent a house together, and Eddie constantly yaps at Johnny, ordering him to make drinks, fix food, and clean up. It’s pretty clear that Johnny is Eddie’s bitch, and after a scene in which a bare-chested Eddie sits with Johnny drinking coffee and shooting the shit, it’s even clearer that the history the two share goes far beyond liquor and conversation.

When Paula inserts herself into the equation, an awkward triangle develops. Yet hard as she tries to push Johnny out of the picture, he refuses to budge. He’s the constant, she’s the interloper, and like the long-suffering wife who’s got the goods on her spiteful, philandering husband, Johnny promises Paula that Eddie will never leave him. If that isn’t enough evidence of the two men’s homosexual bond, Eddie practically spells it out when he tells Paula how Johnny picked him up – I mean, met him – years ago: “It was in the automat off Times Square about two o’clock in the morning on a Saturday. I was broke. He had a couple of dollars. We got to talking. He ended up paying for my ham and eggs… I went home with him that night… We were together from then on.” Talk about loaded lines! Were the censors asleep? Eddie says something about Johnny’s mother owning a boardinghouse and that’s where he and Johnny (separately) shacked up. I’m sure the censors demanded that addendum, but the implication is all too clear.

Desert Fury may have gay overtones, but it’s anything but effete… save for the Technicolor. Like most noirs, it’s a rough-and-tumble, hard-boiled tale, and the last place we’d ever expect to find a hint of homosexuality, Yet that’s exactly what makes the movie so fascinating. The bulk of the friction is between Fritzi and Paula on one hand and Eddie, Johnny, and Tom on the other. These intense single-sex power struggles drive the story and lend it a unique and compelling dynamic. (In addition to all the explosive dialogue exchanges, there’s a whole lotta face-slapping going on, too.) Peeling back the film’s layers, deciphering its subtext, and marveling at everything it gets away with is a big part of its fun, but Desert Fury wouldn’t be nearly as good without all the superior talent in front of and behind the camera.

The always excellent Astor and underrated Wendell Corey (in his film debut) steal the picture. Their complex, colorful characters consistently grab focus, and both attack their roles with uncommon vigor. Despite all the testosterone on display, Fritzi often acts more manly than her male counterparts. Astor, who several years earlier portrayed the quintessential femme fatale opposite Humphrey Bogart in The Maltese Falcon , seems delighted to return to the world of noir and play the kind of volatile, edgy, conniving vixen that Bette Davis made famous. Corey is more low-key, but just as effective, especially in a climactic speech that sends Eddie off the deep end.

Hodiak receives top billing, but the strapping actor never quite achieved the stardom he deserved and was always regarded as a poor man’s Clark Gable. That actually plays to his advantage here, as it lends his pugnacious mobster just enough masculine insecurity to make his codependent relationship with Johnny believable. Ironically, Scott, with her throaty voice, pouty attitude, and smoldering glares, often came off as a pale imitation of Lauren Bacall throughout most of her career. Though she seems far more mature and worldly than her sheltered 19-year-old character in Desert Fury , Scott looks great in Technicolor (her somewhat androgynous appearance also ties in nicely with the story’s sexually ambiguous themes) and holds her own with her formidable co-stars.

Lancaster is one of them, but surprisingly he gets lost in the shuffle. In only his third film appearance, the 33-year-old actor tries his best to make his mark, but he’s saddled with the movie’s dullest role. His Dudley Do-Right cop is a noble stick-in-the-mud compared to the movie’s other raving maniacs, and despite always looking like a wild stallion ready to explode out of the gate, Lancaster doesn’t get much chance to unleash his pent-up aggression. (His part was reportedly beefed up after he made a splash in his first two films, The Killers and Brute Force , but it still lacked enough heft to merit much notice.)

Aside from its impressive cast, Desert Fury also boasts an enviable roster of technicians who further elevate the film’s reputation. Screenwriter Rossen would nab Oscar nominations for writing and directing the Best Picture winner All the King’s Men a couple of years later and receive the same two nods for 1961’s The Hustler . Cinematographers Charles Lang and Edward Cronjager (who between them would earn 25 Oscar nominations) furnish the lush Technicolor photography, which beautifully showcases the red rock vistas of Sedona, Arizona where much of the movie was shot. Legendary designer Edith Head (who would rack up a whopping 35 nominations and eight wins) supplies the stylish costumes, while composer Miklós Rózsa (17 nominations and three wins) contributes the dramatic music score.

Desert Fury flirts with camp, but stays grounded enough to earn its film noir stripes, despite the Technicolor. It’s also subversive enough to stand out from the crowd and entertaining enough to merit attention today. While contemporary films leave little to the imagination, Desert Fury allows our imagination to run wild, and there’s something exciting and liberating in that. It’s not a great film, but it explodes across the screen and takes us on one hell of a ride. I needed a new guilty pleasure, and this is it.

The Blu-ray

Man, I love Technicolor! While it might not look totally realistic and at times appears downright garish, it adds a breathtaking lushness to Golden Age films that is both unique and mesmerizing. Desert Fury , presented here in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, represents everything that’s good about the three-strip process. The excellent 1080p/AVC MPEG-4 transfer from Kino also honors the fine work of the film’s collaborating cinematographers, the aforementioned Charles Lang (an Oscar winner for 1932’s A Farewell to Arms ) and Edward Cronjager. Though the opening credits look pretty ragged and the print initially seems a bit faded, the image quickly perks up as the movie gets rolling. Evident but well-resolved grain lends the picture essential texture and preserves its film-like feel. It also neutralizes the vibrant hues, helping them look more natural.

All the colors burst with vitality, but never seem overly pushed. From potent primaries to lovely pastels, each shade is beautifully graded, heightening the impact of Central Arizona’s red rock landscapes and the eye-popping array of chic Edith Head costumes. Close-ups are flat-out gorgeous, highlighting Scott’s androgynous, blonde-haired beauty and Lancaster’s chiseled features. The day-for-night sequences exude a warm glow, shadow detail is quite good, and excellent contrast and clarity lend the image a balanced, pleasing look. Assorted print damage crops up here and there, but you’ll be so dazzled by all the brilliant color, you may not notice.

The DTS-HD Master Audio mono track supplies clear, well-modulated sound. A few pops and a bit of crackle occasionally intrude, but the instances are rare. A wide dynamic range allows Miklós Rózsa’s robust and omnipresent score plenty of room to breathe, and all the snappy dialogue is clear and easy to understand. The only disc extras are an audio commentary and a slew of previews for other Kino Lorber Studio Classics releases, including a re-release trailer for Desert Fury that raises Lancaster’s billing to the top of the heap.

Desert Fury Blu-ray – Buy at Amazon

About David Krauss

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Judas Cradle

There have been interesting arguments made that Hays Code actually created spicier films because the creators had to get inventive to infuse the narratives with subtle subversive themes. Maybe these themes (as subtext and innuendo) made for more creative filmmaking.

David Krauss

I totally agree. It’s so interesting to see what they are trying to convey and the clever ways they use to get their points across. In one scene in this movie, Hodiak and Corey are sitting at a bar with a couple of redneck guys. After a bit, they decide to go get a table, at which point one of the rednecks says to them, “What’s the matter? Am I not your type?”…with just a slight emphasis on he word “type” to make it seem like the redneck recognizes that Hodiak and Corey are probably gay. Hodiak takes immediate offense at the remark – more so than someone usually would unless they get the innuendo – and he tries to start a fight. The redneck backs down, but then Hodiak pours his steaming cup of coffee over the guy’s neck as a parting shot. If, as a viewer, you are oblivious to the homosexual undertones, you might just think the redneck is being a simple wiseass and Hodiak, who’s jumpy anyway, just overreacts. But if you’ve caught on to the undertones over the course of the movie, that simple remark is pretty loaded and much more effective than some overt bullying slur.

I just love dissecting films like these.

Thanks David, what a great review. I have never heard of this movie though I am a fan of noir. Color noir does seem strange, and as oxymoronic as that term suggests.

I also agree with the idea that often times working around a limitation, be it the Hayes code, budget limitations, technological limitations, weather on set, etc., can really create opportunities for creative solutions that make the movie better and more interesting. For example, the technical problems with the shark in Jaws led to it being in few scenes, which created more dread and anticipation by the characters talking about it than if you had seen it in every scene.

I have to get a copy of the Desert Fury blu-ray to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation.

Glad you enjoyed the review. I, too, was not familiar with Desert Fury before they sent it to me to review and I am also a big noir fan. I’ll be interested to hear what you think of it. If you get a chance, please post your thoughts after you see it.

i have been wanting this film on dvd ever since i saw it featured in lavender cinema. i got it for a great price off amazon and it is one of my prized possessions. i am so glad i never settled for a knockoff. even the clips shown in lavender are sub-par compared to the dizzying technicolor of this new release.

i can’t add anything else about the homoerotic subtext except that it was long overdue that someone comment on film about how often a regular guy gives a prettyboy a helping hand and they end up together for a long time.

The Girl with the White Parasol

Monday, may 6, 2013, movie review: desert fury.

Paula, the daughter, confronts someone who is trying to control or reject her.
Paula gets upset and leaves.
She reconciles with the person so that they can have the same argument all over again

40 comments:

A truly excellent and insightful post. Your description of all of this marvelous weirdness makes me want to see this NOW! And your description of Mary as "weary" is just perfect.

I'd love to hear your opinion on this one, FlickChick. There was a weariness to Mary offscreen, by all accounts, as she rarely felt like acting was enough to satisfy her active mind. I'd say it comes through in her work. Even when she's calling people, "Snoodles" as in The Palm Beach Story .

While I've never seen this, it does sound wild. Hard to believe all those homosexual under and overtones got past the Hays Code. Of course, there is obviously something wrong with anyone who would pick Hodiak over Lancaster--second on to Paul Newman in my pantheon of men I would sleep with just so I could stare at them.

Lancaster isn't generally one of my movie crushes, but you're right. He's so incredibly good-looking here that it just adds another level of perversity to Lizabeth Scott's character in the way she brushes him off. And I did have to grind my teeth a little that the filmmakers gave the most boring character to Burt Lancaster and the most interesting one to Wendell Corey and his resistible charms. Am I shallow? Maybe a little.

I'm another one who hasn't seen this, and I was stunned to read about the subtexts. How did they get away with it? Even if the script isn't the best, it still sounds like Mary Astor delivers in grand Mary fashion. I love love love how you've written this. Fantastic! Thanks for participating in our blogathon.

Some of the subtextual stuff seems so gratuitous but in a good way. I mean, what is the point, story-wise, of having a lesbian subtext between the mom and the daughter? Who knows, but it sure grabs your attention. And Mary Astor delivers on all counts, handling the weird, sketchy elements of the character but also making her sympathetic and human.

You had me at "bizarre, colorful, and unsettling".

I wanted to make the film's selling points clear from the get-go.

You've really got me intrigued, especially with your hints about the film's climax. "Something about his smug, square face always grated on me." Heh heh, yeah. I plead guilty to similar sentiments. But this sounds like quite the role. Great post, thanks for introducing me to this!

You know, I think Wendell Corey falls into the category of actors that get much better when you don't have to sympathize with them. In The File on Thelma Jordan , I didn't care about his entrapment by Barbara Stanwyck. Bad girl or not, she was still way too good for him. But I do like him in Rear Window , where he's perfectly cast as the spoilsport who ruins all our fun. And Desert Fury is the best I've seen him.

I yearn to see Desert Fury!I revere Lizabeth Scott (for me, the most haunting of 1940s actresses) and most of her filmography unavailable on DVD in the UK. Desert Fury used to be available on Youtube (cut up into segments) and I couldn't bring myself to watch it like that, when I knew it had to be seen to maximum advantage! (Scott adn Wendell Corey were re-united in the 1957 Elvis Presley musical Loving You -- Scott's last film for many years).

I can understand a fascination with Lizabeth Scott. So far, my favorite performance of hers was in Pitfall where you think she'll be the femme fatale, but she turns out to be more sinned against than sinning. The ending shot of her is haunting. Still haven't seen Too Late for Tears , which has a lot of fans. And Desert Fury really does deserve to be seen on a screen where you can enjoy the gorgeousness of that Technicolor.

Here's my take on it: http://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft5h4nb36j&chunk.id=d0e10981&toc.id=d0e10981&brand=ucpress

David, so glad you decided to share a link to this! I know the Randy Byers review I linked to in the post basically said, "Ehrenstein has the definitive take on this movie, go read him." Although it's just as well I didn't read it before writing my review since it probably would have left me without anything original to say. I did read an excerpt by Imogen Sara Smith where she compares the Corey-Hodiak relationship to Persona

After reading it, I could have sworn it had been written by Myron Breckinridge.

I am torrenting this movie as we speak, this review was so good and intriguing I simply have to see the film for myself! Do you have an pre-Code reviews in the works at all? Just curious what your take on some films from that era would be.

Cool, I'm always happy to steer people to new movies. As for pre-Code, I'd love to tackle it since I've got plenty of pre-Code favorites ( Night Nurse , The Public Enemy , Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde , Me and My Gal , etc) and you pointed out, I haven't done one on this site yet.

I watched it. And I love it to pieces! And you review was spot-on, it felt kind of weak right up until that bombastic climax. And of course Mary Astor's performance was straight-up gold! I need to find more of her work, I think the only things I've ever really seen her in are this and The Maltese Falcon. I love her as an actress, but haven't really given her filmography a look through. That's a mistake I'm about to rectify! My favorite pre-Codes are Night Nurse, also, Gold Diggers of 1933, Thirteen Women, Belle of the Nineties ... actually the list itself is enough to justify a blog of my own. I need to get off my butt and make that happen. You're doing a great job here by the way, and I love seeing your updates. And as to steering people towards new movies, you introduced me to Teresa Wright a while ago, which I really truly thank you for ^_^

Given how eloquently you express yourself in comments, I would definitely read any blog of yours :) This blogathon's been really good at showcasing the best of Mary Astor. I'd say you can't go wrong with Dodsworth or The Prisoner of Zenda , for starters. I also love her in Act of Violence , in a very atypical part as a cheap hooker. Thanks again for all the kind words.

Ever since I heard "Desert Fury" described as a western noir, I've been interested in seeing it, but never more than now. Your write-up, as always, was stellar -- it had so many superb descriptions and turns of phrase that literally made me laugh out loud. These are my favorites: "At times, the script feels like a private bet on the part of screenwriter Robert Rossen to see if he could get away with making a movie that's essentially just one scene, repeated on an infinite loop." "Her deep, throaty voice suggested cigarette smoke and bar hopping and a lifetime of harsh experience." (So awesome.) "Nor do I think most women would look at Burt Lancaster, his magnificent tawny hair blowing in the wind, and then run after John Hodiak, who manages to look more uncomfortable here than he did starving to death in Lifeboat." Really great stuff, Aubyn.

You know, if I'd had time I might have talked more about the noir aspect of Desert Fury since it's kind of borderline, as far as the genre goes. Sure, it's got some twisted people, but the story itself is closer to melodrama. But getting into genre definitions in an already long review would have been really pushing it. Thanks for commenting, Karen!

Boy this sounds good. A definite must-see. I have vague, vague memories of seeing this years ago, but I don't remember it at all. Is there a scene where Burt Lancaster and Lizabeth Scott stop for Cokes in little bottles at a gas station? I dimly recall that, but I may have the wrong performers. Like you said, the subtext here sounds fascinating. Really enjoyed your post, Aubyn.

Yeah, they do! It's kind of funny since they keep talking about the hot desert town they live in (Hodiak calls it a "cactus graveyard") and yet Lancaster and Scott look cool and pristine in every single shot. Those little Coke bottles looked kind of cute, too.

Aubyn, I had to drop everything and see this film after reading your review, then return for a reread. I am so glad to have seen it and think you really nail its strange, lush/overcooked quality with that amazing, shimmering Technicolor bringing across a sense of the heat - even though, as you say, the actors look so cool throughout. I love your line at the end 'a film that always seems to know more than it's telling'. The subtexts you talk about are blatant indeed, especially with Johnny and Eddie where their relationship is all but stated outright. I had to wonder how on earth that scene where Scott sees Hodiak's tangled bedclothes got past the censors! I definitely agree that Mary Astor and Wendell Corey have the most interesting characters, and I was keen to learn more about Fritzi's past. Must agree that it is a pity Burt Lancaster doesn't get more screen time. I think his character promises to be interesting early in the film, with the scene of him being thrown off the horse while trying to break it in and the tale of how he was previously thrown and "broke up inside" - for a while I was expecting the film to return to this and show him triumphing in the end, but no, that whole storyline is discarded. Almost as if a Western plot is offered one minute and then sacrificed to the atmosphere of smouldering noir. Judy

Judy, there's nothing I like better than hearing that I inspired somebody to check out a movie so thank you for that. As far as the subtext goes, I was impressed by how much they imply the mutuality of the relationship. Criminal characters that were coded gay were nothing new at the time (Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon , Van Heflin in Johnny Eager , etc.) but these two really do seem like a couple. You make an interesting point about the barest whisper of a Western plot that gets axed. It does seem to imply that an earlier draft of the screenplay gave his character more weight. As it is, I suppose you can take him as just another misfit in Desert Fury's dysfunctional cast.

Judy, I'm just curious how you dropped everything and saw this film, since it's so exceedingly hard to come by. The only home media on which it is available is a Portuguese all-region DVD, which I have in my personal collection. Other than that, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. It hasn't aired on TCM is over fifteen years, and Universal, which sadly owns the vintage Paramount library, has never released it on either VHS or DVD format. Even in film-savvy metropolises, it's rarely revived, so I'm really curious how you got to see it so readily.

Oooh, how many gorgeous people! The movie may be bizarre, but at the same time interesting and very curious. I love to see Burt Lancaster in color and this is a new to me film, that I'll watch in the first opportunity I have. Thanks for the comment in my post! Kisses!

If I'd had more time, I would have taken another dozen or so screencaps because this film really is beautiful and Lancaster and Scott look spectacular. Mary Astor doesn't look half bad either but I think the hairstyle and some of the outfits sabotaged her. *Returns kisses*

Hi, Aubyn! : ) What a fun film! I've been making it a priority to catch more films in this genre and given that I need to find more good films on Lizabeth Scott for a future post I'm writing, this review was a real treat. Oh, before I forget. I would love for someone to say to me, "You look good baby, even when you're tired!" : ) Also, I have to agree with what you added above with Mary's hairstyle not being that flattering. While it was the style for women her age. (Not old but for Hollywood) It did age her beyond her years. Such a fun review of an interesting film. Well done! Page

I will definitely want to read that Lizabeth Scott post of yours. She truly was one of the queens of noir, one of the few actresses that worked almost exclusively in the genre. And she's still with us today at 90 years old!

Aubyn, I've been looking forward to reading your DESERT FURY review, and it was worth the wait! What a wild and crazy hothouse flower of a movie -- heck, it's more like Audrey 2 in LITTLE SHOP OF HORROR, with its gonzo characters and the film's bisexual subtext! That smooch on the lips between Mama Mary Astor and Lizabeth Scott makes Robert Francis' goodbye kiss on his mom's lips in THE CAINE MUTINY look like a peck on the cheek. Miklos Rosza's score and the magnificently lurid (in a good way) art direction is perfect for this fascinatingly insane movie! Aubyn, I'm glad you chose DESERT FURY for our Mary Astor Blogathon, with Mary unforgettable in every sense of the word -- thanks a million for joining our Mary Astor Blogathon!

Pretty much impossible to write a boring review when you've got a movie like Desert Fury . And that kiss looked pretty damn passionate. I'd forgotten any incest subtext in The Caine Mutiny , but that's probably because I was too distracted by the strange awfulness of the Robert Francis/May Wynn romantic subplot. The musical score is over-the-top but in a good way, very much like Rosza's score for The Strange Love of Martha Ivers (which really belongs on a double bill with this one). I didn't realize how much love and appreciation there was out there for Mary Astor until your blogathon and it warms my heart. You and R.A. truly made this a fantastic event.

I don't think I had any idea what this movie was about, or how deep the story really went. I learned so much from reading this post and I must say that I am highly intrigued. I will have to find this film soon. Thanks

Thanks for the comments. It's a movie that I think is worth seeing at least once.

Just stumbled upon your post as I was looking for Mary Astor information. Thanks for turning me on to this film, loved Astor in it, so different from her other mother roles!

where did you get your copy of this movie? i would like one.

Hmm, I can't remember. Watched it online, but don't remember the source. I know I've also seen it floating around on Youtube but I just checked for it and it looks like it was yanked. I'll let you know if I find a copy.

I agree with everything that David Ehrenstein says in his brilliant piece about “Desert Fury” but would add another subtext to the already steaming brew. To me, it's the quintessential pre-Hollywood Ten movie because one of its chief themes, transformed into a gangster setting, is loyalty on the part of actual or would-be intellectuals (not that any of the characters in "Desert Fury" are actual intellectuals) to the Communist Party no matter what (or rather to some degree because the loyalty the CP required was of the "no matter what" sort). This comes through in one key element of the plot -- the belief (held by some committed CPUSA members) that the ultimate test of virtue was one's "hardness" (not only as in toughness per se but also as in willingness to do any deed in the name of submission to Party discipline -- especially if that deed ran counter to the promptings of one's personal [i.e. bourgeois] conscience, convenience, or morality.) Thus Hodiak's character is a handsome, narcissistic frontman (a star gambler) who shies away from the doing the rough dirty stuff, while Corey, his sidekick who does do the rough dirty stuff when that's necessary (actually, as I recall, he deeply enjoys doing it), is at once in love with Hodiak's character and his "star" aura and is enraged by the gap between what Hodiak's character thinks he himself is too good to do and what Corey's character both has to and, in some sense, chooses to do instead. Corey, playing a deeply twisted man, gives a terrific twisted performance. BTW, Robert Rossen, author of the screenplay for “Desert Fury” (and perhaps its “autuer”?) was a CPUSA member from 1937-47, and his uncredited writing colleague on the film A.I. Bezzerides (“Kiss Me Deadly,” “Thieves Highway,” etc.) was, as they used to say, a “fellow traveler” (according to J. Hoberman’s “The Magic Hour”). Rossen was blacklisted in 1951 and eventually named names before HUAC in 1953. Also FWIW, although I can't confirm that this is true, a now-deceased great American writer who shall be nameless (because, again, I can't confirm that this story is true, though I trust my source for it) was a committed CPUSA member of the type outlined above (the committed CPUSA member part of this writer’s history is fact; he wrote of this himself). He decamped to Mexico in the post-war Red Scare era, and while there his "hardness"/willingness to follow Party discipline was put to the test, according to the story I was told. He was informed that a member of his circle of political emigrees was in fact relaying information about them to the FBI and that he (i.e. the writer) must now engineer that man's death, which he did -- doing so even (or maybe in some sense because -- see the putting aside bourgeois morality and submitting to Party discipline theme) he was an essentially kind gentle man.

I have so many questions and speculations about Desert Fury. I return to the scene where Hodiak and Corey's characters stopped in their tracks upon first seeing Scott's character. They agree she strongly resembles Hodiak's character's late wife. If the resemblance is so strong, could Scott's character be the daughter of the late wife? If so, how did Mary Astor's character come to raise Scott's character if she is not the birth mother?

I love this movie bought it on dvd here http://www.classicmoviesandtvcom.com/product/desert-fury-dvd-burt-lancaster-1947

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

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DESERT FURY

Post author: eenableadmin
Post published: August 5, 2019
Post category: Uncategorized

DESERT FURY (aka: DESERT TOWN) (director: Lewis Allen; screenwriters: Robert Rossen/from the novel by Ramona Stewart serialized in Colliers Magazine; cinematographers: Charles Lang/ Edward Cronjager ; editor: Warren Low; music: Miklós Rózsa ; cast: John Hodiak ( Eddie Bendix ), Lizabeth Scott ( Paula Haller ), Burt Lancaster (Tom Hanson), Wendell Corey ( Johnny Ryan ), Mary Astor ( Fritzie Haller ), Ray Teal (Bus Driver), William Harrigan ( Judge Berle Lindquist ), Kristine Miller (Claire Lindquist), Jane Novak (Mrs. Lindquist), James Flavin (Pat Johnson—Sheriff) ; Runtime: 96; MPAA Rating: NR; producer: ; Paramount; 1947) “M ordant film noir, shot in a snazzy Technicolor .”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Underrated studio director Lewis Allen (“Suddenly”/”The Uninvited”/”Illegal”) films this mordant film noir, shot in a snazzy Technicolor. It’s written by Robert Rossen, who based it on Ramona Stewart ‘s serialized articles in Colliers Magazine. The melodramatics are overwrought and the romance story absurd and the casting of the husky voiced Liz Scott as a teenager is not credible, but Wendell Corey and Mary Astor thrive as supporting characters to provide an oasis for a film that lost its way in the desert.

In the small desert town of Chuckawalla, Nevada, outside Reno, big-time LA racketeers Eddie Bendix ( John Hodiak ) and Johnny Ryan ( Wendell Corey ) return to their former gambling location for the first time since Eddie’s wife died in a supposed accident a few years ago when her car went over the local bridge. Eddie’s latest racket has him involved in Las Vegas, but he has come here to think things over as things have seemingly gone wrong there. Meanwhile the 19-year-old Paula Haller ( Lizabeth Scott, 24 at the time) , the rebellious daughter of Fritzie (Mary Astor), the widowed owner of the biggest local casino, The Purple Sage, has been booted out of her fifth boarding school and returns to live with her pushy mom. Fritzie runs the town, as the milquetoast judge ( William Harrigan ) and political-minded sheriff Pat Johnson ( James Flavin) are bought men. Mom is unhappy that the respectable townies have not accepted her, and wants to keep her foolish daughter from following in her footsteps so she can have a better life. T he hard-assed New Jersey transplant was a former bootlegger with her hubby, and has lived here for ten years or ever since the mob bumped off her hubby and she had to move west for health reasons.

The only really good person in town is the straight-arrow athletic deputy, Tom Hanson (Burt Lancaster), a transplanted Texas champion rodeo rider, who can’t ride the rodeo circuit any more because of a severe injury from a horse fall.

When Fritzie sees her daughter falling for the cheap gangster Bendix, she makes Tom an offer that if he marries Paula she’ll buy him the ranch he always wanted. Tom reveals this proposition to Paula, who freaks out that her mom is trying to run her life and rushes foolishly into the arms of the big-talking nasty tough guy Bendix.

The story is such a bummer that the pic really doesn’t stand much of chance, and its contrived happy ending seems a travesty. That it succeeds somewhat is only because Astor and Corey both give fascinating crazed hyper performance as pervs. Lancaster is a fine presence, but is not asked to do much in his hero role except show us that a real man is brave and honest and treats women decently. Hodiak is the weakest link in the pic, who portrays a neurotic and always angry racketeer in a one-dimensional emotional tone and maybe he’s so screwed-up because he’s hiding his homosexual relationship with the Corey character. But the Hodiak character has the film’s snappiest one-liner–telling his nagging nursemaid mentor Johnny that he always keeps the blinds drawn in his room because “I like the sunlight in its place, outside.”

REVIEWED ON 7/22/2013 GRADE: B-

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

5 against the house.

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Produced by, released by, desert fury (1947), directed by lewis allen.

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Monday, April 22, 2019

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Desert Fury (1947) Stream and Watch Online

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Want to behold the glory that is ' Desert Fury ' on your TV or mobile device at home? Tracking down a streaming service to buy, rent, download, or view the Lewis Allen-directed movie via subscription can be difficult, so we here at Moviefone want to do the work for you. Read on for a listing of streaming and cable services - including rental, purchase, and subscription choices - along with the availability of 'Desert Fury' on each platform when they are available. Now, before we get into the various whats and wheres of how you can watch 'Desert Fury' right now, here are some finer points about the Hal Wallis Productions drama flick. Released July 23rd, 1947, 'Desert Fury' stars John Hodiak , Lizabeth Scott , Burt Lancaster , Wendell Corey The NR movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 36 min, and received a user score of 60 (out of 100) on TMDb, which assembled reviews from 29 experienced users. Curious to know what the movie's about? Here's the plot: "The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them." 'Desert Fury' is currently available to rent, purchase, or stream via subscription on Criterion Channel .

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‘Furiosa’ Director George Miller Explains Why Anya Taylor-Joy Gets Just 30 Lines of Dialogue

The “Mad Max” franchise filmmaker says that he believes too many words slow movies down

When “Furiosa” has its official premiere at the Cannes Film Festival this month, the amount of dialogue from its lead may surprise audiences. Despite portraying the titular character for the entire two-and-a-half hour desert sprint, lead actress Anya Taylor-Joy only has around 30 lines — total.

Director George Miller told The Telegraph that the reason is simple: for him, movies should be fast . He believes that dialogue slows them down.

Miller also reflected back on the filming of 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” and shared stories of costars Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy constantly arguing with one another.

“They were just two very different performers,” Miller said. “Tom has a damage to him but also a brilliance that comes with it, and whatever was going on with him at the time, he had to be coaxed out of his trailer. Whereas Charlize was incredibly disciplined – a dancer by training, which told in the precision of her performance – and always the first one on set.”

Things got better over time, he added. “I’m an optimist, so I saw their behavior as mirroring their characters, where they had to learn to cooperate in order to ensure mutual survival,” Miller explained.

It seems that Hardy and Theron’s feud impacted how Miller approached “Furiosa.” He told the outlet that he had a conversation with Taylor-Joy and costar Chris Hemsworth about maintaining a calm shoot. “You have to be obsessive about safety – physical safety, as the shoot goes on and fatigue sets in, but also psychological safety,” the director explained.

Later in the interview, Miller revealed that by the time filming on the 1979 original was finished, he was convinced that the movie was a flop — until countries around the world began to pick up distribution rights.

“It screened in Japan, and they said, ‘Oh, you’ve made a samurai film,’” he said. “Then in Scandinavia, we heard they’d thought it was a modern-day Viking movie. In France, they said, ‘It’s a western on wheels.’ I suddenly realized what I had thought was a very Australian story had tapped into all sorts of universal archetypes and themes.”

Read the entire interview with George Miller at The Telegraph .

Anya Taylor-Joy Still Can’t Make Sense of What She Went Through

Playing the title character in “Furiosa,” the 28-year-old star says, “I’ve never been more alone than making that movie.”

Anya Taylor-Joy found herself sobbing while watching “Furiosa” in an early cut: “I adored a person that I could not protect. There were forces greater than me.” Credit... Ariel Fisher for The New York Times

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By Kyle Buchanan

Reporting from Los Angeles

May 12, 2024

There’s nothing normal about making a “Mad Max” movie, and Anya Taylor-Joy knew that when she signed on to star in “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” the newest film in George Miller’s long-running action series.

“I wanted to be changed,” she said. “I wanted to be put in a situation in extremis where I would have no choice but to grow. And I got it.”

Trials by fire don’t burn much hotter than the conflagration that consumed “Mad Max: Fury Road” (2015), the most recent film in the franchise, which was one of the most infamously difficult productions in Hollywood history . In the works for nearly two decades, the movie was shut down several times by studio executives, who feared they were producing a big-budget boondoggle. And the constant clashes between Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, two of its stars, in the remote Namibian desert required outside intervention.

Despite all of those headwinds, “Fury Road” was hailed upon its release as one of the greatest action films ever made; it would go on to win six Oscars and net a spot on many critics’ best-of-the-decade lists. Its success paved the way for the prequel “Furiosa,” in theaters May 24, which casts the 28-year-old Taylor-Joy as a younger version of Theron’s iconic warrior woman.

Plucked from her idyllic home by bandits, Furiosa grows up shuttled between two captors, the gabby psychopath Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and the hulking warlord Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). Furiosa faces constant danger on both sides, and she strives to survive long enough to escape, keen to exact revenge on those who have taken everything from her.

Though Theron still casts a long shadow, Taylor-Joy stakes her claim on the role with a formidable ferocity: Under the grease that Furiosa smears on her face like war paint, the actress’s distinctive wide-set eyes blaze bright with righteous anger. To make Furiosa her own, she allowed herself to be put through an emotional and physical wringer for six and a half months. How did she feel in late 2022, when she finally wrapped the arduous production?

“Like I knew I was going to need the two years that it took for the movie to come out to deal with it,” she said.

In a scene from “Furiosa,” an angry looking Taylor-Joy looks back from her position in the driver’s seat of a vehicle.

THE RELEASE OF “FURIOSA” will put Taylor-Joy’s nascent stardom to its biggest test. Though she has worked steadily since her film breakthrough in “ The Witch ” (2016), her profile rose precipitously four years ago when she starred as a chess prodigy in Netflix’s hit limited series “ The Queen’s Gambit .” A surprise cameo in this year’s “Dune: Part Two” placed her in the company of Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya and Florence Pugh — three of the very few actors under 30 who are considered bankable movie stars — and served as proof that Hollywood hopes to add Taylor-Joy to that gilded A-list.

In late April, I met her for lunch at the rooftop restaurant of a Beverly Hills hotel. Poised but chatty, Taylor-Joy was animated by an actor’s watchful curiosity. She asked me nearly as many questions as I asked her, and whenever my turns of phrase or tossed-off hand gestures caught her fancy, she’d repeat and refine them, doing me better than I did myself. One of Taylor-Joy’s gifts as a performer is that precision: She trained as a ballet dancer until she was 15, and she knows how to hit a mark.

“I feel most alive on a set when I can perfectly match an emotion to something technical and kind of become this blend between organic and machine,” she said.

Her consummate awareness of the camera can even be seen off the set. While I was on the Oscar red carpet this year, I watched Taylor-Joy pose for the E! channel’s Glambot — a slow-motion camera that swooped around her at high speed — and as she turned and flicked her long platinum hair, her eyes tracked the camera with such exactitude that it was almost fearsome.

“I’ve always had this theory that there’s a difference between an actor and a movie star,” said the director Edgar Wright, who worked with Taylor-Joy on “ Last Night in Soho ” (2021) and recommended her to Miller for the “Furiosa” role. “An actor can disappear completely, but a movie star can do that and also have awareness of the camera in the same way that Marlene Dietrich or Greta Garbo or Cary Grant would. Anya has a lot of that old-school Hollywood star wattage about her.”

Those skills served her well on “Furiosa,” which asked more of her than she had ever given to a role. “My characters are all real for me,” she said. “The level of protection I feel for them never changes: I defend, to a fault, their interest.” The characters in the movie were constantly pushed to their breaking points, and the shoot, in Australia, required Taylor-Joy and her co-stars to inhabit a very intense space for long periods of time with little reprieve.

“What you’re being asked to dig into and display emotionally is exhausting,” said Hemsworth, who praised Taylor-Joy for rising to the challenge. “I found what she did inspiring because she was there every single day for months on end and was as fiercely protective of the character as you’d want.”

Still, Taylor-Joy told me that championing Furiosa often felt like a solitary experience.

“I’ve never been more alone than making that movie,” she said, choosing her words carefully. “I don’t want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard.”

Her reticence reminded me of when I first spoke to the actors who had made “Fury Road”: During that shoot, the desperation of the characters bled into their real lives, and unpacking that experience took a very long time. Sensing that she was skirting a sensitive issue, I asked Taylor-Joy what exactly it was about “Furiosa” that had proved more difficult than she expected. For five long seconds, she contemplated giving me an answer.

“Next question, sorry,” she said. There was a faraway look in her eyes, as if a part of her had been left behind in that wasteland. “Talk to me in 20 years,” she said. “Talk to me in 20 years.”

NOT LONG AFTER filming “The Witch,” Taylor-Joy, who is part Argentine, was in Buenos Aires hanging out with a friend when his older brother showed up astride a memorably cool Ducati. When the brother caught Taylor-Joy eyeing his motorbike, he offered to let her ride it.

“I actually rode pretty well,” she told me. “It was only that I couldn’t get it to start without sputtering, so I really went for it and I crashed into a tree.” She tapped a faint scar on her knee. “Got this guy.”

That crash gave Taylor-Joy an emotional hurdle to get past during her year of prep for “Furiosa,” which included extensive motorcycle riding, strength training and stunt driving. (That she still hasn’t gotten her driver’s license lent a frisson to the work, too.) She initially feared that mastering the action choreography would be the hardest part of making “Furiosa” — after all, “Fury Road” had some of the most intimidating stunt sequences ever put to film — but found, much to her surprise, that it was the ideal fit for her perfectionism.

With action choreography, “you can get it kind of right, you can get it almost right, or you can get it right, ” she said, “and I want to get it right every single time.” The feeling of tangible improvement after each take had her hooked: “When my analytical brain is firing in that way, I just feel so alive and purposeful.”

The film’s action sequence centerpiece, a dramatic raid on the War Rig, where Furiosa has hidden herself, required 197 shots that took the entire span of production to complete. With all of those action beats on the schedule — most of them seconds-long shots in which Taylor-Joy was climbing, driving, ducking and fighting — did weeks go by on set when she never spoke a single line?

“Months,” she said. And some of the limits placed on her performance initially threw her.

“I do want to 100 percent preface this by saying I love George and if you’re going to do something like this, you want to be in the hands of someone like George Miller,” she said. “But he had a very, very strict idea of what Furiosa’s war face looked like, and that only allowed me my eyes for a large portion of the movie. It was very much ‘mouth closed, no emotion, speak with your eyes.’ That’s it, that’s all you have.”

To hear Miller tell it, that sort of stillness was meant to pack a mythological punch.

“If you look at the classic, almost inevitably male heroes — going back to John Wayne and Clint Eastwood — they’re usually very laconic,” he said, adding that the mute performances delivered by Holly Hunter in “The Piano” and Jane Wyman in “Johnny Belinda” won both of them Oscars. “When you’ve got someone with a lot going on and they’re silent, the audience is getting ahold of a lot of stuff. It’s that thing that you can really only do in cinema.”

Taylor-Joy took Miller’s point but still felt Furiosa was owed an eruption. “I am a really strong advocate of female rage,” she said, noting that in too many films, female characters are made to endure all manner of hardships while crying only a single delicate tear.

“We’re animals, and there’s a point where somebody just snaps,” she said. “There’s one scream in that movie, and I am not joking when I tell you that I fought for that scream for three months.”

While making “Fury Road,” Theron waged a similar campaign on behalf of the character, arguing that when Furiosa was brought to her lowest point, it demanded some sort of cathartic outburst. Miller eventually granted that wish, and the result — a scene improvised by Theron in which Furiosa falls to her knees and lets out a primal scream — gave the film one of its most iconic moments. When I brought that negotiation up to Taylor-Joy, she nodded.

“With George, it’s a long game,” Taylor-Joy said. “You plant the seed day one, you leave it for a bit, then you check on it.” Once, she debated a character choice with such intensity that her voice broke in front of Miller and she started to cry. “He was like, ‘You care so much, it’s beautiful.’ And I was like, ‘I’m trying to tell you something!’”

Still, one of her primary goals was to make sure the 79-year-old director always felt respected.

“I wanted to make sure that I was never insolent in any way, that it was always a conversation,” she said. “At the end of the day, this is his vision. I can present everything that I have, but his word goes.”

WHEN A PROJECT challenges Taylor-Joy, there is always something that lingers. Years after making “The Queen’s Gambit,” she still finds the notion of playing chess with a friend too fraught to contemplate. As we ate lunch, she wondered how long it might take to truly gain perspective on the ways “Furiosa” had changed her.

“I will never regret this experience, on so many different levels, but it’s a very particular story to have,” she said. “There’s not everyone in the world that has made a ‘Mad Max’ movie, and I swear to God, everyone that I’ve met that has, there’s a look in our eyes: We know . There’s an immediate kinship of like, ‘OK, hey, I see you.’”

Someday, she hopes to talk all this over with Theron. “We saw each other very, very briefly at the Oscars, and she’s wonderful,” Taylor-Joy said. “But we are due a sit-down, hash-it-out dinner.”

And then there’s the matter of the movie itself.

“I’m curious, once I watch it, if I’ll ever be able to watch it again,” she told me. At the time of our interview, all she had seen was an early, black-and-white cut before all the special effects had been added, and even watching that was an emotional experience: “Two minutes in and I’m sobbing.”

What had set her off? “I adored a person that I could not protect,” she said simply. “There were forces greater than me.”

In some ways, Taylor-Joy said, she still carries Furiosa with her, noting that she came away from the film “being able to advocate for myself more. Some of the protection and love I felt toward her, I’ve carried into my actual life.” But she has also been keen to start drawing a bolder line between her characters and herself.

“I’ve spent 10 years making other people real,” she said. “I’d been able to sort of barrel through life, throwing experiences in a backpack and constantly thinking, ‘Well, I can’t deal with this right now because I have to service her . And again, this seems to keep coming up in this interview, but I was like, ‘I am a machine right now. I just run. You put me in the cupboard for four hours and you take me out in the morning and then I go and I do the thing.’”

The actors’ strike last year forced Taylor-Joy to finally sit down and contend with her own wants. “I was like, ‘What do I do for fun? What is it that I enjoy?’” she said. So she has applied herself to the role of really living, whether that’s picking up a love of basketball — she gushed about a Knicks game she had just gone to with her husband, the musician and actor Malcolm McRae — or riding go-karts a couple of miles from Griffith Park to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.

“I realized that I don’t necessarily need rest as long as I constantly have something to marvel at,” she said. A recent trip to Yosemite gave her plenty to think about: “What is it about just climbing a mountain and then climbing another mountain and then climbing another mountain that feels so honest and deeply profound?”

I wondered if maybe it gave her the sort of real-life challenge that she is drawn to in her work, where you push up against things you thought you couldn’t do and then, upon accomplishing them, realize you’ve grown stronger than you thought you were. The look on her face told me she was fine with not knowing yet. Maybe I’ll ask her again in 20 years.

Kyle Buchanan is a pop culture reporter and serves as The Projectionist , the awards season columnist for The Times. He is the author of “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road.” More about Kyle Buchanan

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Desert Fury (1947)
Tempting Triangle Trifles! hitchcockthelegend 1 May 2019. Desert Fury is directed by Lewis Allen and adapted to screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides and Robert Rossen from the novel Desert Town written by Ramona Stewart. It stars Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak, Mary Astor, Burt Lancaster and Wendell Corey.
Desert Fury
Desert Fury is a 1947 American film noir crime film directed by Lewis Allen, and starring John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott and Burt Lancaster.Its plot follows the daughter of a casino owner in a small Nevada town who becomes involved with a racketeer who was once suspected of murdering his wife. The screenplay was written by Robert Rossen and A. I. Bezzerides (uncredited), adapted from the 1947 ...
Desert Fury (1947)
Desert Fury: Directed by Lewis Allen. With John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey. The daughter of a Nevada casino owner gets involved with a racketeer, despite everyone's efforts to separate them.
Desert Fury
Aug 31, 2022. Oct 21, 2020. Apr 22, 2019. In Theaters At Home TV Shows. Advertise With Us. An Old West gambler (John Hodiak) falls in love with the proper daughter (Lizabeth Scott) of a gambling ...
Review: "Desert Fury" (1947) Starring John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott and
Lancaster, who reportedly hated the movie and his part in it, shows the on-screen charisma that would make him a major star. Mary Astor and Lizabeth Scott turn in the best performances. Astor is the quintessential hard-boiled female whoâ€™s seen it all, trying to protect Scott, the naÃ¯ve young girl driven to risk danger by her fear of ...
Pulp Serenade: Movie Review: "Desert Fury" (1947)
His role as the deputy in Desert Fury is pretty one-note and, compared to the rest of the cast, rather vanilla and tame. No sexual hang-ups, no burning desire, just a pretty normal guy looking to bust a crook and marry a pretty girl. But Lancaster has that star charisma—tough, sexy, rugged yet beautiful, appealing to both men and women.
Desert Fury
Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 24, 2013. A star-studded cast regrettably cannot overcome the shortcomings of Robert Rossen's script. Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 27, 2012. A ...
Desert Fury (1947)
Desert Fury is a 1947 American film noir, one of few color noirs from the era, and starring John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott and Burt Lancaster. Film Noir ... "Desert Fury is the gayest movie ever produced in Hollywood's golden era. The film is saturated - with incredibly lush color, fast and furious dialogue dripping with innuendo, double entendres ...
‎Desert Fury (1947) directed by Lewis Allen • Reviews, film + cast
82th Review for The Collab Weekly Movie Watch. ... Pretty much only for people into epic psychosexual hang-up movies, but if that includes you Desert Fury is glorious.Cut from the same place as Leave Her to Heaven in its mix of late 40s crime fatalism and lush hyperbolic melodrama (only this is directed by Lewis Allen instead of John M. Stahl ...
'Desert Fury' Review: Sunny Noir
I love stumbling upon films that surprise and jolt me. Desert Fury did both.. Released in 1947, Desert Fury features crackling dialogue by Robert Rossen and a lurid hothouse atmosphere, courtesy of director Lewis Allen, cinematographers Edward Cronjager and Charles Lang, art director Perry Ferguson, and costume designer Edith Head. Shot on location in Technicolor, using a single-strip process ...
Desert Fury, 1947
A celebration of small town weirdness in gorgeous Technicolor, Lewis Allen's Desert Fury is by no means an excellent film but it's a must-watch for noir fans because of its outstanding cast, vibrant colors, and high degree of psychosexual ambiguity. Kicked out of boarding school, Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott) returns home to her overprotective mother Fritzi (Mary Astor), a wealthy casino ...
Desert Fury (1947)
This film's working title was Desert Town.Ramona Stewart's novel was serialized in Collier's from 24 November to December 8, 1945.Desert Fury marked the screen debut of Broadway actor Wendell Corey. Paramount borrowed John Hodiak from M-G-M for the film. Par News reported the following production information: The Main Street scenes were shot in the small town of Cottonwood, AZ, which was ...
DESERT FURY (1947)/THE MIDNIGHT MAN (1974)
Desert Fury, from 1947, and Lancaster's second (co-)directed feature The Midnight Man, from 1974, offer a dawn-to-dusk view of a screen mainstay who embodied strong masculinity and firm control over a screen career that would span 45 years. Like echoes across time, the younger romantic highway cop and the aging, disgraced cop-turned-sleuth ...
From Silents to the Seventies: Desert Fury
Theatrical Release Date: August 15, 1947. Blu-ray Release Date: February 26, 2019. Directed by: Lewis Allen. Starring: John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, Mary Astor, Wendell Corey. Blu ...
The Girl with the White Parasol: Movie Review: Desert Fury
It burns with contained neurosis and frustrated energy. Desert Fury never reaches the heights of the truly great film noirs. It takes dark, tormented characters, gorgeous camerawork, and some inspired bits of strangeness and then lets them stew, like a sleek, freshly-painted sports car stuck in parking gear.
Desert Fury (1947)
Desert Fury is directed by Lewis Allen and adapted to screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides and Robert Rossen from the novel Desert Town written by Ramona Stewart. It stars Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak, Mary Astor, Burt Lancaster and Wendell Corey. Music is by Miklós Rózsa and cinematography by Edward Cronjager and Charles Lang.
DESERT FURY
In the small desert town of Chuckawalla, Nevada, outside Reno, big-time LA racketeers Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak) and Johnny Ryan (Wendell Corey) return to their former gambling location for the first time since Eddie's wife died in a supposed accident a few years ago when her car went over the local bridge. Eddie's latest racket has him ...
Desert Fury (1947)
Desert Fury is a rarety for the 1940s, a Technicolor "film noir." Set in a Nevada gambling town, the story concerns the various misadventures, romantic and otherwise, of Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott), the rebellious daughter of gambling-house proprietress Fritzie Haller (Mary Astor, who steals the picture).
Desert Fury (1947)
Desert Fury (1947) is available on Blu-ray and DVD from Kino Lorber Studio Classics. When you use my buy links you help support this site. Thanks! The Blu-Ray includes audio commentary by Imogen Sara Smith, subtitles and trailers of other Kino Lorber releases. Thank you to Kino Lorber for sending me a copy of Desert Fury (1947) for review.
Desert Fury
Desert Fury - Blu-ray Review. During its heyday, the film noir genre of the 1940's and 1950's tended to take place in urban settings with cynical looks on life and love, among other things. Desert Fury, released by Paramount Pictures in 1947, represents a unique departure from many of these conventions; not only was it shot in Technicolor ...
Review: Lewis Allen's Desert Fury on KL Studio Classics Blu-ray
March 2, 2019. Lewis Allen's Desert Fury suggests the eccentric love child of Jacques Tourneur's Out of the Past and Douglas Sirk's Written on the Wind. Melding the fatalistic impulses of film noir with the amplified emotions of melodrama and the end-of-the-line frontier landscapes of the western, this oft-campy, glossy Technicolor genre ...
Desert Fury (1947) Stream and Watch Online
Released July 23rd, 1947, 'Desert Fury' stars John Hodiak, Lizabeth Scott, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey The NR movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 36 min, and received a user score of 60 (out of ...
1947
plus-circle Add Review. comment. Reviews Reviewer: z.x.study - - March 1, 2024 Subject: Copr. R578391. Desert fury. By Hal Wallis Produc-tions, Inc. 10 reels. (C) 15May47; L998. E M K A, division of Universal ... I get a role in a movie opposite John Hodiak, who just did Lifeboat with Alfred Hitchcock. The only other name on this film is Mary ...
Furiosa's Director Explains Why Anya Taylor-Joy Gets Just 30 Lines
Despite portraying the titular character for the entire two-and-a-half hour desert sprint, lead actress Anya Taylor-Joy only has around 30 lines — total. Director George Miller told The ...
Anya Taylor-Joy Went Through the Wringer for ...
Playing the title character in "Furiosa," the 28-year-old star says, "I've never been more alone than making that movie.". Anya Taylor-Joy found herself sobbing while watching "Furiosa ...

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Desert Fury (1947)

Racy, gaudy and melodramatic, Desert Fury (1947) commences as a somewhat typical if confused film noir.

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