A man looking for revenge for the murder of his fiancee, this is centred on a steamy triangle between 2 men and the very beautiful Marlene Dietrich.

A claustophobic tale of revenge and passion - with no happy ending. By the great director of Metropolis.

DIRECTOR: FRITZ LANG

Our second Western classic was directed by the mighty Fritz Lang, and was actually his final excursion into dust-and-chaps territory. Despite being notoriously difficult to work with, there’s no doubt that Lang was a masterful director, and his dedication to the craft is just as clear in Rancho Notorious as it was in his better known works such as Metropolis, M, or Fury.

THE PLOT

Vern Haskell (Arthur Kennedy) is a simple, upright man making a living in a tough frontier town, but when his fiancée is killed in a heist-gone-wrong, the one thing on his mind is revenge. He tracks the murderous robbers to a run-down saloon, the Rancho Notorious of the title, and begins to unravel the truth about who fired the fatal shot that took his love from him.

MARLENE DIETRICH

The deliciously sultry Marlene Dietrich captivates every man that crosses her path, and as the matriarch of the seedy Rancho, every man wants to put their brand on her. Dietrich is as sexy as ever, a world-weary crooner inflaming the passions of the outlaws she protects in her den of iniquity.

Dietrich gets a great musical number, ably spoofed by Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles, and it’s easy to see how she earned her leading lady status.

UNHAPPY ENDING

It’s not long before Vern is caught in a steamy triangle with his fiancées killer and the Teutonic Temptress, and you don’t have to be an expert on Westerns to know that this will not end happily…

Fritz Lang’s studied direction gives the movie a tight, claustrophobic atmosphere. You can almost feel the walls closing in around the three leads as the movie builds to its inevitable climax, and Lang himself said that he loved the simplicity of this good old fashioned tale of revenge and passion. Believe me, it shows.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY

Time Out London:

“The fateful moral, the complete avoidance of naturalism, and the integration of an ongoing ballad into the plot, all make the movie quintessential Lang; add an overt political stance and it would be quintessentially Brechtian too.” 

Chicago Reader:

“A perversely stylized western by Fritz Lang, his last and best.” 

Variety:

“Dietrich is a dazzling recreation of the oldtime saloon mistress, and handles her song, 'Get Away, Young Man', with her usual throaty skill.”