Desert Fury (1947) - Region 2 PAL, plays in English without subtitles

Lizabeth Scott, American femme fatale extraordinaire, died recently and my husband, who is a great fan of hers, saw this 1947 colour Film Noir listed (under its English title, Desert Fury) as one of her films. We had never heard of it, but decided to take a chance on this Italian DVD, which turned out to be a great buy (dead easy to switch to the original English version). The plot is nothing special - spoilt posh girl, Paula, played by Scott, quits school and returns to her tough saloon-owning mother in Nevada. Holding her self-made, vulgar parent in total contempt, Paula ignores her pleas to steer clear of a gangster (John Hodiak), who is suspected of murdering his wife, and starts an affair with him, much to the alarm of her ex-boyfriend, the sheriff, played effortlessly and convincingly by a young Burt Lancaster. Mary Astor is also superb as the brassy mother, and Wendell Corey, in his first film role, is riveting as the narrow-eyed, nasty friend of the gangster.25-year old Scott is not very believable as a 19-year-old, but it doesn't matter much, because the real beauty of this movie is 1) the wonderful scenery, filmed in glorious Technicolor, somewhat overblown, but deliberately so; 2) the stunning Edith Head outfits worn by Scott, an ex-Vogue model, and her effortless grace in showing them off , and, 3) while the film was panned by critics of the day, it later received praise for its apparent gay overtones, which had to be coded to escape the censor in 1947 - an interesting study in itself.Last, but not least, it's a great print, and Vecosell, the Italian supplier, were a joy to do business with. (My review is for the Te Dora release only although Amazon have posted it under other versions as well.)

Beautiful strange and in dazzling technicolor Lizabeth Scott looks ravishing but then so does everything else including Burt Lancaster a great 40s dramatic picture

It was extremely poor quality, obviously recorded from a TV Channel, complete with adverts at the end!

Paramount Pictures presents "DESERT FURY" (1947) (96 min/Color) -- Starring Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak, Burt Lancaster, Wendell Corey & Mary AstorDirected by Lewis AllenDesert Fury is a rarity 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). Though no better than she ought to be, Fritzie is determined that Paula will not grow up as a "shady lady", but she's fighting an uphill battle. John Hodiak plays crooked gambler Eddie Bendix, who tries to exploit Paula's fascination with him for his own gain. Thank heaven that upright lawman Tom Hanson (Burt Lancaster) is on hand to rescue the heroine from the machinations of Bendix and his partner-in-perfidy Johnny Ryan (Wendell Corey).Desert Fury was adapted from the far racier and more explicit novel by Ramona Stewart.Mary Astor and Wendell Corey give outstanding performances in every scene.Lancaster, Hodiak and Scott are good, but it's Astor and Corey's film.Outstanding score by the talented composer Miklós Rózsa captures the dark side of the characters within the drama we've labeled "film noir".BIOS:1. Lewis Allen [Director]Date of Birth: 25 December 1905 - Oakengates, Telford, Shropshire, UKDate of Death: 3 May 2000, Santa Monica, California2. Lizabeth Scott [aka: Emma Matzo]Date of Birth: 29 September 1922 - Scranton, PennsylvaniaDate of Death: Still Living3. John HodiakDate of Birth: 16 April 1914 - Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaDate of Death: 19 October 1955 - Hollywood, California4. Burt Lancaster [aka: Burton Stephen Lancaster]Date of Birth: 2 November 1913 - New York City, New YorkDate of Death: 20 October 1994 - Century City, California5. Wendell CoreyDate of Birth: 20 March 1914 - Dracut, MassachusettsDate of Death: 8 November 1968 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California6. Mary Astor [aka: Lucile Vasconcellos Langhanke]Date of Birth: 3 May 1906 - Quincy, IllinoisDate of Death: 25 September 1987 - Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, CaliforniaMr. Jim's Ratings:Quality of Picture & Sound: 4 StarsPerformance: 4 StarsStory & Screenplay: 4 StarsOverall: 5 Stars [Original Music, Cinematography & Film Editing]Total Time: 96 min on DVD ~ Paramount Pictures ~ (July 1, 2003)

After quitting school, a young girl (Lizabeth Scott) returns to her mother (Mary Astor) who runs a gambling casino in a Nevada desert town. When she becomes involved with a racketeer (John Hodiak), several people including Astor, lawman Burt Lancaster and Hodiak's companion (Wendell Corey) attempt to break up the relationship, all for reasons of their own. One of the rare examples of a genuine film noir in color, the film's desert locations reap the greatest benefit of the Technicolor cinematography courtesy of Charles Lang and Edward Cronjager. The most intriguing aspect of the film is the homoerotic relationship between Hodiak and Corey wherein Corey's obsession with Hodiak and his jealousy over Scott threatens to boil over at any minute and in the film's tense finale, it does. Mary Astor as Scott's unyielding mother gives the best performance but the usually wooden Scott manages to drum up enough enthusiasm to actually give a performance. The assured direction is by Lewis Allen (THE UNINVITED) from a screenplay by Robert Rossen based on the novel by Ramona Stewart. Music by Miklos Rozsa.The DV1 DVD from Australia boasts a vivid transfer in its correct 1.33 aspect ratio.