Rancho Notorious (1952)

Vern is hoovering the country looking for the guy that shot his fiencé in a robbery at their house. He gets some clues that leads him to a place called Chuck-a-luck, a gambling place. (He is also lead to prison, where he goes just to fish for some information.) At Chuck-a-luck gunslinger Frenchy is held as the main suspect. Chuck-a-luck, a hideout near the Mexican border, turns to be a haven for outlaw. A woman called Altar manages the place and at night she sometimes sings tunes. (I keep confusing details of this film with stuff from Johnny Guitar.) Vern notices that Altar wears the brooch his fiancé once had and now he sets out to dig out the details of how she got that brooch. A little romance might help. Then there's a bank robbery and some hostility by means of which Vern finally learns who is the murderer. Fritz Lang's Rancho Notorious has its merits as a woozy Western. The story is secondary and the limited locations of the film are the main thing. The reason to watch it is spelled Marlene Dietrich. If there's anybody who can play an outlaw manager, it's her: she acts the role of a woman who is treated like little more than a pawn, and Vern romances her only for instrumental reasons. She's quite alone, it seems. Well, she even gets to sing a little! Beyond that, this is a messy film that doesn't quite hang together.