Furia Nel Deserto

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.)

Une belle découverte pour un film déjà septuagénaire. A découvrir!

ottime immagini e sonoro ma purtroppo manca il doppiaggio d'epoca con Paolo Stoppa troppo costoso

Una bella ragazza (Lizabeth Scott), nonostante gli avvertimenti della madre (Mary Astor), preferisce la corte di un gangster (John Hodiak) a quella di un probo poliziotto (Burt Lancaster). Si renderà conto dell’errore commesso, grazie anche all’ostilità che nutre per lei l’ambiguo partner del malvivente (Wendell Corey). Raro esempio di noir girato in technicolor, è un film interessante ed insolito (anche per le velate allusioni all’omosessualità fra i due fuorilegge), con un nucleo di personaggi che agiscono condizionati da un oscuro passato, ai quali si contrappone l’unica figura, positiva ma scialba, del rappresentante della legge. Pregevoli la fotografia e l’ambientazione. Lancaster sprecato in un ruolo marginale. Qualità video eccellente, audio italiano ridoppiato, traccia originale con sottotitoli, commento di Vieri Razzini.