Desert Fury

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Desert Fury
Desert Fury movie poster
Directed by	Lewis Allen
Produced by	Hal B. Wallis
Written by	A. I. Bezzerides Robert Rossen Ramona Stewart novel Desert Town
Starring	John Hodiak Lizabeth Scott Burt Lancaster Wendell Corey Mary Astor
Music by	Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography	Edward Cronjager Charles Lang
Release date(s)	August 15 1947 (U.S. release)
Running time	96 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Desert Fury is a 1947 Paramount Pictures film noir drama motion picture starring Lizabeth Scott, John Hodiak and Burt Lancaster, with Mary Astor and Wendell Corey.

Directed by Lewis Allen, the story was adapted for the screen by A.I. Bezzerides and Robert Rossen, based on the novel Desert Town by Ramona Stewart. It was produced by Hal Wallis. Music was by Miklós Rózsa; cinematography by Charles Lang.

Desert Fury has fast and furious dialogue, dark secrets and outraged face slappings.

[edit] Synopsis

Fritzi Haller (played by Astor) is the tough owner of a saloon and casino in the small fictional mining town of Chuckawalla, Nevada. Her daughter, Paula Haller (played by Scott), has just quit school and returned home at the same time that gangster Eddie Bendix (played by Hodiak) has returned. He was once involved with Fritzi; he left town under suspicion of murdering his wife.

Paula falls for Bendix and they become involved. Paula's old boyfriend, and local lawman, Tom Hanson (played by Lancaster), along with Bendix's sidekick, Johnny Ryan (played by Corey), try to break up the relationship. When Fritzi finds out, she angrily tries to protect Paula and put a stop to her seeing Bendix.

Bendix's past catches up with him in an unexpected way when the car he is in, running from Hanson (who wants to rid the town of the likes of Bendix and Ryan), crashes through the railing as it is going onto the bridge and plunges down the embankment, killing him.

[edit] Trivia

• Scenes were shot on location in the small Ventura County, California, town of Piru, with the northwest side of Center Street, at Main, used as the exterior of Fritzi's saloon and casino; the Piru Mansion was used as the Haller home and the historic Piru bridge was used as the locale of the car crash.