The Film (4.5/5)

Desert Fury is a 1947 classic drama romance Noir that has the familiar story of a woman who falls in love with a crook, often found in gangster and Noir films during this era. The big difference is this movie was shot in Technicolor as opposed to the usual gritty black and white. And for this film, the color doesn’t hinder the picture at all and works beautifully.

In Desert Fury, a naïve sheltered young lady, Paula Haller (Lizabeth Scott), who gets emotionally involved with a ruthless gangster, Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak). The two plan to get married, which her mother Fritzie Haller (Mary Astor), the owner of Nevada casino and is quite wealthy, is very much against. She would rather her daughter marry Officer Tom Hanson (Burt Lancaster). In fact, she tries to make a deal for greener pastures if Hanson marries Paula. The art of the deal once again falls short as Hanson tells Paula that he was bribed by his mother to marry her, leading to increased tension in their mother daughter relationship, which was not exactly peachy to being with. Despite the efforts to separate the two and prevent the marriage, Paula, blindly in love with Eddie and unable to see reality, is still determined to get marry him. Because her friends and mother know Eddie, they believe that Paula’s inexperience, and poor choices will lead her down to a horrible path. Paula already knows Bendix is a racketeer, but he has a few more dark secrets that finally make her realize that he isn’t the man for her. Once she realizes that Eddie was scheming to get rich off the Haller’s money, she does her best to break away from him. 

Not having seen this picture before, I was completely enthralled by my first ever viewing of Desert Fury. The movie is unique as Film Noir crime dramas were not colorized at the time. This causes the film to stand out for the better among other films of the same genre. Lewis Allen did a marvelous job directing the picture, with a perfect pace, strengthened by a strong story and a great cast. Not surprisingly, the actors all hand in excellent performances. Mary Astor and Lizabeth Scott have some great back and forth dialog together and you can feel the friction as young Paula wants to defy her bossy, pushy and devious mother. The only problem I had with the movie was Scott playing a 19 year old innocent, ‘I haven’t seen the world’ girl. Even though she was 25 at the time the film was made, she had the appearance of a 30-40 year old woman, and in many of her other films she was playing femme fatales and other characters with a touch of attitude. This was a completely different role for Scott and she still manages to pull it off.

Mary Astor was incredible as the rough and tough Fritzie; her character wasn’t entirely likable despite being somewhat of a protagonist, in fact she treated Paula terribly cruel in her ways to protect her daughter. Call it tough motherly love. Come to think of it, practically all of the characters in Desert Fury except for Burt Lancaster were not too likable. Lancaster is excellent as a good natured apple pie lawman. He wasn’t in the film as much as I would have liked him to be but it was just his third film and wasn’t at the star level he would soon become. Another cinematic tidbit worth noting is screen legend Wendell Corey makes his screen debut as Johnny, a long-time partner of Eddie Bendix (John Hodiak), and is one of his best roles. Corey would star in some B level dramas, and have some key supporting roles in bigger pictures such as Rear Window.

In addition to the great acting, the musical score by Miklós Rózsa is both wonderful and appropriate, with his music fitting both the dialog and action sequences in the film. His rip-roaring music at the finale was outstanding. Charles Lang was the man responsible for the brilliant cinematography. The film is worth watching just for colorful scenery alone.

Audio/Video (5/5)

Desert Fury gets its long awaited domestic Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber and it’s fantastic. Presented in its original 1:37 aspect ratio, the 1080p transfer has given the film the most impressive, attractive release to date.  Colors are exceptionally sharp, bold and vivid, with beautiful blue skies and other outdoor scenery that are highly detailed. The clothing that the actors wear is also quite robust; in particular Lizabeth Scott’s wardrobes which have deep greens and reds. Print damage is minimal. Film grain is present with no DNR having been applied. The higher resolution has given Desert Fury an A+ in picture quality; it’s simply breathtaking.

Kino Lorber goes with the usual English DTS-HD master audio 2.0 for this release and the audio quality is excellent with dialog, music and other sounds coming in loud in clear without any issues such as drop-outs. Nothing is overly aggressive or intense with the audio until the climax.

Extras (1.5/5)

There is an audio commentary by film historian Imogen Sara Smith, who shares her thoughts and information about the movie, and talks about the lives of the cast and crew. Commentary fans and aficionados beyond a shadow of a doubt should give this one a listen. The only remaining supplement is a handful of theatrical trailers for other Kino Lorber releases with Burt Lancaster including Desert Fury, The Kentuckian, Trapeze, Run Silent Run Deep, Separate Tables, The Devils Disciple, Elmer Gantry, Judgement at Nuremberg, A Child Is Waiting, and The Train.

Overall (4/5)

Desert Fury had been requested on Blu-ray for quite some time and now, “finally” as many collectors would say, it’s available. The release, while not having a boatload of extras, does have one terrific commentary, on top of the fact that the audio and video presentation for the film is top notch makes this release highly recommended.