Desert Fury

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

Related Topics:
1947 - Paramount - Film noir - Drama - Motion picture - Lizabeth Scott - John Hodiak - Burt Lancaster - Mary Astor - Wendell Corey

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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.

Related Topics:
Directed - Lewis Allen - A. I. Bezzerides - Robert Rossen - Novel - Ramona Stewart - Produced - Hal Wallis

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Scenes were shot on location in the small Ventura County, California, town of Piru, with the Piru Mansion used as the Haller home and the historic Piru bridge used as the locale of the car crash.

Related Topics:
Ventura County, California - Piru

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

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96 mins.; Technicolor

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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 as gangster Eddie Bendix (played by Hodiak). Once involved with Fritzi, he left town under suspicion of murdering his wife.

Related Topics:
Saloon - Casino

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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.

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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.

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