Demonstrating further that technicolor is the perfect vehicle for a melodrama in noir’s clothing, Desert Fury could 
be the seedy west’s answer to Rebel Without a Cause, had it not been made eight years before James Dean flashed his scowl. While the typical noir would be set in the cutthroat shadows of the cold city, Desert Fury is set in a small town, and its surrounding picturesque countryside, only suggested to be somewhere outside of Las Vegas. There’s plenty of vice, however, with a small casino that’s run by Fritzi Haller (Mary Astor), a women who wouldn’t think twice before eating you for breakfast. Her strong-willed daughter, Paula (Lizabeth Scott), returns to the mother’s ranch estate after having dropped out of her latest school, this time determined to learn to be a tough broad businesswoman like here dear ol’ ma. Some have suggested that the Fritzi/Paula relationship is either narratively suggestive or symbolically representative of something other than that of a mother and daughter,
and admittedly their butch vocal tones and overwrought interactions fall on the creepy side of cinematic family portrayals.
In that sense, they strike a perfect subtextual balance with the no-good rascal upon whom Paula has fixed her glaze (played by John Hodiak) and his overprotective sidekick/nurse/housekeeper (played by Wendell Corey). And when you add the surface love triangles to the subtextual ones — Fritzi (mom) once had an affair with Hodiak’s character, while Paula (daughter) is the unrequited love interest of the washed up ranch hand turned sheriff’s deputy (Burt Lancaster) — you’ve rocketed past melodrama into daytime television. It’s a sight to be seen for those with a taste for cinematic cotton candy with a vodka chaser, but can’t be found on DVD, having played for a week’s run at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
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