Angel of the hunted
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Angel of the hunted |
| Original title | Rancho Notorious |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1952 |
| length | 89 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Fritz Lang |
| script | Daniel Taradash |
| production | Howard Welsch |
| music |
Emil Newman Ken Darby |
| camera | Hal Mohr |
| cut | Otto Ludwig |
| occupation | |
| |
Angel of the Hunted (alternative title: Die Gejagt, original title: Rancho Notorious ) is a western by the director Fritz Lang from 1952, filmed in the USA , with Marlene Dietrich , Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer in the leading roles.
action
The fiancee of the cowboy Vern Haskell is brutally mistreated and then murdered by the outlaw Kinch in a robbery of the shop where she works.
Vern, who was out in the pasture to drive cattle at the time of the murder, is bitter and full of hatred for the murderer, who is still unknown to him. The only lead he could see might be a brooch he had given his fiancée a short time before and which has now disappeared. He participates in a search party led by the local sheriff to find the killer. The search party has to give up the chase at the border to the next district, but not Vern. Driven by revenge, he pursues Kinch's trail. On the way he comes across Kinch's companion, who was not directly involved in the murder, who was gunned down by the murderer in a confrontation and dies mortally wounded.
In the course of his further research, Vern finds out about the former barmaid Cora Keane, who now runs a small farm near the Mexican border. There she accommodates wanted men for a strictly fixed fee and in compliance with strict rules of conduct, which apparently also includes Kinch.
Vern discovers that Cora's former accomplice, Frenchy Fairmont, is in jail. With the intention of getting to the farm in this way and being able to contact Cora, he has himself arrested under a pretext and locked up in Frenchy's cell. He succeeds in saving Frenchy from death on the gallows and escapes with him on Cora's farm. There he hopes to meet the murderer of his fiancée.
Shortly after the arrival of the two men on the farm, Cora celebrates her birthday and, with her evening dress, wears the very piece of jewelry that Vern had given his fiancée shortly before she was murdered. Now the cowboy knows that he is on the right track. As the supposed savior of Frenchy, he flirts with Cora to gain her trust and to find out which of the outlaws currently present she got the brooch from. Cora, who remains silent about this, also takes a liking to Vern for her part. She therefore asks Frenchy to keep him out of dangerous projects, especially since she has the suspicion that he is no ordinary outlaw.
Now, of all times, Kinch, who actually went into hiding with Cora on her farm, recognizes Vern again. He persuades Frenchy to involve Vern in a robbery in which he then wants to shoot Vern from an ambush. But his plan goes wrong. Eventually Vern learns Kinch's name from Cora, contrary to the strict rules that apply on her farm, and wants to hold him accountable for the gruesome murder of his fiancée. However, this also makes Cora's other outlaws feel betrayed and betrayed.
It comes to a showdown on the farm, in the course of which several outlaws, including Kinch, are shot. Cora is hit by a bullet intended for Frenchy. She dies shortly afterwards in the arms of Frenchy and Vern, who leave the farm together and ride off to an unknown destination.
Interesting
During the shooting there were often conflicts between Fritz Lang and Marlene Dietrich, who kept pointing out to the director how their discoverer Josef von Sternberg had worked, to which Lang replied that he was Lang.
Originally the film was supposed to be named Chuck-a-Luck after a well-known game of chance . The name has remained for the saloon of the outlaws in the mountains and as the title of the song that emphasizes the plot. The ballad is written by Ken Darby (text and music) and sung by William Lee.
For the German dubbed version, Marlene Dietrich's unusual role name "Altar" was changed to "Cora".
The release of the film in the USA took place on February 7, 1952, on May 15, 1952 there was a separate world premiere at the Paramount Theater, New York. In the Federal Republic of Germany, Engel der Hunted came to cinemas on December 19, 1952 as a mass start.
Reviews
"Ballad-like and strictly designed Western outside of the usual plot."
"The film is as terribly fascinating as Marlene's masked face when she says shattering sentences like" I wish you could go away and come back - in ten years! ""
Web links
- Rancho Notorious in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Angel of the Hunted in the online film database
- Angel of the hunted at marlenedietrich-filme.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ quoted from Ludwig Maibohm: Fritz Lang. His films - his life. Heyne, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-453-86034-9 , page 225 ff.
- ↑ quoted from Peter W. Jansen and Wolfram Schütte (eds.): Fritz Lang - Film series. Hanser, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-446-12202-8 , page 125 f.
- ↑ Marlene Dietrich - actress . In: CineGraph - Lexicon for German-Language Film , Lg. 21, F 5
- ↑ Angel of the Hunted. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ^ Joe Hembus: Western Lexicon. 1324 films from 1894 to 1978 (Heyne books, no.7048). Revised paperback edition. Heyne, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-453-00767-0 , page 174.