"Rancho Notorious" (1952) centers on the rape and murder of its heroine, and the attempt by her fiancée to bring her attackers to justice. The film is deeply feminist, in taking with great seriousness the horrible crime of rape. The film opens with a powerful evocation of the tragedy of the crime, then chronicles the hero's relentless search for justice.

Feminists have struggled for years to get society to prevent rape, destroy the conditions that create it, help its victims, and ensure that its perpetrators are punished. Rancho Notorious was made long before feminist thinkers offered their critique in the 1970's of how the justice system handled rape, often blaming the victim rather than the perpetrators. Such insights are not mirrored in the film, which does not show a police investigation of the crime or a courtroom trial. Also, since the victim in the film is dead, we do not see how society often mistreated victims of rape after the crime. The film does make clear, however, that the authorities are doing little of value to investigate the crime, and that only the hero's personal commitment to tracking down the criminals is offering any hope of their identification and punishment. The film is thus consistent with later ideas about the lack of government action in rape cases, without offering any sort of sustained social critique in this area. Also, the victim in the film is absolutely not blamed in any way. The film makes it entirely clear that she is a completely innocent victim of a terrible crime. Rancho Notorious shows how deeply tragic rape is. It does not sweep this tragedy under the rug; instead it holds it front and center, for everyone to see, in one of Lang's most emotionally involving stories.

"Rancho Notorious" still has a powerful intellectual, moral and emotional message to the world, about the importance and tragedy of rape. In societies around the world that still have a long way to go, in taking this crime as seriously as they should, this film has much to contribute.

Excerpt from a review by Mike Grost located HERE

Warner Home Video

Region 0 - NTSC

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• None

DVD Release Date: October, 2009
Keep Case

Chapters 9

On the WARNER: Still little damage, but miles ahead of Optimum release from 2005. Progressive and not time-compressed, as well as more information on all sides.