Film Rouge (Rocks) No. 3

While the bulk of Desert Fury’s exteriors were filmed in Sedona and other scenic spots around northern Arizona (with a quick detour to Palmdale, California, for a short bronc riding sequence), most principal photography took place on Paramount soundstages in the City of Angels. Which makes this staged promotional still (the kind of lurid hoopla studios don’t produce anymore, but should) an entirely appropriate peek at the over-the top tone of the movie. That’s John Hodiak on the receiving end of a whack from Burt Lancaster, with film noir goddess Lizabeth Scott being restrained by Wendell Corey.––Joe McNeill

Film Rouge (Rocks) No. 2

Lizabeth Scott is a true Hollywood legend, a film noir icon. Her intriguing beauty, unforgettable smoky voice and commanding screen presence gave life to several of the most memorable femme fatales and “good girls gone bad” ever to delight movie audiences. I was honored in 2003 when Ms. Scott, who rarely grants interviews, agreed to share with me some memories of her 1946 visit to Sedona to film Desert Fury. “It holds up magnificently,” she said when asked her opinion of the picture today. “I find that’s true of all the films I made. I get an enormous amount of fan mail from 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds. I fit into their...[contemporary] personas. I can’t explain it, nor have they ever been able to explain it to me.”––Joe McNeill

Film Rouge (Rocks) No. 1

A film noir photographed in bright, cheery Sedona? And in Technicolor no less? Yep. That’s Lizabeth Scott coming between John Hodiak (left) and Wendell Corey in the innuendo-laced 1947 crime drama Desert Fury. Filming locations included spots in front of the Nuns Formation (pictured here) and the main drag of nearby Cottonwood, which was rented in its entirety for a couple of days to stand in as the fictional burg Chuckawalla, Nevada.