Desert Fury (1947)

Plot: The daughter of a small-town Casino owner, gets involved with a Gangster - despite everyone telling her not to.
Stars: Mary Astor, Lizabeth Scott,  Burt Lancaster, John Hodiak.
Best Quote: Desert Fury wouldn't have launched anyone's career. It starred a Station Wagon - Burt Lancaster.

This was to be Burt Lancaster's film debut,  but "The Killers."came out first. Half film-noir, half melodrama and filmed in technicolor, its, well, extremely odd. First, there's the casting. We get:

• Mary Astor, who's only 41, and looks younger, playing the Mother of 50. Everyone treats her like an old maid*. 
• Lizabeth Scott,  she's supposed to be a naive small-town girl & Astor's daughter.  Yeah right. She looks like a $million though.
•  John Hodiak and sidekick Wendell Corey. They're supposed to be tough-guy gangsters - and fail.
•  Burt Lancaster - he's a supporting character. The dull, good boy.  Throughout the movie, you'll be thinking, "Why isn't Burt the star of this thing?" 

The story is beautifully photographed, but equally strange.  There's little plot, we mostly follow  a beautifully-clothed Scott around town - in a nice car - where she flirts with Bad Boy Hodiak and Good Guy Burt, and ignores Mother Astor's warnings. The whole thing ends with a nice high-speed chase and a well-deserved death. 

Summary:  An average Noir with some good - if miscast - actors, a thin, melodramatic story, and some nice photography.  Unless you're a big fan of the actors, or 40s Noir, I'd skip it**.

* = in one scene, Astor senses that Lancaster is getting a little nervous, so she says "Don't worry. If this was 10 years ago, I might have done something"  -  Astor was 41,  Burt was 34 in 1947!
** = However, according to various IMDB Reviews there's a "strong Gay subtext" - I didn't see that, but if you like that kind of thing, this is the kind of film you might like.