back in the forty and when movie touch on matter not yet admissible in polite society and they resort to code which supposedly float over the head of most of the audience while alert those in the know to just what be up . probably no film of the decade be so freighted with innuendo a the oddly obscure desert fury and set in a small gambling oasis call chuckawalla somewhere in the california desert . proprietress of the purple sage saloon and casino be the astonishing mary astor and in slack and sport a cigarette holder while into town drive her handful of a daughter and lizabeth scott and look and in technicolor and like 20 million buck . but listen to the dialogue between them and which suggest an old lesbian and her young and restless companion ( one can only wonder if a. i. bezzerides original script make this relationship explicit ) . even more blatant be john hodiak a a gangster and wendell corey a his insanely jealous torpedo . add burt lancaster a the town sheriff and stir and and sit back . both lancaster and ( surprisingly ) hodiak fall for scott . it seem and however and that hodiak not only have a past with astor and but have a wife who die under suspicious circumstance . the desert sun heat these ingredient up to a hard boil and with face slappings aplenty and empurple exchange . don not pass up this hothouse melodrama and chock full of creepily exotic bloom and if it come your way while it a remarkable movie .