Rancho Notorious

In the sexually conflicted 1950s, when women were either sex goddesses with pointy bazooms or stick-figure gamines with brains, a cluster of memorable Westerns celebrated entrepreneurial dames, hard as nails. Not by accident, they often starred onetime movie-star queens in ... moretheir own 50s, fast becoming Hollywood outsiders.

In "Rancho Notorious" (1952), Marlene Dietrich plays Altar Keane, former dance-hall girl turned wealthy mistress of an outlaw haven. Her Western dominatrix struts about in tight pants and form-fitting flannel shirts but still cuts quite a figure in a fancy evening gown. Barking orders in her trademark bass pitch, the boss brooks no nonsense from her low-down guests. But she goes soft on a fellow (Arthur Kennedy) burning to avenge his fiancée, raped and murdered by one of Altar's clients.

This businesswoman on the wrong side of the law, her career alternatives nothing but ugly dead ends, dies for love — necessary sacrifice for the loss of society's good girl, safely headed into marriage and a life of propriety.

Jack Elam, Dietrich and George Reeves in "Rancho Notorious" (Courtesy the Everett Collection)