ROBERT RYAN VS RHONDA FLEMING & WILLIAM LUNDIGAN 'INFERNO'

Poster for Ronda Fleming INFERNO Year: 1953 Rating: ***

Leading and character actor Robert Ryan is difficult to root for since he played contentedly bitter types who didn't want rooting for... but with INFERNO his rich-husband character gets so screwed-over by his wife and her lover, left in the scorching desert — with a broken leg — to trudge through rocky terrain before he's lunch for condors, there's no other option but to have complete sympathy, if anything else for the movie (and his dire situation) to conclude...

Yet the most intriguing scenes not only alleviate the halting, awkward tension but add a touch of paperback-pulpy and best yet, film noir/melodrama to the stranded-in-peril, fight-to-survive adventure...

Robert Ryan in INFERNO

Particularly when trophy wife Rhonda Fleming and cold-blooded stud William Lundigan (usually cast as a one-dimensional hero) — who'd stranded Ryan in the first place — deal with investigating cops, and, when alone, bicker nervously: proving they'd be a horrible couple if their plot does work...

So for Survival Tale buffs, these talky, paperback-dialogue moments would be an intrusion... yet for Rhonda Fleming fans, the Queen of Technicolor... originally curved within 3 fine Dimensions... INFERNO works just fine. 

William Lundigan and Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

A crippled Robert Ryan survives in INFERNO

Black & White DVD Cover for INFERNO boasts Technicolor

Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

William Lundigan and Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

William Lundigan in INFERNO

Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

Intermission in INFERNO

Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

William Lundigan and Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

William Lundigan and Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

Opening Credits for INFERNO

Opening Credits for INFERNO

Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

William Lundigan and Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

William Lundigan in INFERNO

Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO

Rhonda Fleming in INFERNO