The Violent Men (1955)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Good movie but grossly overrated

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Where has this cracking hard action hard riding hard action grade A western been all my life. I can hardly believe that i have missed it for so many years until i caught it on Film 4 tonight. The film has Glen Ford as the complex hero who hates violence but fights hard and brutally when cornered. Edward G Robinson and Barbara Stanwyck with Brian Keith make up the rest of a great A list cast all lined up against the immovable Glen Ford. With great big scale outdoor action all filmed with real scale that has hundreds of horses, and even more cattle, and scores of men, this is a western with epic above it's title. Here is a film that really uses the widescreen to the best effect with vista after vista of huge snow clad mountain ranges just on the horizon. The violence considered over done at the time (1955) seems routine now perhaps, but exactly why anyone in the fifties would of wanted to stay at home to google a 15" black and white flicker on a television set when the local cinema was showing a monument of a film like this escapes me. But then again i'm a movie going film buff. And this one thrilled me. A sound as a pound 8 from 10.

The title for this film, "The Violent Men" (1955), couldn't be more accurate for what transpires during its running time. It contains a body count that would make Quentin Tarantino envious and there's little letup in the action throughout its convoluted plot. Edward G. Robinson plays a wheelchair-bound cattle baron who's hell-bent on expanding his ranch. Egging him on is his wife, rotten-to-the-core Barbara Stanwyck at her conniving best. She's really in love with his brother, the equally rotten and despicable Brian Keith. Ms. Stanwyck's real aim is to have poor old Edward G. do all the dirty work to gain the entire "Big Valley" for her and then get rid of him. What girl would want to be married to a crippled old man anyway? Standing in the way of Barbara and Brian's plans is Glenn Ford as an honest cattle rancher who doesn't seem to want to put up much of a fight (at first). What they don't know is that he's an experienced U.S. Army Cavalry officer who specialized in well-planned ambushes and raids during the Civil War. He's the last person they should be messing with, and they learn that fact the hard way. So does Richard Jaeckel who plays a hired gun and ends up in the city morgue after killing one of Ford's men. There's also a "fly-in-the-ointment" character: Dianne Foster as Barbara and Edward G.'s daughter. She knows her mother is cheating on her father with Uncle Brian, but she can't bring herself to spill the beans to the old man. She's also good-looking enough to spark a love interest with rival rancher Ford. After the local crooked sheriff hires an army of killers to aid and abet Robinson's side in the range war, the action and violence ratchets up to "11" (as Spinal Tap would say) and Mr. Ford begrudgingly shows off his skills. He doesn't really like killing people, but a man's got to do what a man's got to do, pardner. In the end, Brian Keith makes the bonehead mistake of facing Ford in a duel and gets a bullet through the heart. Ms. Stanwyck doesn't survive her wicked evil ways either and ends up face down in the mud. While all this is happening, men are getting burned to death, whipped to death, shot in the head etc. There's even plenty of spurting blood, which was unusual in westerns before director Sam Peckinpah came along. The film was directed by Rudolph Mate. His best work was the famous thriller "D.O.A." but this movie is certainly a worthy effort. Ms. Stanwyck soon made the switch to television after this film and ended up with her own "Big Valley." It was a lot more peaceful there than anything in this movie.

Another cracker of a fifties western is Columbia Picture's THE VIOLENT MEN (aka "Rough Company"). Produced by Louis J. Rachmil for the studio in 1955 this enjoyable oater regrettably seems somewhat forgotten in these days of sparse western productions. It is a pity really for it is quite an absorbing colourful western tale directed with a genuine flair by Rudolph Mate and boasting an all star cast in Glenn Ford, Edward G. Robinson, Barbara Stanwyck and Brian Keith. With splendid production values it even has a score by the legendary Max Steiner who was borrowed from Warner Brothers. This was the second score the formidable composer wrote for a Columbia picture after his great success the previous year with "The Caine Mutiny" (1954). From a novel by Donald Hamilton THE VIOLENT MEN was well written for the screen by Harry Kleiner and beautifully photographed in Cinemascope and colour by W.H. Green and Burnett Guffey.A recuperating Civil War veteran John Parrish (Glenn Ford)- along with some other small ranchers - is running his holding in a valley dominated by the powerful Anchor Ranch owned by big land baron the crippled Lee Wilkinson (Edward G. Robinson) and his unfaithful wife Martha (Barbara Stanwyck). But Wilkinson wants all the ranches in the valley to be Anchor owned and his younger gunslinging brother Cole (Brian Keith) is riding roughshod over them and burning them out when they refuse to be bought. Wilkinson offers to buy out the Parrish place and when he refuses and one of his hands is killed by some Anchor riders he decides to fight Wilkinson. Before long a full scale range war begins culminating in the Anchor stock being stampeded, the Anchor ranch set alight and finally Parrish taking on Cole in an exciting fast draw shootout.THE VIOLENT MEN is an action packed and handsome looking western. Performances are fine from all concerned. Ford is his usual likable unforced self, presenting his affable cowboy image with that familiar attractive casualness. He was only two years away from his greatest western role in "3.Ten To Yuma" (1957). Good too is Barbara Stanwyck as Wilkinson's scheming cheating wife. A part the actress played many times before in her busy career. But miscast is Edward G. Robinson! The great pint sized actor simply doesn't suit the part of the big rancher in a western. Watching him here you can't help but wonder if he was only brought on board the production to replace someone like Lee J. Cobb or Albert Dekker or perhaps Raymond Massey.Holding the whole thing together is the splendid music of Max Steiner. As the credits unfold a jagged staccato statement from the orchestra is heard to emphasize the film's title before segueing into an attractive broad loping western melody. Later in a resplendent sequence this lovely theme is heard in full bloom when we see Ford riding (with characteristic crooked elbows) across some spectacular locations at Lone Pine and The Alabama Hills with what looks like Mount Whitney in the background. A captivating example of the beautiful combination of film and music. Steiner's score was conducted by Columbia Picture's conductor in residence Morris Stoloff. A rare occasion when the composer's music was conducted by someone else.THE VIOLENT MEN is an enjoyable and memorable motion picture and a fine addition to the list of splendid westerns that were thankfully brought to us in the fifties.

***SPOILERS*** With the healthy climate of he American West clearing up the injury, a bullet wound, he suffered in the Civil War former Union calvary captain John Parrish, Glenn Ford, plans to leave his spared or cattle ranch and go east with his fiancée Caroline, May Wynn, and start a new life together with her.As things turn out Parrish in trying to get a good price for his ranch is short-changed by cattle baron Lee Wilkinson, Eddie Robinson, who wants to buy him out for peanuts or a measly $15,000.00. Not wanting to be a sucker and give up his hard earned ranch and cattle stock Parrish decides to play hard ball with Wilkison and hold out for more only to have him get his paid gunslingers to put the hurt on him.The thing that gets the very peace loving Parrish to resort back to his fighting ways, that he picked up in the Cvil War, is when Wilkison's men lead by the kill crazy psycho Wade Matlock, Richard Jaeckel, bull whipped and shot one of his ranchers Bud Hinkelman, William Phipps,to death. Mad as a hornet Parrish later went to the local saloon where Matlock and the rest of the Wilkison's crowd hung out and blasted Wade away before he could reach for his .45 revolver.Declearing open warfare on Wilkison's Anchor Ranch Parrish gathered together the local rancher who were also being targeted by Wilkison to finally put an end to his reign of terror on the western prairie!As we soon find out Old Man Lee Wilkison isn't really the bad guy in the movie. Sure he drives a hard bargain and was more then willing, before he ended up a cripple, to kill to get things done but is at least now willing to compromise since he knows what war is all about in losing the use of his legs in previous wars that he fought against the ranchers in the area. It's Lee's two timing wife Martha, Barbara Stanwyck, and her secret lover Lee's younger brother Cole, Brain Keith, who are really stirring up the pot in all the bloodshed that happens in the movie.In fact not only is Cole having an affair with Martha he's at the same time cheating on her by playing around, behind Martha's back, with his hot as a hot tamale Mexican girlfriend Elena, Lita Milan. Playing both sides of the scrimmage line Cole plans to dump Martha as soon as he gets control of the Anchor Ranch, after his older brother Lee is taken care of, and then marry Elena.***SPOILERS*** Things don't quite go as well as both Martha and Cole planned. It's the Wilkinson's hot headed daughter Judith, Dianne Foster, who switches sides, from her dad to Parrish, after she found out that her cheating Mom Martha not only was fooling behind her father's back, with his brother Cole, but was in fact also planning to have him murdered! With Parrish rallying the rancher to total victory over the hoodlums under the control of Martha and Cole Wilkison, by then Judith's dad Lee had also switched sides, it's now up to a final showdown, at high noon, between Parrish and Cole to finally put an end to both the fighting and killing! As for Martha her plan of escape is blocked by non other then her rival for Cole's affection his hot headed Mexican girlfriend Elena. This leads to a violent and bloody shot out at the end of the movie that unfortunately or us watching took place off camera!P.S The film "The Violent Men" was released overseas with the somewhat less then violent sounding title called "Rough Company".