The Violent Men (1955)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

"The Furies" is re-visited here. This time, Barbara Stanwyck plays the venal wife, while Edward G. Robinson makes a good fist of the Walter Huston role. Glenn Ford offers a character study as the reluctant man of action. Aside from May Wynn's oddly amateurish interpretation, the rest of the cast provides solid support. Miss Wynn's voice seems to be dubbed and she is none too flatteringly photographed. Director Rudolph Maté fills the CinemaScope screen adequately, making good use of some real locations. A fair bit of action helps to ignite interest in the over-talkative screenplay, even though the staging of these action interludes often leaves something to be desired. It seems to proceed in sudden spurts and is neither as suspenseful nor as tension-tingling as it might have been in more expert hands. Max Steiner has contributed a characteristically rich music score.

***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".

as far as western go,this one is pretty decent once you get past the half way point.until then,it's a bit slow,with not much happening.after that,things pick up and the story gets interesting.it follows the formula of many western of the day.corrupt landowner wants all the neighboring land around him and has the law in his pocket,so to speak.but of course there's always someone who won't be forced off his land.a feud of sorts erupts,and people on both sides die.i was surprised at the ending.it wasn't how i expected things to end.and there's also a little bit of a twist,if you can call it that,that was interesting.given the title,i expected the movie to be more violent.in fact,the violence is minimal and tame,even by the standards of the day.for me,The Violent men is a 5/10

This is the classic western. The good, Glenn Ford, the dashing hero, the ex-soldier, the man who would not hold a gun again. He eventually has to stand up the the evil land baron, Edward G. Robinson, who owns most of the valley and wants it all. Then,there's Barbara Stanwyck, the real ruler of the roost. Edward G. Robinson's wife, who will allow no one to get in her way, even making Edward G. Robinson look weak. She is so evil that everyone else pales next to her blind ambition and ruthlessness to rule the valley and everyone in it. The gleam in her eye as she sees people face death for her is unnerving. It is worth waiting for.Throw in a young Brian Keith and a few others and you have a drama that stands on its own. With the requisite stampedes, shoot-outs, ambushes and close-ups of hard riding cowboys and you have a heck of a western.Without giving anything away, there are enough twists and turns within to make this not just a standard cowboy shoot-em-up.