THE VIOLENT MEN announced intent in 1955 with ads blaring “VOLCANIC! VALIANT! VICIOUS! Violence and Passion the Screen Has Seldom Seen!”  As directed by Rudolph Maté (When Worlds Collide, The 300 Spartans) it is fairly gnarly with its action, the Arizona/California locations look swell in the cameras guided by W. Howard Greene and Burnett Guffey and a strong cast saddles up to settle scores. Taken from the novel “Smoky Valley by Donald Hamilton (before he starting slamming out his Matt Helm adventures), the screenplay from Harry Kleiner doesn’t break much fresh sod but there are worse ways to while away 96 minutes if you’re a western fan in an undemanding mood. Audiences doled out $5,600,000 that secured spot #60 at tills in a year that welcomed at least 33 entries from the genre, 34 if you cross party lines and count Oklahoma!

Better half? Does she look like the sort of lady who would stir-fry her disabled blowhard hubby?

It’s the old range war setup, with tied & true ingredients and a cluster–d version of one of ’em. Peace-seeking fella with a violent past and whose peacefulness can only be pushed so far. Check. Tyrannical big rancher with a physical infirmity that doesn’t help his outlook. Check. Treacherous wife of same. Got it. Virile, scheming brother of p.o.’d big shot. A given. Nasty punk underling who picks one fight too many (with peace guy) before getting ventilated to everyone’s satisfaction. Duh. Love/lust triangle—not singular but three entangled ones, which as best as I can decipher is a…trapezium? Hafta ask a schoolmarm.

It works because of the cast. Who better to duly cover ‘calm-turns-deadly’ than Glenn Ford? He’s once again wearing his signature hat that shows up in a posse load of his twenty-five westerns. The crippled ogre is Edward G. Robinson, in expected expert ease. The insinuating cur brother is dangerous-looking Brian Keith. The sneering gunslinger is Richard Jaeckel, nailing that job. But who for Robinson’s vengeful wife? Someone who—when her handicapped husband is caught on a staircase as the house burns downs—throw his crutches into the fire!  If you guessed Barbara Stanwyck you can take cuts in line and claim free popcorn at the snack bar. *

In duds and gunbelts: Dianne Foster, May Wynn, Warner Anderson, Lita Milan, James Westerfield, Jack Kelly, Willis Bouchey, Harry Shannon, James Anderson, Frank Ferguson, William Phipps, Thomas Browne Henry, Richard Farnsworth. Music by Max Steiner.

Squirt, didn’t Greg Peck teach you anything?

* Good at being Bad—How many devil dames did Stanwyck do?  In spiffy western attire alone she rules The Furies (watch those scissors!), The Violent Men, The Maverick Queen and Forty Guns.  Change clothes & break laws with Double Indemnity, The Strange Love Of Martha Ivers, The File On Thelma Jordon, Blowing Wild and Walk On The Wild Side. 

Ford on the range. Not John, but Glenn (1916-2006), who not only rode wild & free in twenty-five feature westerns but in one TV miniseries to boot. From 1941 to 1990, in order of release: Texas, Go West Young Lady, The Desperadoes, The Man From Colorado, Lust For Gold, The Redhead And The Cowboy, The Secret Of Convict Lake, The Man From The Alamo, The Americano, The Violent Men, Jubal, The Fastest Gun Alive, 3:10 To Yuma, Cowboy, The Sheepman, Cimarron, Advance To The Rear, The Rounders, The Last Challenge, A Time For Killing, Day Of The Evil Gun, Smith!, Heaven With A Gun, Santee, The Sacketts (TV miniseries) and Border Shootout. There are some skunks in there, for sure, especially later, but a holster load of sure shots more than make up for it, our faves being Texas, The Secret Of Convict Lake, Jubal, 3:10 To Yuma and Cowboy.

Oh, there seem to be more than plenty of their ‘kind” still around