VIOLENT SATURDAY takes place in the small copper-mining burg of ‘Bradenville’ when a trio of deadly, cucumber-cool thieves pull off a heist of the local bank and scram for their getaway. When this came out in 1955 reviews scolded it for its startling violence and a general sense of social amorality. They’ve since come around to give the taut 90-minute drama its due as an excellently cast, directed and shot piece of the Eisenhower Era puzzle. Made for $955,000 by director Richard Fleischer, it made out well enough at the box office (91st spot and $3,600,000) to guarantee Fleischer a 5-year contract with 20th Fox and helped boost the profiles of several rising stars.

Posing as a salesman, ‘Harper’ (Stephen McNally) sets up the ripoff with henchmen ‘Dill’ (Lee Marvin) and ‘Chapman’ (J. Carrol Naish). Among those affected by what goes down on Saturday are ‘Shelley Martin’ (Victor Mature), troubled because his son is ashamed of dad’s un-heroic war record; alcoholic ‘Boyd Fairchild’ (Richard Egan), hurt by his repeatedly philandering wife (Margaret Hayes) and ready to play doctor with sexy nurse ‘Linda Sherman’ (Virginia Leith); wimpish bank manager ‘Harry Reeves’ (Tommy Noonan) who’s a Peeping Tom over nurse Sherman; and Amish farmer ‘Stadt’ (Ernest Borgnine) who lives with his family outside of town.

Sydney Boehm’ script was taken from the brisk 218-page novel by William L. Heath, changing Heath’s Alabama setting (Southern Gothic time) and drops the book’s sub-themes of xenophobia and racism, transferring generalized Bob & Betty Citizen’s postwar restlessness to the sun-baked West where dark deeds and distorted desires contrast with (or grow in) the expansive yet lonely landscapes. A nice role for the always underrated Mature, and a win for the emergent Egan. Come hither sex appeal is guaranteed from Leith and Hayes. Borgnine’s small part is one of six he handled that year, some of them good guys for change, dominated by his Oscar scoop as Marty. He did share notable ’55 villainy in Bad Day At Black Rock with Marvin, who scored in seven pictures. In Violent Saturday Lee’s reliably menacing in his loose-limbed offbeat fashion, and his crooked compatriots are done with calm finesse by McNally and Naish.

Playing restless, due-to-be-rocked Bradenville is bucolic Bisbee, Arizona, the sense of place well captured by the cinematography from longtime Fox hand Charles G. Clarke (Guadalcanal Diary, Captain From Castile), with tense scoring from Hugo Friedhofer another plus. Starting with a literally earth-moving explosion, the methodical buildup and drawing of the various personalities comes to a boil in the last third with the gripping robbery and its aftermath: there’s a reason this wasn’t titled ‘Just Another Saturday’.

With Sylvia Sydney (bitter bank teller with money woes), Billy Chapin (the kid who needs to find out dad has the right stuff: since pop didn’t grapple with the Japanese, some lethal all-American criminals will suffice), Brad Dexter (smug playboy, country club variety) and Kevin Corcoran (as one of the Amish kids, two years before he’d romp with Old Yeller).