User Reviews

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.

It's always interesting to catch a line in a film that winds up being somewhat prophetic for the future of an actor. In this case, I was intrigued by Edward G. Robinson's statement to Barbara Stanwyck - "I promised you the Valley", as he discusses the lone hold outs to his attempt to control all the land in Logasa. Ten years later, Stanwyck would star as the matriarch of the Barkley Family on "The Big Valley". Somehow I thought she might have looked older in the earlier picture; I guess all those bright gowns and fancy riding outfits have a way of bringing out one's youthful side.

As for my summary line above, that's Lee Wilkison's appraisal of John Parrish (Glenn Ford), one of those hold outs mentioned earlier, shortly after Parrish uses his knowledge of military tactics to take out a number of Wilkison hands after they raid his ranch and torch his home. I liked the way the film explored his character, starting with the way he dealt with foreman Wade Matlock (Richard Jaeckel) in a calculated showdown. The set up for the ambush was also a clever maneuver, diametrically opposed to the strategy of rushing the bad guys head on with both sides fighting it out to the last man standing. For that, Parrish also had something to say - "Never meet the enemy on his terms".

"The Violent Men" is a good title for this film, and was probably at the head of it's class in the mid 1950's, though by today's standards doesn't come close to the blood letting one will find in a "Tombstone" or "Open Range", where the bullets exact a nasty savagery. But it's shaped by fine performances from the principals, with a sub plot exploring infidelity that seemed almost ironic considering it was Stanwyck's character who was cheating.

"The Violent Men" marked the finest collaboration of Rudolph Maté with Glenn Ford in an intensely satisfying drama of rugged primitive justice…

Ford is John Parrish, a former Cavalry captain who is itching to get married and start a new life… His fiancée Caroline Vail (May Wynn) is desperate to move east, and to see him selling his spread to Lee Wilkison (Edward G. Robinson).

Parrish is not even much of a cattleman… but he do understand that there is something big building up in the valley… In the Army, they used to call it 'enemy pressure.' First, Cole Wilkison (Brian Keith) comes back from Texas to help his brother run Anchor… Then a tough kid with a fancy gun (Richard Jaeckel) shows up on the Wilkison payroll… Then all the small ranchers are forced out, getting the same kind of offers… Parrish saw himself either running like they did, or stand and fight…

But can he easily deals with a man who sends six killers to shoot an old man in the back? Can he easily argues with a man who started with a few acres of land and now owns practically the whole valley?

All that grass and sand ever meant to the ex-Confederate Army officer the past three years… It was a place to regain his health… Out of habit of taking advice, Parrish affirms: "What happen in this valley is no concern of mine." And much to the disappointment of the remaining ranchers and farmers, who pressure him to stay on, he decides to accept Wilkison's offer to fulfill the promise he made to his fiancée…

When Lee's younger brother Cole made the wrong move, trying to push Parrish make up his mind by lynching one of his ranch hands, Parrish got mad and warns the two brothers that he is going to stay and will fight them for the privilege of being let alone…

Brian Keith plays the traitorous brother who's behind the killing... He dreams to have position and respect in running one day Anchor…

Lee's ambitious wife Martha (Barbara Stanwyck) secretly hates herself and her husband… Stanwyck plays the part of a loving wife who can't bear the touch of her husband's hands…

Edward G. Robinson is good enough as the Anchor's crippled owner who promised the whole valley to his wife, unaware that she is having an affair with his younger brother…

Dianne Foster is too sensitive as the unsociable adult daughter well aware of her mother's burdens…

"The Violent Men" uses the wide-screen technology to emphasize the scope and power of this harrowing action-drama, making it a perfect example of the genre's most enduring classics

Pretty solid, entertaining western, could have been better, but worth watching.

I was hooked for most of the first half; I particularly thought the scene where Ford (as Parrish) confronts Jaekel's character was thrilling, as was the scene where Ford tries some guerrilla warfare against the Anchor boys. But this scene also marked the turning point in the film where I started questioning small things.

****THE REST OF THE REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS****

In the scene where Parrish allows the thugs from Anchor to burn his ranch (in order to entrap them as they make their getaway), the dialogue between Parrish and the Warner Anderson character bugged me. The scene would have been better without so much talk. It seemed ridiculous. "You're going to let them burn the ranch?!" It was clear from the action - we didn't need it spelled out. In fact it's much more fun for the audience if they get to figure things out for themselves - even if they don't get it at first. Not sure I can explain it.

(And then Anderson had a short speech - though it seemed long, in that particular situation - about how attached he was to the old place. I thought, "This guy must be driving Parrish to distraction with all this dull talk." It really diminished the suspense of the scene to have to listen to this nonsense.)

Then, I found the ambush itself not very thrilling. And it seemed, from then on, nothing was really as good as it had been. Pretty good, but not as good. Not as believable.

For one thing, the character played by Ford, the character that drove the plot up to that point, seemed to be pushed into the background, somehow, once the Anchor Ranch burned. (And where was he, anyway, in that scene?)

It was almost as if the writer needed to beef up the role of the wife so that a big star like Barabara Stanwyck would agree to play it. It became more about her, and what I felt were her somewhat unbelievable actions following her assumption that she had caused her husband to die in the fire. I don't know why but I didn't buy this. She was a careful woman and an expert plotter and schemer. I think she would have somehow made sure he was dead before she went around stupidly acting as if he was. I'm not sure how she would have been able to verify it; nonetheless, going off half cocked was not very believable, it seemed more like a scripted plot twist than real life, and just served to remind me I was watching a movie. And a plot-heavy one, at that.

I also felt that the film was trying to say something about mindless violence, and did so, very well, up to a point. Drawing us in by getting us frustrated at how Ford is being railroaded, then thrilling us when he does fight back, then allowing us to see that the violence, which at first seemed necessary, has gone out of control - all this was great, but the way Ford's character was written, he never really seemed to change. If he had seemed, at first, peaceful, then forced into violence, then consumed by revenge until it started eating at him, and the had some kind of epiphany - that would have been dramatically better than anything I saw on the screen. Also, I felt the film should have reached some kind of dramatic climax when the Dianne Foster character tells off the "violent men," but somehow it didn't come off.

Another thing that was, unfortunately, weaker than necessary, was the bit where Stanwyck sees her husband alive and freaks out and runs off and gets killed by Brian Keith's little girlfriend. It was clear this was strictly to satisfy the production code. But this could have been done with finesse, and it was done rather poorly. It just wasn't directed well, so it came off like a "wtf?" moment instead of the scheming bitch getting her just deserts. (Part of this had to do with the film's failure to develop the Mexcan girl enough for us to care what she does. She just seems to be there to serve the plot.)

As for the performances, they were pretty much excellent by the leads - Ford and Robinson were particularly great - as was Basil Ruysdael as a farmer whose son is killed by the Archor boys, and too many others to mention. May Wynn (from The Caine Mutiny, Columbia, 1954) though gorgeous, was somewhat weak as Ford's fiancée. The male actors were uniformly believable as western characters.

Despite its faults it's an enjoyable and entertaining western - plenty of action, great location shooting, and a score by Max Steiner, too!

The Anchor ranch had some pretty modern-looking furnishings - but this is typical of 50's westerns. All that seemed to be missing was the 32 inch TV set in one corner of the living room.

In many ways, this is a very typical sort of western. One of the most common themes in films, if not THE most common, was the idea of a boss who wanted to use his bully-boy tactics to drive out all the ranchers. Here in "The Violent Men" we have such an amoral and ambitious man (Edward G. Robinson). What makes it a little different is that one of the local ranchers (Glenn Ford) has a fiancée and her family who are strongly encouraging him not to fight this injustice but to sell out cheaply and move back East. What also makes this different is the strange love triangle going on in the household of the boss-man. Together, these subplots manage to breath some life into a very, very tired and overused plot.

Although Ford is quite willing to walk away from this fight and take a very poor offer from the boss-man, eventually he is just pushed too far. When one of his own men is killed, Ford reluctantly goes to war with this band of cut-throats.

The chief punk working for Robinson is Matlock (Richard Jaeckel). Jaeckel played this sort of gun-crazy punk in approximately 46923 films (give or take 6). What would have been surprising would have been if Jaeckel had played a level-headed nice guy! Eventually, it all culminates in an all-out war--with some interesting twists. Still, despite this, it really is just a well made version of the same old thing you've probably seen dozens of times before...and will see dozens of times again.

By the way, as far as the casting goes, this is an odd film. You don't expect to see Robinson out West nor can you really picture Barbara Stanwyck playing his wife. And, oddly, it's very hard to picture Brian Keith as Robinson's brother. As for Ford, he's pretty adept at such a film role.

I really enjoyed this movie. I have a real sense of justice and 'an eye for an eye', and this movie delivers that in spades. Glenn Ford is offered a very low price for his ranch by the big rancher in the valley; then one of his ranch hands is beaten and shot 'to help him make up his mind about selling'. When the ranch hand dies, and the sheriff refuses to do anything, Ford seems at first reluctant to take any action himself, cautioning his men to not take things into their own hands. But, that's just what he is about to do. I knew this movie was about to catch fire when he went into the saloon and faced the guy (Richard Jaeckel, one of my very favorite bad-guy character actors) who had killed his ranch hand; after a gentle exchange of dialog with him, Glenn Ford slaps his face and shoots him dead. Kind of a neat added bit of justice, he kills this guy with the gun that had belonged to his murdered cowhand. In short order we're treated to Ford letting his ranch be burned, so his men are justified in ambushing the crew from the other ranch; then Ford and his men stampede all the horses and cattle of the big bad guy's ranch; then they show up and burn the outbuildings and the big fancy house to the ground. Talk about getting even big-time. Lots of action in this movie. There's more to the story than this, but I'll just recommend you watch the movie. Glenn Ford was someone who showed time and again what can happen when you misjudge someone, and I really enjoyed watching him get justice the old fashioned way.

There have been a handful of psychological westerns made over the years, from 1947's "Pursued" and long past 1950's "The Furies", the best of these, in which Barbara Stanwyck played the hopeful heiress to her father's legacy. Now, Stanwyck is the wife of a wealthy rancher (Edward G. Robinson), a crippled man she despises. If you thought Stanwyck was ruthless in "Double Indemnity" (getting rid of a hated husband who also happened to be on crutches), just wait until you see what she does here to Robinson who ironically caught onto her schemes as the evil Phyllis Diedrickson. The storyline surrounds Robinson's battles with civil war veteran Glenn Ford who becomes engaged in the battle between him and the smaller ranches in the area. This leads to scandalous revelations of the back-biting in Robinson's family, one similar to an epic western of the previous year, "Broken Lance", itself an altered version of a story Robinson had once starred in called "House of Strangers".

Ford may have top billing here, but it is the exciting women of the story who dominate here-Robinson's daughter from a first marriage (Dianne Foster), a Mexican girl (Lita Milan) who is Stanwyck's rival for the love of the ruthless Brian Keith, and of course, Stanwyck herself, who of all the leading ladies in Hollywood history was the most at home while on the range. Stanwyck is as far here from her tough but kindly "Big Valley" matriarch as possible, and even more ruthless than she was in "The Furies". Tensions build here as the ranchers war escalates and that also includes the hatred between the various women involved in the plot.

Outstanding color photography make this a must for being seen on a big screen. It is beautiful to look at, and it is also filled with passions which if scorned can lead to violence. This may not be epic in scope, but it certainly is in characterization and emotions, which makes for an exciting trip into the old west which was certainly much more than just cattle, Indians and bandits.

***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".

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.

I'm in the minority here. Reading these other reviews, I can't believe we've seen the same movie. Let's see, the good: The Tetons, Anchor Ranch exteriors, uh...Glenn Ford riding a horse (although even this gets a bit tiresome), Edward G. Robinson doing pretty much anything. Now the bad: everything else. The women flounce, b**ch and moan, the men spill testosterone all over the place, the dialogue borders on parody. Stanwyck's character is such a cliché as to be distracting, someone apparently told Brian Keith to play Cole 'like a snake' and he couldn't have taken it to a greater extreme if he'd gotten down on the floor and slithered out the door. Glenn Ford is supported by stalwart former soldiers, the Anchor gang is exclusively faceless cowhand/gunslingers, the women (other than Stanwyck) are of little consequence, they deliver their lines and exit stage right (or left) reappearing to again deliver a predictable line or two, or maybe to shoot the fleeing (on foot!) evil Stanwyck as a favor to the director who apparently couldn't think of a plausible endgame. The characters are consistently unironic, unself-aware and little bothered by nuance. I gave it a four mostly because of the mountains. (I checked 'contains spoiler' because I didn't want to end up on some evil list but, frankly, spoiling this film for you would be a favor)