GUENOT PHILIPPE Soap opera stuff has always, more or less, been a typical scheme for American movie and TV industry line. You can't deny that. The also more or less description of the famous American way of life, the best way to show the audiences things related with their actual - again more or less - real life with daily problems, gossips about neighbours to fill time and forget their own issues, and I don't speak of the basic human nature of curiosity and naughtiness, etc...So this mix up to the classic film noir tradition, also related to the movie industry, you obtain this picture. This could have been a western instead a crime flick. Lee Marvin is far more interesting than the ever bleak Victor Mature; for instance don't miss the sequence where Marvin describes a girl friend whose he was married with in the past; this seems cheesy at first sight, but it is not, I assure you. Yes, Mature is more than forgettable here. But the movie, inspired from Bill Heath's novel, remains very interesting.

christopher-underwood Once or twice this almost slips into melodrama but a strong cast with a strong script and magical direction and cinematography keep this moving wonderfully. Described in my Blu-ray booklet as a, 'sun-kissed noir' and it is hard to argue with as the bright and sunny cinemascope visuals collide with the devilish doings of the three bad dudes in town. Filmed in copper mining town of Bisbee, Arizona, the industry is woven seamlessly into the story as the various inhabitants criss cross each others lives and we learn remarkably much as they interact with each other. There is a marvellous scene in a drug store which sells everything (I even noticed a rack of pulp paperbacks) where we follow one character in, another is already in there and there is a brief exchange as unnoticed one of the bank robbers enters to make a crucial phone call. There are also great shots as the train crosses the desert, skies as good as any of Ford's. I'm not especially a fan of Victor Mature but he does well here mixing home life, work life and heroism. Not by any means action and hip talk all the way but convincingly and entertainingly structured to great effect. Oh and just watch out for Ernest Borgnine as an Amish farmer.

rodrig58 I noticed the name of Lee Marvin and Ernest Borgnine in the cast and I said to myself that I'll see a good thriller with a bank robbery. I was wrong. The film is a great drama, actually there are three different stories that intertwine. One is that of those who rob the bank. Then the story of the family of Shelley Martin(Victor Mature), who manages to kill 3 of those 4 gangsters. Then the story of the family of Fairchild Boyd(Richard Egan), whose wife is murdered during the robbery. Intelligent script, well played. Victor Mature in certain frames seems a clone of Sylvester Stallone. Marvin and Borgnine have smaller roles, the film is made in 1955, they are not yet the stars of the 60s, 70s or 80s. By the way, Borgnine, an Amish who hates violence, kills the gangster of all gangsters, Mister Lee Marvin, with a hayfork. Enjoy!

jpdoherty 20th Century Fox's "Violent Saturday"(1955) is exactly the kind of movie they were so good at producing in the forties when they came up with such noir gems as "Cry Of The City", Kiss Of Death", "Where The Sidewalks Ends" etc. and all in glorious Black & White too. But here, it must be said, this 1955 production, elaborately but mistakingly filmed in Cinemascope and DeLuxe colour, never achieves the atmosphere required to maintain a credible noirish look or feel. Besides the garish colour and the totally needless use of Cinemascope its main fault as a movie is the inclusion also of little vignettes of stories concerning individuals of a small town who will become effected in some way by the arrival of three crooks with a plan to rob the local bank. Firstly there is the voyeuristic bank manager (the irritating Tommy Noonan) who has the hots for local nurse (Virginia Leith), is awestruck every time he sees her and gets his jollys from watching her undress through her window at night. There is engineer Richard Egan trying desperately to save his rickety marriage to (the awful) Maggie Hayes who is having an affair with Brad Dexter (who must have been hard up for some work) and there is library employee (the totally forgotten) Silvia Sydney pilfering from her place of work to pay off her mounting debts. These minor subplots, about totally uninteresting people (who are not particularly well written or played either) are quite mundane really and only serve as so much padding until we get to the actual robbery and its fairly exciting aftermath. Deriving from a novel By William L.Heath it was produced for the studio by Buddy Adler and was dryly directed by the estimable Richard Fleischer whose name is usually stamped on much classier efforts than this. The rambling screenplay came from Sidney Boehm and the wasted Cinemascope cinematography was by Charles G. Clarke.Three crooks (Stephen McNally, Lee Marvin, and J.Carroll Naish) come into the town of Bradenville to rob the bank. After pulling off the heist they force hapless engineer (Victor Mature) to drive them out of town to a prearranged rendezvous at an isolated farm run by an Amish farmer (Ernest Borgnine) his wife and young family. Tied up and blindfolded in the barn Mature manages to undo his bonds, free the family and with the crooked guard's shotgun take on the gang in a well devised and exciting shootout. The acting is just about OK! Mature turns in his usual workmanlike performance (he once famously declared "I'm no actor and I've got a scrapbook at home full of reviews to prove it"). Also reasonably good are the three baddies but Richard Egan is wasted in a nothing role and subsequently it is hard really to empathize with anyone in it who are all by and large uninteresting cardboard characters. Borgnine is about the best in it! In an unusual sympathetic role as a pacifist anti-violence Amish farmer forced to abandon his faith when a member of his family is wounded. Another plus for the film is the fine noirish score provided by the great Hugo Friedhofer. His sweeping music over the credits pointing up the multi-faceted drama that is to follow.No, not a great picture by any means but perhaps worth a look if only for the final 30 minutes.