THE VIOLENT MEN
US, 1955, 96 minutes, Colour.
Glenn Ford, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson, Diane Foster, Brian Keith, May Wynn.
Directed by Rudolph Mate.
The Violent Men is a standard western of the mid-50s, filmed in colour and Cinemascope on fine locations. The plot is familiar – a Union civil war officer plans to sell his ranch after the war but finds himself in difficulties, being offered a low price, seeing the bully-boy tactics on the ranch, witnessing murders. This builds up to a confrontation – and, of course, a shoot-out and a happy ending.
The cast is particularly strong, Glenn Ford was at the peak of his popularity at this time. Barbara Stanwyck, as always, is a strong screen presence. Edward G. Robinson is the villain. Brian Keith appears in an early role.
The film was directed by cinematographer, Rudolph Mate, who made a number of action films in the 40s and 50s including DOA and Paula.
1. The emphasis and description of the title? Its application to the main actors? The application to Martha? was this a conventional western? Enjoyable?
2. How well did the film use audience expectations of the range wars, power struggles, the unsettlement of the Civil War period? How dramatic the study and the conflict?
3. The appropriateness of the wide screen and colour photography? Western locations, the town, the range, the Wilkinson’s household> The musical score?
4. Audience identification with the plot? sympathy for John Parrish and his experience after the Civil War, sympathy for those were oppressed by the Wilkinsons, lack of sympathy for the land baron and his powerful wife? How well did the film work within these conventions and these types of the West?
5. How interesting was John Parrish as hero for this film? The background of the Civil War, his injury and recovery, his attitude towards the land and his wanting to get away from it, his backing by Caroline and her wanting to get away at any price? What changed his mind to go against the Wilkinsons and their offer? The clash with Lee Wilkinson? The seeming courtesy of Martha and yet her ruthlessness? The clash with Cole? The clash with Judith and her judgment on him? Parrish’s support of his men, their loyalty? His shrewdness in his tactics with Lee Wilkinson? The ruthlessness of Cole and his henchmen, the ingenuity of the ambush and Parrish’s defeat of Wilkinson? The irony of letting his house be burnt down? The vengeance of burning the Wilkinson mansion? How ruthless a man was Parrish? The final vindication, the new alliance with Lee against Martha and Cole? The importance of the break with Caroline? The conventional happy ending by the union with Judith?
6. How intense a portrait did Edward G. Robinson give of Lee Wilkison? His origins on the range, the violence of the range wars and his injury, Martha’s ambitions in marrying him, her blindness? Lee not realising Martha’s ambition? His love for his daughter? His violence, but yet not as violent as that of Cole? A man who tried to be fair in his old age? The discovery of his being left crippled to be burnt alive? The confrontation with Martha? His alliance with Parrish? A man of the west?
7. The character portrayal of Martha? Her ruthlessness, staying with Lee, for power and ownership, her summoning Cole and her liaison with him, Cole seeing through this, the hostility of her daughter? Her manoeuvring of Parrish, her pressurising of Cole and Lee, the violence of leaving her husband to die? Ordering the attack on Parrish? Her fright on seeing what had happened? Her discovery of her husband being alive? The irony of her being killed in vengeance by Cole’s girlfriend?
8. The character of Cole? The weaker brother, ruthlessness, his liaison with Martha, seeing through her? The confrontation with Parrish? His vengeance against Martha?
9. The portrait of Judith, her relationship with her parents? The romantic aspects of her life? Tough on the range? The comparison with Carolyn? Her relationship with Parrish?
10. The supporting characters, the sheriff, his role in the town, his assistant? The various cattlemen? The stock sequences: confrontations in the saloons, the cattle stampedes? The ingredients of a popular western?
