The Violent Men

Customer Reviews:

Glenn Ford is as good as ever.......2007-05-12

This movie has a great cast and a great plot. I bought it because it had Glenn Ford in it and it was cheap. The picture quality is good. I think this movie is better than the description would lead you to believe.

the violent men.......2007-03-08

A great movie with all star cast. Just don't make 'em this way anymore. I like most any Glen Ford movie and with Edward G, Barbara Stanwyck, how can you go wrong. Ever notice how Ford rides a horse? I've always admired that.

LONG AGO, AND NOT SO FAR AWAY-NOSTALGIA FOR MY PLAYING DAYS.......2007-03-02

The title because in 1955 I was in Miami Beach, discussing a baseball scholarship at the U. of Miami. By coincidence two of my aunts showed up at the same hotel. We went to dinner at the The Fontainebleau Hotel and I ate 2 of their huge corned beef sandwiches and a giant banana split, both of which they bragged were the largest on the beach. As we wandered south on Collins, and turned onto Lincoln, there at a small movie house was playing The Violent men.

Glenn Ford played John Parrish, a small cattle ranch owner and former swashbuckling Confederate Cavalry officer with much Civil War combat experience under his belt. He was considering selling out to the Wilkensons, mega ranchers, who are plotting to take over the entire valley, by force if necessary. Cole Wilkenson, in a hurry, crosses the line with, the seemingly mild mannered Parrish, when the first wave of violence strikes underthe direction of Brian Keith (Cole Wilkenson), whose edgy relationship with his older brother, now crippled, Edward G.Robinson, the builder of Anchor Ranch, Lew Wilkenson, and Coles affair with the always brilliant Barbara Stanwick, puts pressure on everyone.

Ford, not used to being pushed around, begins guerilla operations, ala Rambo, in what is a range war neither Keith, Stanwick nor Robinson ever bargained for. Meanwhile Stanwick juggles, the husband on which she is cheating, her daughter, Diane Foster, suspicious of her relationship with Cole, who is also Juggling an affair with a Lady of the town and Stanwick (whattaguy!). The entire mess explodes into a war, within a war, within a war, and a plot of which the original script writer, William Shakespeare, would have been proud. Once the rapid fire action gets rolling it is almost non-stop until the final shoot-out and conflagration.

If it is action, corruption, smoldering, barely concealed 1955 version of sex, you are after, and gunslinging, old fashioned, twisted characters, contorted plots, circa post-April 26, 1564, the date of the Immortal Bards, birth, this movie is for you.

"Funny thing, when you work a place...you sort of become part of it".......2007-01-07

I had never heard of this Glenn Ford Western "The Violent Men" and decided to pick it up on a whim. Was not disappointed, it's got all the ingredients for a dramatic story and adds in superb acting from Ford, Stanwyck and Robinson, I think it will end up as a favorite.

One thing I liked about it was the story. It has a few different sub-plots going on and each has a special theme all their own. Most of it deals with the basis of human nature as well as its consequences. Despite being an older film (originally filmed in black and white in 1954) there were many points made that can still reach a person today. As far as filming and quality, I feel it gets an A+ here. The soundtrack is excellent and I never noticed so much as a glitch in the sound or video quality. Despite its title and cover, this movie is not a 2-hour film about gunfights or Apache raiding parties. Don't fret, you'll get your action, but its centered more on cattle ranching land battles mixed in with some romantic undertones than the Billy the Kid type outlaw setting.

THE MOVIE: Ford stars as John Parrish, a man who is faced with a tough and ultimate deadly decision: Sell out to the bully cattle baron or hang on to the land you love and face the consequences. Edward G. Robinson plays Lew Wlkinson and does so in a great performance. It is his character who is the bully baron wanting to expand his own ranch. In order to do so, he needs all his neighbors to go bye bye. That's when things start to get hairy. Betrayal, Pride and Corruption all meld into one. Some romantic flings abound with more than one cast member, but this valley of fire doesn't have time for sappy smooches, instead it takes the romantic parts and mixes some of them to add to some nice twists within the overall story. Several epic fights that lead everyone down a path of scars that may never be healed is just a small dose of what you will get with "The Violent Men". Before I forget, Barbara Stanwyck's character Martha Wilkison) is played so greatly, as she is the prim and proper wife who has a vicious streak that can be ready at a moments notice.

There are two things that really stand out in this film; one of them is the screen presence of Glenn Ford. This is the first time in while I've seen him in something, but I always come away impressed with how he plays his character with convincing conviction. The second thing is the themes portrayed that are in general about violence as well as loving the land, and dieing for it as well.

A perfect example of the genre's most enduring classics..........2006-11-06

"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...

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