What if Victoria Barkley & her big ranch weren’t so noble?
An ex-cavalry officer (Glenn Ford) wants to sell his Southeastern ranch and move back East with his fiancé (May Wynn), but the glaring crimes of the men of a local cattle baron (Edward G. Robinson) tempts him to make a courageous stand even though he’s weary of war. Barbara Stanwyck plays the baron’s wife, Brian Keith his brother and Dianne Foster his feisty daughter. Richard Jaeckel is on hand as an arrogant heavy.
Released in early 1955, "The Violent Men" is a Western based on Donald Hamilton’s book “Smoky Valley.” There are similarities to “Jubal,” which came out the next year and is arguably superior, but this one ain’t no slouch and is inexplicably obscure.
My title blurb is a good description of the goings-on as there is a predominant ranch in a big valley in the Old West with Stanwyck as the matriarch, but she & most of her men are the furthest thing from noble. (I’m of course making contrasts with The Big Valley, which debuted on TV ten years later).
There’s quite a bit of human interest that draws the viewer into the story, which I appreciate even if it’s a little soap opera-y. The theme of a formidable man not wanting to get involved in violence, but will if backed against the wall is always good. Like “Shane” (1953), we get to hear the reasoning & justifications of the ranch baron, which prevents him from being a one-dimensional villain. This one adds the further complication of people doing things behind his back.
What I wasn’t expecting was the emphasis on how the ex-officer uses strategies learned in the Civil War to (hopefully) defeat the enemy. Meanwhile the gunfight at the end is refreshingly realistic and well executed (no pun intended).
As for the female cast, it is very good, also including Lita Milan as a lovely Latina in town. All four are possessive: Martha (Stanwyck) and Elena (Milan) are the types that could cause you to end up dead while a life with the winsome-but-manipulative Caroline (Wynn) would cause almost any man to drink. The angry Judith (Foster) has her issues, but she’s bold and has a strong sense of right & wrong with nothing but contempt for the latter.
The film runs 1 hour, 36 minutes, and was shot at Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, which is in central California about an hour’s drive from the Nevada border, a couple hundred miles north of Hollywood. The town scenes were done in Old Tucson, Arizona.
GRADE: B/B+
