I violenti

After a whirlwind romance and marriage with lovely Anne Baxter, ex-Confederate Charleton Heston returns home to his Texas ranch, where he has to contend with nasty carpetbaggers Forrest Tucker and Bruce Bennett, his embittered one-armed brother Tom Tryon, and his new wife's checkered past, which everyone is more than willing to use against him.

Three Violent People takes it's time, but it's never boring, using great acting and excellent photography, direction to tell an atmospheric tale that's pretty hard-hitting, even though it's not a traditional action-adventure film.

Heston, Baxter, and Gilbert Roland all play characters of great strength and courage, with the magnetic Roland in particular always incredible to watch and Tryon a brooding anti-hero. Why wasn't he a bigger star?

A few years later, songwriter Ross Bagdasarian, who plays one of Roland's sons, bought bought a variable-speed recorder, changed his stage-name to David Seville, and invented the pop-culture icons known as The Chipmunks!

At the time of its release, "Three Violent People" attracted little notice. Most critics probably labeled it "routine" and then turned their attention to other matters. Now, in this age of decline in film quality, we can look back and be impressed by things we once took for granted: a strong, consistent, logically-developed plot; characters that have some style and substance; dialog which consists of more than merely "Watch it!" and "Move over!"

Not that "Three Violent People" is some sort of undiscovered gem. By the standards of its day it was little more than a passable western with a better than average cast and lovely color photography, but what pleasure it now brings!

Charlton Heston and Anne Baxter, (re-united from "The Ten Commandments"), make an attractive couple. He's strong and stalwart, she looks good in her elaborate costumes. (However did she fit those dresses into a trunk to carry on a stagecoach?) Tom Tryon may not seem fraternally related to Heston but he adds his usual dash of smoldering sensuality. He even manages to do a bare-chest scene even though he plays a man who's lost his right arm! (But then, Tryon usually managed to provide some "beefcake," even in a Disney comedy such as "Moon Pilot.") Also worth noting are three of Gilbert Roland's sons: Jamie ("MASH") Farr, Robert ("In Cold Blood") Blake, and Ross Bagdasarian, who later scored a hit with his Christmas song featuring Alvin and the Chipmunks.

One final point, if Heston and Tryon are two of the "Violent People" of the title, then who is the third? Anne Baxter? She may be deceitful and manipulative, but "violent" doesn't seem like an apt adjective to describe her.

This is a thoroughly ordinary western with Charlton Heston heading the cast as a Civil War veteran returning home with his new wife (Anne Baxter) whom he ultimately discovers has had a rather dishonorable past. On top of that he has to deal with carpet baggers and the jealousy of his one-armed younger brother (played by Tom Tryon) who decides he has a lot of old scores he needs to settle. There's not very much to thrill about here, and none of our three principals are very "violent", but it's a treat to watch Baxter and Heston together again after their stint in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. For what it's worth, Robert Blake is featured in a role as a young Mexican. ** out of ****

After the American Civil War, Captain Colt Saunders (Charlton Heston) returns to Texas to his homeland Bar S Ranch, which has belonged to his family for generations. While in town, he has an incident and meets the former gal from St. Louis Lorna Hunter (Anne Baxter) and without knowing her past, he immediately proposes and gets married with her. When they arrive in Bar S, he meets his brother Beauregard 'Cinch' Saunders (Tom Tryon), the black-sheep of the family that lost one arm in his childhood and blames Colt for the accident. Colt has problems with the commissioner Harrison (Bruce Bennett) of the corrupt provisional government of Texas, and the situation gets worse when one of his men identify Lorna as "a flower of the Old South with whom he used to skip around with back in St. Louis". Colt has to deal with problems with the corrupt representative of the government that is collapsing, with his rancorous brother, with his pregnant wife and with his closest friend Innocencio Ortega (Gilbert Roland).

"Three Violent People" is a reasonable western that shows an after-war period and its consequences. The story has some good moments, mostly when Anne Baxter participates in the role of a witty lady with a past that experiences love for the first time in her life. Charlton Heston fits perfectly to the role of Captain Colt Saunders. However, the conclusion is too much corny and moralist. Although not being a great movie, "Three Violent People" is a good entertainment. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil) "Trindade Violenta" ("Violent Trinity")

Florid and melodramatic but in a good way. Anne Baxter and Charlton Heston interact with each other much better here than in The Ten Commandments probably because Anne is much more suited to playing a well educated woman of ill repute in the old west than a princess of the Nile. She and Tom Tryon also have an excellent vibe to their scenes. The beginning is on the humorous side with Elaine Stritch showing up and looking very young but still in possession of that basso voice. Then when we get to the ranch there is a fest for old TV viewers with Baretta, Klinger & Sgt O'Rourke from F Troop all showing up. The film is nothing original but is well shot and enjoyably action packed, a good example of the genre and Anne is very good.