I violenti

Three Violent People is directed by Rudolph Maté and adapted to screenplay by James Edward Grant from a story co-written by Leonard Praskins and Barney Slater. It stars Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter, Gilbert Roland and Forrest Tucker. Out of Paramount Pictures, it's a VistaVision production with Technicolor photography by Loyal Griggs and music scored by Walter Scharf.

It's post Civil War Texas and Confederate Captain Colt Saunders (Heston) finds himself with a bride (Baxter) who has a secret past, and taxable assets at his ranch that scheming Carpetbaggers want for themselves. Into the mix comes Colt's brother Cinch (Tryon), who is minus an arm from an accident in childhood - where Colt was his heroic saviour. Things will come to a head as resentments, skeleton's in closets and post war greed will fracture the dynamic of the Bar "S" ranch.

Try to remember that people aren't perfect. They just aren't. They make mistakes. And when they do, they suffer. They pay. Inside themselves they pay.

It made little impact back on release in 56, where the release of Heston's other film that year, The Ten Commandments, dwarfed it considerably and simultaneously propelled Heston into the big league. It didn't help that Three Violent People is a very character driven picture, literate and heavy on the melodrama. This is no gun slinging action based bonanza, this features interesting characters talking a lot, where the screenplay has the big players nicely drawn, creating a pot boiler that only rewards those open to an intelligently paced structure. The title, sadly, is misleading and doesn't do the film any favours.

You were one of the rear echelon heroes who hid on General Butler's staff while better men were getting killed in battle.

Film has definite links to another "literate" Heston picture from 1954, The Naked Jungle. Sanctimonious macho male takes a wife and recoils when learning of her past. Cue the fleshing out of relationships for an hour until the pot starts boiling over and the pace ups and unfolds with a pleasingly suspenseful third act. Action until that third act is sparse, though there's good drama to keep one interested, very much so. This is also a gorgeous picture to look at, not just the rugged but beautiful landscape around the Bar "S" (Arizona), but also the colours that beam out from the screen, Loyal Griggs' (Shane) photography reason enough to seek out this undervalued Western.

I got the one with the red hair ready for the buzzards.

Lead cast performances are up and down, Baxter and Heston's chemistry is fine and sexy, but they do appear to be in competition with each other to see who can steal a scene. Baxter, looking positively ravishing throughout, really over does it early in the pic, while Heston forgoes his most agreeable subtlety from those early passages to ham it up later in the day. The best performance comes from Roland (Cheyenne Autumn), who as Bar "S" gran vaquero, Innocencio Ortega, not only looks immeasurable cool, he also casts a humanistic shadow over proceedings. Tryon, whose edgy one armed brother adds major spice to the narrative, turns in a rare effective performance.

The problems are evident throughout, some over soaping by actors who should have known better and the villains are badly in need of flesh on their bones. Yet this is still a Western that plays better now to Western fans than it would have done back in the 50s. For now the character driven bent can be appreciated without expectation of a "yee-haw" fuelled Oater. This be one for the ears, eyes and the brain rather than the pulse. 7/10

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.

Highly watchable Western based on a story by Barney Slater with screenplay by expert James Edward Grant ; dealing with confrontation between family members . The picture gets action Western , shootouts , wonderful outdoors and turns out to be quite entertaining with amazing visual style . This interesting movie is set in post-Civil War ; it features a previous dance hall girl and ex-prostitute called Lorna (Anne Baxter) , masquerading as a lady , meets and impulsively marries Confederate ex-officer Colt Saunders (Charlton Heston) , returning to run the family ranch in Texas . Everyone there is enchanted with Lorna ; however , the carpetbag state commissioner (Bruce Bennett) and his hoodlum (Forrest Tucker) are set to grab all the big ranches , unless some ranchers led by Colt decide to battle . And one of the carpetbaggers knows Lorna's secret . Meanwhile , Colt's brother (Tom Tryon) wants to sell the ranch in order to get his share of inheritance . Later on , things go wrong when Colt finds out his wife was once a whore .

Enjoyable Western packs drama about family squabbles , thrills , shootouts , go riding and some moving action sequences . It's a medium budget film with good actors , technicians, production values and pleasing results . In this case family feuds don't make for a really thrilling film and contains some flaws and gaps . Produced immediately after Charlton Heston completed Ten Commandments (1956) and reunited him with co-star Anne Baxter. This was Heston's last film under his original Paramount contract ; he felt that Tom Tryon, who was cast as his brother, was not right for the part . However, because "The Ten Commandments" had not yet been released, Heston hadn't yet achieved the star clout necessary to demand cast changes . ¨Three violent people¨ belongs a trilogy directed by Rudolph Mate regarding to the ranch scenarios , adding ranchers confrontations , joining Western with melodrama , including the followings : ¨Branded¨ (1951) with Alan Ladd and ¨The violent men¨ with Glenn Ford and Edward G. Robinson . Good performances from Charlton Heston as obstinate war veteran and rich owner returning to his Texas ranch , Anne Baxter as his wife with a dark past and Tom Tryon as a crippled brother that lost one arm in his childhood blaming to Heston . Large plethora of secondaries , such as Gilbert Roland , Bruce Bennett , Peter Hansen , Barton MacLane , Elaine Stritch and some of them uncredited as Robert Blake and Jamie Farr . Colorful and glimmer cinematography by Loyal Griggs in Vistavision , Hi-Fi . Evocative as well as atmospheric musical score by Walter Scharf .

The motion picture was directed in sure visual eye by Rudolph Mate . Polish-born (Cracovia) and passed away Beverly Hills (1964) Mate was an assistant cameraman for Alexander Korda and later worked throughout Europe with noted cameraman Karl Freund , director Carl Theodor Dreyer and Erich Pommer . Dreyer was so impressed with his work that they hired him as cinematographer on The Passion of Joan of Arc . Mate is considered to be one of the best cameramen of cinema story . Mate was soon working on some of Europe's most prestigious films, cementing his reputation as one of the continent's premier cinematographers. Hollywood came calling in 1935, and Mate shot films there for the next 12 years before turning to directing in 1947 . Unfortunately, while many of his directorial efforts were visually impressive ,especially his sci-fi ¨When the worlds collide¨ (1951) , his labour as cameraman was excellent . He realized a variety films of all kind of genres as Adventures : ¨The Black Shield of Falworth¨ , ¨Seven Seas to Calais¨ , Western about themes of card players on riverboat as ¨The Mississipi gambler¨(1963) and ¨The rawhide years¨(1956) and about conflicts between Indians and cavalry as ¨In the siege at Red River¨(1954) and Noir films : ¨Union Station¨ , ¨Second chance¨ . He also directed Epic films as ¨The Barbarians¨ and ¨The 300 Spartans¨ . The films themselves were for the most part undistinguished, with his best work probably being the film-noir classic ¨DOA¨ (1950). ¨Three Violent people¨ rating : Passable and acceptable , 6 . Well worth watching .

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")

This was the film Charlton Heston made immediately after The Ten Commandments and the last one on his original contract with Paramount Studios. For a co-star for Three Violent People, Heston got Anne Baxter who was Nefretiri in the DeMille epic.

Heston plays Colt Saunders, Confederate veteran who is trying to get back and re-start his ranch and keep it from the hands of carpetbaggers in from the north. He's got a one armed brother played by Tom Tryon who has issues to say the least. Tryon did not lose the arm in the Civil War, it was lost in an accident during childhood and Heston was the one who amputated it.

And if that's not enough Heston meets and marries Baxter without knowing anything about her. She's got a very shady past that comes out at a most inopportune time and drives a wedge between them.

There's a lot of the righteousness of Moses in Heston's Colt Saunders. Unlike in The Ten Commandments it's not a welcome virtue for Anne Baxter or for the audience.

Bruce Bennett and Forrest Tucker play a real pair of bottom feeding carpetbagger officials. And the always enjoyable Gilbert Roland plays the grand vaquero, foreman, of the Saunders spread.

Not a bad western, western and Heston fans will like it.