Three Violent People

Soapy Western with lusty acting and quality cast

RELEASED IN 1956 and directed by Rudolph Maté, "Three Violent People" is a Western that focuses on an ex-Rebel officer (Charlton Heston) who returns home to his west Texas ranch with a new, but secretly-tarnished bride (Anne Baxter). He contends with his ne’er-do-well one-armed brother (Tom Tryon) and corrupt officials of the provisional government, who want his land & resources (Bruce Bennett and Forrest Tucker). Gilbert Roland is on hand as the conscience-reminding foreman, who has five sons (Robert Blake and Jamie Farr).

This is a soapy Western with lusty acting (rather than realistic), but it does feature a fistfight in the opening act, a thrilling horse stampede/chase scene and a tense shootout at the climax, not to mention a couple suspenseful confrontation scenes. It’s akin to “Duel in the Sun” (1946) in tone/theme, but not great like that standout Western. Still, the drama keeps your attention, you can’t beat the cast, the locations are magnificent and there's a worthy moral. Charlton and Anne made this right after “The Ten Commandments” (1956) and it sort of fell through the cracks.

THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 40 minutes and was shot in Old Tucson, Arizona, and surrounding areas (e.g. Superstition Mountains and Apache Junction). WRITERS: James Edward Grant wrote the screenplay from a story by Leonard Praskins & Barney Slater.

GRADE: B/B-

You know, you're the first person to understand I got hurt that day.

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 pas...