The Violent Men

John Parrish came back wounded from the war, bought a small ranch and is about to head east with his fiancée. The rest of the valley belongs to Lew Wilkison, a man in a wheelchair who either buys out every small rancher in the district or drives them off. Parrish agrees to sell and does not want a fight. Then one of his men is killed and he decides to use what he learned in the war. Rudolph Maté directs. Glenn Ford plays Parrish, Edward G. Robinson plays Wilkison and Barbara Stanwyck plays Martha, his wife. The best written thing in it is Martha. Since her husband's injury she has effectively run the ranch, and she is involved with his brother; the real tension is inside that house and Stanwyck carries the part entirely. The subject is land and monopoly. The large owner wiping out the small producer is a classical western matter and the film builds it in directly economic terms. Parrish is outside the type: a man sick of war, avoiding the fight, and returning to violence only by calculation. It was shot in colour and CinemaScope, with the stampede and fire sequences arranged for the wide frame. Who it is for: viewers who like mid fifties westerns and Barbara Stanwyck. Who it is not for: the plot is conventional, the supporting characters are thin, and the ending goes where it is expected to.