Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Senteur As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

mark.waltz It's an unfair comparison to connect a huge epic in production for years to a western, even if it was an A lister. But had this even cast somebody other than and Baxter in this, having Charlton Heston in the league would have automatically brought up mentions of that classic film. Today, Baxter's participation in the Ten Commandments is often greeted with giggles as she offered a camp performance as the Egyptian princess in love with Heston's Moses. She manages here to be less over-the-top and more sincere as a showgirl with a past who out of the blue marries land baron Heston who knows nothing about her. They move out to his ranch in the middle of nowhere, and rival ranchers use her past against them, leaving the playing field open to his one armed brother Tom Tryon the opportunity to move in. Her sudden pregnancy adds more conflict.This features some decent supporting performances with a young Elaine Stritch making her film debut as Baxter's old pal who runs a saloon/hotel in the closest town. Barely thirty when she filmed this, Stritch already shows the power of a veteran scene stealer, having been on Broadway for a decade. Gilbert Roland and Forrest Tucker are also incredibly good. Action packed and filled with personal conflict that makes for a good story, it still lacks the element of surprise. Baxter shows that she can hold her own, and interspercements of humor also adds to the entertainment value. But what could have been a week stern variation of classic theatrical drama like "Desire Under the Elms" is sadly never achieved. Heston's character becomes needlessly cruel for stupid reasons that dissipates sympathy for his character.

MartinHafer This film reminds me of many wedding cakes. They look great but aren't especially delicious. "Three Violent People" is a sumptuous looking film--a movie with great color and scope. BUT, like the cake, it's not exactly great, as the film seemed, well, a bit dull and DEFINITELY over-wrought.The film begins with a Confederate soldier (Charlton Heston) returning home after being gone many years. He soon meets a 'woman of easy virtue' (Anne Baxter) and despite knowing NOTHING about her, marries her. This makes little sense. What makes little sense as well is his reaction to her much later when he learns about her sordid past. Their marriage, inexplicably, is ruined and Heston sulks for most of the rest of the movie. Now on WHAT planet does this make sense?! There's quite a bit in between--including a plot involving evil Yankees and the Reconstruction (a popular theme--though historians are now recognizing that this theme never really was a problem in real life) as well as Heston's one-armed brother (Tom Tryon). None of this is especially engaging. In fact the ONLY part of the movie I loved was when Heston turned Baxter upside-down and shook her when they first met--because she'd stolen his money! But then, this is when he asked her to marry him!! Duh.Overall, looks great--but that's really about all.

oldblackandwhite Three Violent People could have been little more than an standard western about post-Civil War Texans struggling against thuggish carpetbaggers trying to take their land away -- not the commonest western plot, but we could call it "Plot Eleven". Had already been done a number of times by this movie's 1956 release, perhaps best in an unpretentious 1947 Wild Bill Elliot opus. An excellent cast headed by stalwart Carlton Heston, beautiful Anne Baxter, and the always interesting Gilbert Roland would have raised Three Violent People a cut above the average oater, even if it had been filmed in black & white or standard screen color, and it would have been an entertaining and enjoyable watch. What really made it quite a lot more than just a standard western with an overpriced staff was the gorgeous Technicolor Vista Vision cinematography.When the wide-screen craze hit in the mid-fifties, there soon were a number of competing processes, including Cinemascope, Superscope, Metroscope, 1.66:1 flat, and 1.85:1 flat. Vista Vision, pioneered by Paramount Studios, was by far the most aesthetically successful of any. Cinemascope and the later, more successful Panavision used a wide-angle lens on the camera to compress the picture into a standard 35mm frame, then a reverse lens on the projector expanded the picture so that it was 75 percent wider than the old standard 4:3 ratio screen. The "flat" widescreen processes filmed with an ordinary camera lens on standard 35 mm film but with the camera far enough back that the resulting picture could be masked at the top and the bottom to create the wide-screen effect. The problem with all of these was that the blown-up picture when projected on a large screen lost resolution, contrast, and sharpness. The loss of quality was compounded by the new less-flammable, but somewhat grainier and less transparent film with which the studios had recently replaced the old crystal-clear nitrate film, which had given us all of those beautiful, luminous black & white movies of the late 1930's and 1940's. The difference was noticeable even in Technicolor films, but it had been a minor effect until the wide-screen movies.Vista Vision was filmed with a special camera with vertical sprockets which ran the film thru sideways, creating a negative three times the area of the 35 mm print, which was masked and blown-up to widescreen with a projector aperture. The result was incredibly high resolution, sharpness, richness of color, and illusion of depth, even when projected on the largest screens.The cinematography with this wonderful and expensive process as exhibited in Three Violent people is absolutely breathtaking. It makes this movie a sensuous pleasure to watch. The clarity, color, and added sense of depth that comes through even on a wide-screen digital TV delivers an almost 3-D effect. The effect was just as strong in the indoor lamplight scenes as in the expansive views of the photogenic Arizona landscape (thinly disguised as the Texas Hill Country).Three Violent People had an intelligent if not inspired script. The dialog likewise was good, though melodramatic at times. Gilbert Roland's excesses of poetry got irritating at times. It fit with his colorful character, but could have been toned down a bit. Rudolph Mate's direction was surprisingly slow-paced, especially from one who had turned out a classic thriller like DOA. It was slow-moving in the first half, but not boring because of the strong acting and solid story development. But it really picked up after Heston discovered his wife was a shady lady, and she and his brother absconded with his valuable herd of horses. There was more melodrama than action in this one, but the action was well-staged. The runaway wagon in a stampede of horses is a western cliché, but it was much better than average executed here. Also very good was the climactic shootout with the Texas ranchers using volleys from single-shot rifles to send the Yankee baddies into headlong retreat. The sets, both inside and outside were very authentic looking. Likewise, the clothes, the rifles, revolvers, and gun leather were all unusually accurate to the late 1860's era.Overall Three Violent People was a satisfying western on every level, but most of all was simply a pleasure to watch because of the stunning Vista Vision cinematography.(Other Vista Vision Westerns: The Searchers, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, One-Eyed Jacks)

kennedya-1 How can you not like a film that has characters named Colt Saunders, Beauregard 'Cinch' Saunders, Ruby LaSalle and the ageless Gilbert Roland as someone rejoicing in the misleading nomenclature of Innocencio Ortega.The three violent people of the title is a gross numerical understatement - all the male cast in his part of the west seem to be capable of giving and receiving their fair share of violence -Forest Tucker and Richard Jaekel are particularly outstanding in this line of work and they get great back up from Bruce Bennett and Barton MacLane. Charlton Heston as usual mistakes tightening his jaw as equating to exuding dramatic power while Tom Tryon demonstrates the technique that got him cast as a emotionless extra terrestrial on at least one occasion. The show, as was so often the case, is stolen by Gilbert Roland. Enjoyable nonsense from the golden decade of the Horse Opera.