Where has this cracking hard action hard riding hard action grade A western been all my life. I can hardly believe that i have missed it for so many years until i caught it on Film 4 tonight. The film has Glen Ford as the complex hero who hates violence but fights hard and brutally when cornered. Edward G Robinson and Barbara Stanwyck with Brian Keith make up the rest of a great A list cast all lined up against the immovable Glen Ford. With great big scale outdoor action all filmed with real scale that has hundreds of horses, and even more cattle, and scores of men, this is a western with epic above it's title. Here is a film that really uses the widescreen to the best effect with vista after vista of huge snow clad mountain ranges just on the horizon. The violence considered over done at the time (1955) seems routine now perhaps, but exactly why anyone in the fifties would of wanted to stay at home to google a 15" black and white flicker on a television set when the local cinema was showing a monument of a film like this escapes me. But then again i'm a movie going film buff. And this one thrilled me. A sound as a pound 8 from 10.

Despite a terrific cast and some excellent location work Rudolph Mate's "The Violent Men" isn't much of a western. It's another range-war picture with all the inevitable clichés. It's partly redeemed, as so many films were, by the performances of Edward G as a greedy cattle-baron and Barbara Stanwyck as his scheming wife. Glenn Ford is the hero and he adds a few much needed shades of gray to the part. The two credited DoP's were Burnett Guffey and W. Howard Greene. Perhaps if someone other than Mate had directed it might have felt fresher; maybe it needed someone like Delmer Daves. It's not a total failure, though; this kind of western is basically critic-proof, building as it does to a suitably operatic climax with some decent action scenes along the way.

As this western opens rancher John Parrish is preparing to sell up and head back east with his fiancée but when the only buyer, Lew Wilkison of the Anchor Ranch, offers him a ridiculously low amount he declines the offer... even though he knows he will take it in the end as he promised his Fiancée he'd sell for whatever was offered. That is until one of his men is murdered by Wilkison's hired guns; to everybody's surprise Parrish shoots and kills the gunslinger responsible then returns to his ranch to prepare for war; and war is what he gets! Lew Wilkison might be the owner of the Anchor Ranch but it is his scheming wife and his brother Cole who really control it and they want Lew out of the way more than anybody. Soon Anchor men come and burn his ranch but he is prepared and not only does he manage to kill several of them he also returns the favour and burns Anchor to the ground... this leads to him being declared an outlaw for the murder of Lew Wilkison and a posse of gunmen sweeping into the valley to kill or burn out anybody who stood against Anchor... if Parrish is to put a stop to the killing he will have to face Cole; and only one of them will survive! This western certainly lives up to its title as heroes and villains alike use guns and fire to further their cause; the story of a powerful cattle baron trying to force everybody else off the land he wants isn't exactly original but it provides a good story with plenty of action. Glenn Ford puts in a solid performance as hero John Parrish but it is Barbara Stanwyck who steals the show as the wicked Martha Wilkison; the film's true villain. There is plenty of action to be seen here including shootings, a man being brutally whipped, an impressive cattle stampede and numerous ranches being torched. Director Rudolph Maté took full advantage of the widescreen presentation and the spectacular scenery to give it an epic feel even if it is only a B-Western. I would certainly recommend this to people who like their westerns packed with action.

***SPOILERS*** With the healthy climate of he American West clearing up the injury, a bullet wound, he suffered in the Civil War former Union calvary captain John Parrish, Glenn Ford, plans to leave his spared or cattle ranch and go east with his fiancée Caroline, May Wynn, and start a new life together with her.As things turn out Parrish in trying to get a good price for his ranch is short-changed by cattle baron Lee Wilkinson, Eddie Robinson, who wants to buy him out for peanuts or a measly $15,000.00. Not wanting to be a sucker and give up his hard earned ranch and cattle stock Parrish decides to play hard ball with Wilkison and hold out for more only to have him get his paid gunslingers to put the hurt on him.The thing that gets the very peace loving Parrish to resort back to his fighting ways, that he picked up in the Cvil War, is when Wilkison's men lead by the kill crazy psycho Wade Matlock, Richard Jaeckel, bull whipped and shot one of his ranchers Bud Hinkelman, William Phipps,to death. Mad as a hornet Parrish later went to the local saloon where Matlock and the rest of the Wilkison's crowd hung out and blasted Wade away before he could reach for his .45 revolver.Declearing open warfare on Wilkison's Anchor Ranch Parrish gathered together the local rancher who were also being targeted by Wilkison to finally put an end to his reign of terror on the western prairie!As we soon find out Old Man Lee Wilkison isn't really the bad guy in the movie. Sure he drives a hard bargain and was more then willing, before he ended up a cripple, to kill to get things done but is at least now willing to compromise since he knows what war is all about in losing the use of his legs in previous wars that he fought against the ranchers in the area. It's Lee's two timing wife Martha, Barbara Stanwyck, and her secret lover Lee's younger brother Cole, Brain Keith, who are really stirring up the pot in all the bloodshed that happens in the movie.In fact not only is Cole having an affair with Martha he's at the same time cheating on her by playing around, behind Martha's back, with his hot as a hot tamale Mexican girlfriend Elena, Lita Milan. Playing both sides of the scrimmage line Cole plans to dump Martha as soon as he gets control of the Anchor Ranch, after his older brother Lee is taken care of, and then marry Elena.***SPOILERS*** Things don't quite go as well as both Martha and Cole planned. It's the Wilkinson's hot headed daughter Judith, Dianne Foster, who switches sides, from her dad to Parrish, after she found out that her cheating Mom Martha not only was fooling behind her father's back, with his brother Cole, but was in fact also planning to have him murdered! With Parrish rallying the rancher to total victory over the hoodlums under the control of Martha and Cole Wilkison, by then Judith's dad Lee had also switched sides, it's now up to a final showdown, at high noon, between Parrish and Cole to finally put an end to both the fighting and killing! As for Martha her plan of escape is blocked by non other then her rival for Cole's affection his hot headed Mexican girlfriend Elena. This leads to a violent and bloody shot out at the end of the movie that unfortunately or us watching took place off camera!P.S The film "The Violent Men" was released overseas with the somewhat less then violent sounding title called "Rough Company".