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 gunslinging 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 this undervalued Western out.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 a Western that plays better now to Western fans than it would have done back in the 50s. Where the character driven bent can be appreciated without expectation of a "yeehaw" fuelled Oater. This be one for the ears, eyes and the brain rather than the pulse. 7/10

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")

I consider this movie to be one of the greatest westerns I have ever seen (which means one of the best westerns out of more than hundred of the most interesting and important movies in the genre)! Some people seem to think that it is a rather ordinary western about people fighting for land - but it is definitely primarily a film about three characters who has been having rather rough lives and who, in the course of the movie, all get a chance to get things back together. The interest of the movie simply is whether they will succeed in this. The three characters are played by Anne Baxter, Charlton Heston and Tom Tryon and, in my opinion, they all put on a fantastic show. First and foremost, though, Anne Baxter. It is definitely her movie - although she gets tough competition by Gilbert Roland in a fantastic role as Charlton Heston's Mexican "grand vaquero". In my humble opinion Anne Baxter and Gilbert Roland simply creates two of the most memorable characters in the history of the western genre!! The scene where Charlton Heston brings Anne Baxter to his ranch and she is greeted by the Gilbert Roland and his sons is hilariously funny and deeply moving and is a great example of the virtues of this great off-beat western.

This is a thoroughly ordinary western with Charlton Heston heading the cast as a Civil War veteran returning home with his new wife (Anne Baxter) whom he ultimately discovers has had a rather dishonorable past. On top of that he has to deal with carpet baggers and the jealousy of his one-armed younger brother (played by Tom Tryon) who decides he has a lot of old scores he needs to settle. There's not very much to thrill about here, and none of our three principals are very "violent", but it's a treat to watch Baxter and Heston together again after their stint in THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. For what it's worth, Robert Blake is featured in a role as a young Mexican. ** out of ****