Violent Saturday (1955)

Director:

Richard Fleischer

Writers:

Sydney Boehm (writer)
William L. Heath (novel)

Release Date:

April 1955 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

A number of otherwise insignificant small-town stories erupt into drama when a gang of hoodlums decides to rob the local bank...

Plot Keywords:

Bank Manager | Voyeur | Robbery | Wife | Thief

Cast

Victor Mature	...	Shelley Martin
Richard Egan	...	Boyd Fairchild
Stephen McNally	...	Harper (bank robber)
Virginia Leith	...	Linda Sherman
Tommy Noonan	...	Harry Reeves, Bank Manager
Lee Marvin	...	Dill, Bank Robber
Margaret Hayes	...	Mrs. Emily Fairchild
J. Carrol Naish	...	Chapman, Bank Robber
Sylvia Sidney	...	Elsie Braden
Ernest Borgnine	...	Stadt, Amish Farmer
Dorothy Patrick	...	Helen Martin
Billy Chapin	...	Steve Martin
Brad Dexter	...	Gil Clayton
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Virginia Carroll	...	Carol, Martin's Secretary
Ann Morrison	...	Mrs. Martha Stadt
Harry Seymour	...	Train Conductor

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording) (optical prints) | 4-Track Stereo (Western Electric Recording) (magnetic prints)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Bisbee, Arizona, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Quotes:

Bobby Martin: [while bank is being robbed] Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Chapman, Bank Robber: C'mere kid. C'mere!
[offers candy]
Chapman, Bank Robber: Stick these in your kisser and go suck on 'em. Now go back to your mother.
Chapman, Bank Robber: Thank you!
Chapman, Bank Robber: You're welcome.

An excellent little picture, smart and menacing...

This is a gem, an excellent little picture, smart and menacing. If you're a fan of '50's pictures, particularly crime melodramas then this is a must-see. The plot is simple. A small town is visited by three hoods (Stephen McNally,Lee Marvin,J.Carroll Naish) intent on holding up the bank. The film revolves around their plans and folowing the lives of the townsfolk, who, oblivious to the villains in their midst, go about their mundane, everyday problematic lives until the saturday the two worlds collide. Richard Fleischer made an excellent job of this potboiler,which manages to sustain the tension managed in more celebrated films(High Noon) as the villains arrange their plot to rob the town. There's a stellar cast on display, McNally, Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Sylvia Sidney and even the normally lifeless performances given by the film's principal, Victor Mature, doesn't happen in this case. It's shot in terrific colour and has a genuine air of small town claustrophobia and menace. Check it out.