Richard Fleischer may never have made it into the very front rank of the
great directors but he did make some terrific films and "Violent
Saturday" may be his masterpiece. It's a heist movie, (and it's an
excellent heist movie), but one with a difference since fundamentally
this is also another 1950's small town melodrama of the 'Peyton Place'
variety. We get to know, not only the trio of bank robbers, (Stephen
McNally, Lee Marvin and a superb J Carroll Naish), intent on robbing the
Bradenville bank, but also a number of the town's inhabitants, (Victor
Mature, Richard Egan, Virginia Leith, Sylvia Sidney, Tommy Noonan,
Margaret Hayes), all of whom are destined to be caught up in some way in
the robbery. It's a brilliantly paced movie, beautifully written by
Sydney Boehm and impeccably directed by Fleischer, making superb use of
the Cinemascope format. Largely dismissed at the time of its release it
is now, deservedly, considered something of a classic.Thursday, 26 March 2020
VIOLENT SATURDAY
Richard Fleischer may never have made it into the very front rank of the
great directors but he did make some terrific films and "Violent
Saturday" may be his masterpiece. It's a heist movie, (and it's an
excellent heist movie), but one with a difference since fundamentally
this is also another 1950's small town melodrama of the 'Peyton Place'
variety. We get to know, not only the trio of bank robbers, (Stephen
McNally, Lee Marvin and a superb J Carroll Naish), intent on robbing the
Bradenville bank, but also a number of the town's inhabitants, (Victor
Mature, Richard Egan, Virginia Leith, Sylvia Sidney, Tommy Noonan,
Margaret Hayes), all of whom are destined to be caught up in some way in
the robbery. It's a brilliantly paced movie, beautifully written by
Sydney Boehm and impeccably directed by Fleischer, making superb use of
the Cinemascope format. Largely dismissed at the time of its release it
is now, deservedly, considered something of a classic.
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