Sadly Over-hyped

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

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.

As a school kid, my Grand-dad took me to see this picture, and it stayed in my mind. BUT, only for the rather undesirable nastiness. Revisiting it again years later, it's hard to believe we managed to stay awake back then! (my wife quite justifiably fell asleep within the first 20mins) This was Hollywood in decline.When television took off and theatres began to close, 20th Century Fox foolishly decided that all their productions would be in CinemaScope and garish DeLux color...even when the subject did not call for it! This decision would see many of their 50s-60s productions filled with artless images ~ this is just one of them. What might have been a tight little B/W crime melodrama gets 'Lost in Gloss' and GIANT screen vistas (mostly shot in pokey little hotel rooms!) The unfortunate Director of Photography: veteran, Charles G. Clarke, and Director: the checkered careered, Richard Fleischer (son of famous Animator Max) had to place and actor in each corner of the room, with one in center just to fill the unnecessary spaces. This often gave many films an empty feel.Then came the change in writing style. Film companies were looking towards TV production for fast profits on small budgets, and because everything made for cinemas would end up on TV, they began making 'BIG' screen TV style movies. Many movie makers and writers had crossed over to TV anyway, and sooner or later it would all look the same. Many viewers didn't seem to know what constituted quality, so on it went.Now we have 'modern' critics looking for all kinds of hidden meaning in these cheaply scripted 50s works ~ along with 'modern' movie makers copying the so-called 'new trend' in violence. Mostly, it simply added up to 'cheap and fast'. 'Violent Saturday' was also treated to overwrought 50s style mellow-drama, a style largely made famous by W.B. TV, and other endless series like Peyton Place, etc, etc...As for performances, we have the capable Stephen McNally wasted in yet another type cast thuggish role ~ Tommy Noonan playing an outlandishly wimpish perv of a bank Manager --a role so hokey it creaks!-- Richard Egan again type cast in a part he's played endlessly ~ Acting honors probably go to veteran Sylvia Sidney in a part that amounts to little more than an unnecessary sub plot. The rest of the women do what they can with thankless roles ~ Victor Mature does what he does best...with a character who talks to his son about 'fear being nothing to be ashamed off', and 'decorated heroics' as not essential in general life --who is then made 'hero' to the towns kids for having killed the most villains-- Lee Marvin just plays Lee Marvin all over again, this time, showing delight in being violently cruel to kids. So this was the so-called bold new 'adult' approach to film-making. This same juvenile 'adult' approach, has continued to fester in movie making today. Screenplay Writer: Sydney Boehm had done better with Fritz Lang just two years earlier with "The Big Heat". Forget "Saturday" look to the "Heat" if you want a better example of low cost 50s Noir that largely still holds up today. Disc quality note: The Bounty DVD copy I bought a few years ago, has poor image quality, regardless of having the Fox logo on the cover. Subsequent re-issues may be better (?)

The town of Bradenville is in for a Violent Saturday because three men, Stephen McNally, Lee Marvin, and J. Carrol Naish have come to town to rob their bank. McNally is the brains of the trio and for any number of reasons including the town's isolation, small police force, and the fact that the bank is open on Saturday until noon have made him determine this is the place for a stickup. He's even got a fourth guy Richey Murray staked out at an Amish farm holding the farmer Enest Borgnine and his family hostage, picked because of its isolation and the fact they have no electricity or modern communication to send up an alarm.But this is some town Bradenville, while we see the bank robbers carefully timing out their job, we also get a glimpse of Bradenville's citizenry. Quite a little Peyton Place that town is.Richard Fleischer as director managed to skilfully combine a soap opera and a crime caper film and it works. The script is very tight, not one frame of film is wasted. We get any number of interesting side stories in the 90 minute time of the film that do not detract in any way from the caper portion.Victor Mature is the nominal hero of the piece, he gets carjacked and kidnapped, but proves to be a bit more than the robbers can handle. Ernest Borgnine stands out in the cast as the Amish father who has to question the pacifist tenets of his faith to protect his home and family.A little bit of noir, a little bit of soap opera mixed very well in a good thriller of a film in Violent Saturday.

Yes, it has some nice location work, and there's a good sequence after the robbery, at the farm. Other than that, I can't recommend this film. Its 90 minutes feel like 2-1/2 hours. There is a tremendous amount of dull soap opera which is not particularly compelling, and never pays off. The entire film feels padded, and would be more suited to a 1-hour TV anthology from the 1950s or 1960s, like the old "Kraft Suspense Theater." We waste time with a subplot about a destitute librarian. We learn some worthless information about Lee Marvin's past. We watch in utter boredom as Lee Marvin and J. Carroll Naish take forever to get off a train which, for no particular reason, is carrying the Amish family that appears later. Lee Marvin is constantly using an inhaler, and you expect this is going to pay off eventually, but it never does. The fact that Victor Mature works for Richard Egan turns out to be meaningless. And Egan's messed up personal life, which occupies a ridiculous amount of screen time, adds up to very little. Watch this one with your hand on the fast forward button...you'll need it.

This is what people want to see in a movie. A good story which is what is missing in films today. You have the family man played by Victor Mature having problems with his son over the fact that he is ashamed of his father for not receiving anything during the war, but his friends father received a medal of honor at Iwo Jima. A successful Businessman, played by Richard Egan, whose wife is having an affair with another man played by Brad Dexter and other story lines surrounding a small town in the mid-west of America of the 1950's. Suddenly their lives are changed by the arrival of a gang of hoodlums robbing the town bank. In this movie you haven"t got machine guns blazing, blood spattered bodies everywhere, foul language all the time and nudity, which is all you get today. It's about time movie makers gave the public what they want in a movie like this one and and not what they want to give the public, just for a quick buck. I think if movie makers made more films such as this for an example, they will surprised how much money they could make. Lets get back to the old Hollywood. A film with a good beginning, middle and end and some fine acting and directing to go with it. I hope this comment is helpful. Kevin Thomas.