RICHARD FLEISCHER'S 'VIOLENT SATURDAY' WITH VICTOR MATURE

Title: VIOLENT SATURDAY Year: 1955 Rating: ****1/2

Director Richard Fleischer crafted a tight, sparse, edgy noir also replete with enough paperback melodrama for a dozen Douglas Sirk features, which VIOLENT SATURDAY resembles but only from either close-up or afar...

The first because of the soapy situations, like a cheating wife or a father whose son seems to hate him... and the latter from the vibrant technicolor cinematography of an Arizona small town, richly contrasting from Fleischer's previous B&W city-set thrillers ARMORED CAR ROBBERY,  FOLLOW ME QUIETLY and THE CLAY PIGEON...

Lee Marvin and Stephen McNally in VIOLENT SATURDAY

But for crime cinema's sake, this SATURDAY is mostly about the calculated slowburn week leading up... as three eclectic snakes-in-Eden are poised to rob the local bank led by traveling salesman Stephen McNally, with neurotic/hypochondriac wild-card Lee Marvin and coolly professional J. Carroll Naish...

Herein the overall theme is about the town's seemingly average residents being as flawed as the surreptitious crooks among them, like librarian Sylvia Sidney, in-debt to the targeted bank's dweeb manager Tommy Noonan, moonlighting as the personal Peeping Tom of beautiful nurse Virginia Leith...

Monster Movie Panic Visual for VIOLENT SATURDAY

Nearly winding-up in the trembling arms of muscular yet pathetically cheated-on rich man's son Richard Egan, surrogate boss of Victor Mature... himself a dependable patriarch jarred by his child's sudden contempt, evoked by dad's lack of war service, who instead strategically mined copper from the same predominant factory...

Overall making VIOLENT SATURDAY an ensemble of randomly troubled, existential characters leading to the heist-flashpoint/hideout-aftermath that turns this bright-lit noirish drama into the kind of gritty Western standoff where Fleischer seems the most comfortable since... at this point... there are no more episodic loopholes or distractions. 

Opening Credits burning for VIOLENT SATURDAY

Richard Egan and Virginia Leith in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Richard Egan and Virginia Leith in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Victor Mature in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Victor Mature in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Brad Dexter and Margaret Hayes in VIOLENT SATURDAY

J. Carrol Naish, Stephen McNally and Dorothy Patrick in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Lee Marvin, Stephen McNally and J. Carrol Naish in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Stephen McNally and J. Carrol Naish in VIOLENT SATURDAY with Lee Marvin

Lee Marvin, J. Carroll Naish, Victor Mature & Stephen McNally in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Lee Marvin, Stephen McNally and J. Carroll Naish in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Richard Egan, Lee Marvin and J. Carrol Naish in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Gorgeous Technicolor Widescreen Cinematography for VIOLENT SATURDAY

Margaret Hayes and Brad Dexter in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Richard Egan and Virginia Leith in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Virginia Leith left of Barbara Babcock)on THE WHITE SHADOW

Richard Egan and Victor Mature in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Previous year has Ernest Borgnine, Victor Mature and Richard Egan in Demetrius and the Gladiators

Ernest Borgnine and Victor Mature in Violent Saturday

Tommy Noonan in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Margaret Hayes in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Margaret Hayes in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Stephen  McNally in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Stephen McNally and Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Stephen McNally and J Carroll Naish in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Stephen McNally and Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY with J. Carroll Naish

Stephen McNally in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Tommy Noonan in VIOLENT SATURDAY

J. Carroll Naish in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Stephen McNally in VIOLENT SATURDAY with Ralph Dumke

Stephen McNally in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Sylvia Sidney and Tommy Noonan in VIOLENT SATURDAY with Margaret Hayes

J Carroll Naish, Stephen McNally & Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Lee Marvin with Sylvia Sidney in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Lee Marvin with Sylvia Sidney in on Twilight Time cover of VIOLENT SATURDAY

J Carroll Naish, Stephen McNally & Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY with Dorothy Patrick

Richard Fleischer's VIOLENT SATURDAY with Dorothy Patrick

Richard Fleischer's VIOLENT SATURDAY with Margaret  Hayes

Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY with Ernest Borgnine

Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY with Ernest Borgnine

Richard Fleischer's VIOLENT SATURDAY

J Carroll Naish, Stephen McNally & Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Lee Marvin in VIOLENT SATURDAY

Victor Mature and Dorothy Patrick in VIOLENT SATURDAY