Three Violent People *** (1956, Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter, Gilbert Roland, Tom Tryon, Bruce Bennett, Forrest Tucker) – Classic Movie Review 11,837

Director Rudolph Maté’s 1956 Paramount Western film in VistaVision and Technicolor Three Violent People stars Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter and Gilbert Roland, along with Tom Tryon, Bruce Bennett, Forrest Tucker, Elaine Stritch and Barton MacLane.

Three Violent People is a real ‘man’s gotta do’ jaw-clenching Western, with Heston as Mr Honest Rancher, Colt Saunders, fighting to protect his land and marriage against the usual dastardly devils.

Rebel soldier Heston comes back to Texas in the Civil War with a new saloon gal wife Lorna (Baxter) and fights with his brother Cinch (Tryon) as well as the local land-grabbing commissioners, Harrison and Cable (Bennett, Tucker).

Roland particularly impresses as the ranch foreman, Innocencio Ortega, but there is plenty of vim in the acting throughout plus lots of zest and imagination in Maté’s direction.

It was considered not outstanding in its day, but it has worn well and is a good example of its well-crafted 50s studio production-line kind.

Also in the cast are Peter Hansen, John Harmon, Ross Bagdasarian, Robert Blake, Jamie Farr, Leo Castillo, Don Devlin, Raymond Greenleaf, Robert Arthur, Frank Cady, Don Dunning, Paul Levitt, Kenneth MacDonald and Ernestine Wade.

Heston and Baxter had just starred together in The Ten Commandments.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,837

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