Violent Saturday (1955) DVD-R

Starring Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Virginia Leith, Tommy Noonan, Lee
Marvin, Margaret Hayes, J. Carrol Naish, Sylvia Sidney, Ernest Borgnine
Directed by Richard Fleischer

Print: color
Runtime: 90 min.
Genre: drama
Print Quality: B

Three bank robbers (J. Carroll Naish, Lee Marvin, Stephen McNally) case a small Arizona
mining town prior to pulling a holdup. The audience get to know the various townsfolk as
they're scrutinized by the crooks. Victor Mature plays a man who is a disappointment to his
son because he didn't serve in the war. Tommy Noonan is a meek bank manager with a
habit of spying on a pretty customer as she undresses in her second-story bedroom. Sylvia
Sidney is a petty thief who has deposited her stolen funds in the bank. Margaret Hayes is
the cheating wife of a local leading citizen, who is killed in the holdup. And Ernest Borgnine
is a pacifistic Amish farmer, forced to take violent action when his children are threatened
by the criminals (Borgnine's pitchfork-wielding scene was reproduced for the print ads of
this film, leading some critics to assume that he was the villain!) The hero of the day turns
out to be the "unheroic" Mature, who after being kidnapped by the crooks frees himself and
prevents their escape. Violent Saturday is based on a novel by William I. Heath.