Three Violent People

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Rudolph Maté directs. Loyal Griggs behind the camera. Walter Scharf scores. Alma Macrorie cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 170 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
• 2Directed by Rudolph Maté, shot by Loyal Griggs. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 3Original score by Walter Scharf. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 4Editor Alma Macrorie shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Charlton Heston and Anne Baxter and Gilbert Roland carry the top of the cast.
• 6Marketing tagline: "Violent love ... violent hate ... violent conflicts.".
• 7IMDB entry: tt0049849 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Only 44 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography

Loyal Griggs

Original score

Walter Scharf

Editing

Alma Macrorie

Runtime

100 min · 1h 40m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

NR

IMDB

Three Violent People (1956) ↗

Also by

Rudolph Maté

• 
  Sally and Saint Anne

  1952 · ★ 8.7
• 
  Paula

  1952 · ★ 8.2
• 
  It Had to Be You

  1947 · ★ 7.8
• 
  The Mississippi Gambler

  1953 · ★ 7.2
• 
  D.O.A.

  1949 · ★ 6.9
• 
  Miracle in the Rain

  1956 · ★ 6.9

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Three Violent People - Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Wuchak2018-04-04
  ★ 7/10

  Soapy Western with lusty acting and quality cast RELEASED IN 1956 and directed by Rudolph Maté, "Three Violent People" is a Western that focuses on an ex-Rebel officer (Charlton Heston) who returns home to his west Texas ranch with a new, but secretly-tarnished bride (Anne Baxter). He contends with his ne’er-do-well one-armed brother (Tom Tryon) and corrupt officials of the provisional government, who want his land & resources (Bruce Bennett and Forrest Tucker). Gilbert Roland is on hand as the conscience-reminding foreman, who has five sons (Robert Blake and Jamie Farr). This is a soapy Western with lusty acting (rather than realistic), but it does feature a fistfight in the opening act, a thrilling horse stampede/chase scene and a tense shootout at the climax, not to mention a couple suspenseful confrontation scenes. It’s akin to “Duel in the Sun” (1946) in tone/theme, but not great like that standout Western. Still, the drama keeps your attention, you can’t beat the cast, the locations are magnificent and there's a worthy moral. Charlton and Anne made this right after “The Ten Commandments” (1956) and it sort of fell through the cracks. THE MOVIE RUNS 1 hour 40 minutes and was shot in Old Tucson, Arizona, and surrounding areas (e.g. Superstition Mountains and Apache Junction). WRITERS: James Edward Grant wrote the screenplay from a story by Leonard Praskins & Barney Slater. GRADE: B/B-

  Read full review ↓
• John Chard2019-05-28
  ★ 7/10

  You know, you're the first person to understand I got hurt that day. Three Violent People is directed by Rudolph Maté and adapted to screenplay by James Edward Grant from a story co-written by Leonard Praskins and Barney Slater. It stars Charlton Heston, Anne Baxter, Gilbert Roland and Forrest Tucker. Out of Paramount Pictures, it's a VistaVision production with Technicolor photography by Loyal Griggs and music scored by Walter Scharf. It's post Civil War Texas and Confederate Captain Colt Saunders (Heston) finds himself with a bride (Baxter) who has a secret past, and taxable assets at his ranch that scheming Carpetbaggers want for themselves. Into the mix comes Colt's brother Cinch (Tryon), who is minus an arm from an accident in childhood - where Colt was his heroic saviour. Things will come to a head as resentments, skeleton's in closets and post war greed will fracture the dynamic of the Bar "S" ranch. Try to remember that people aren't perfect. They just aren't. They make mistakes. And when they do, they suffer. They pay. Inside themselves they pay. It made little impact back on release in 56, where the release of Heston's other film that year, The Ten Commandments, dwarfed it considerably and simultaneously propelled Heston into the big league. It didn't help that Three Violent People is a very character driven picture, literate and heavy on the melodrama. This is no gun slinging action based bonanza, this features interesting characters talking a lot, where the screenplay has the big players nicely drawn, creating a pot boiler that only rewards those open to an intelligently paced structure. The title, sadly, is misleading and doesn't do the film any favours. You were one of the rear echelon heroes who hid on General Butler's staff while better men were getting killed in battle. Film has definite links to another "literate" Heston picture from 1954, The Naked Jungle. Sanctimonious macho male takes a wife and recoils when learning of her past. Cue the fleshing out of relationships for an hour until the pot starts boiling over and the pace ups and unfolds with a pleasingly suspenseful third act. Action until that third act is sparse, though there's good drama to keep one interested, very much so. This is also a gorgeous picture to look at, not just the rugged but beautiful landscape around the Bar "S" (Arizona), but also the colours that beam out from the screen, Loyal Griggs' (Shane) photography reason enough to seek out this undervalued Western. I got the one with the red hair ready for the buzzards. Lead cast performances are up and down, Baxter and Heston's chemistry is fine and sexy, but they do appear to be in competition with each other to see who can steal a scene. Baxter, looking positively ravishing throughout, really over does it early in the pic, while Heston forgoes his most agreeable subtlety from those early passages to ham it up later in the day. The best performance comes from Roland (Cheyenne Autumn), who as Bar "S" gran vaquero, Innocencio Ortega, not only looks immeasurable cool, he also casts a humanistic shadow over proceedings. Tryon, whose edgy one armed brother adds major spice to the narrative, turns in a rare effective performance. The problems are evident throughout, some over soaping by actors who should have known better and the villains are badly in need of flesh on their bones. Yet this is still a Western that plays better now to Western fans than it would have done back in the 50s. For now the character driven bent can be appreciated without expectation of a "yee-haw" fuelled Oater. This be one for the ears, eyes and the brain rather than the pulse. 7/10

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Paramount Pictures

  US

Key crew

• EditorAlma Macrorie
• ProducerHugh Brown

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• sibling relationship
• carpetbagger

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1957-02-09
• Theatrical1956-12-01NR

Also known as

International titles

• Rivalen ohne Gnade (1957)DE
• Rivalen ohne GnadeDE
• I violenti (1957)IT
• Terre sans pardonFR
• I violentiIT
• 3 Violent PeopleUS