Violent Saturday (1955)
Violent Saturday is a 1955 American crime film directed by Richard Fleischer and starring Victor Mature, Richard Egan and Stephen McNally. Set in a fictional mining town in Arizona, the film depicts the planning of a bank robbery as the nexus in the personal lives of several townspeople. (In the novel the film was adapted from, the setting was a small town in rural Alabama and there is no mine).
Director – Richard Fleischer
Writers – Sydney Boehm (screenplay), William L. Heath (novel)
Cast –
Victor Mature as Shelley Martin
Richard Egan as Boyd Fairchild
Stephen McNally as Harper
Virginia Leith as Linda Sherman
Tommy Noonan as Harry Reeves
Lee Marvin as Dill
Margaret Hayes as Mrs. Fairchild
J. Carrol Naish as Chapman
Sylvia Sidney as Elsie Braden
Ernest Borgnine as Stadt
Dorothy Patrick as Helen Martin
Billy Chapin as Steve Martin
Brad Dexter as Gil Clayton
Watch “Violent Saturday” (1955)
Plot
Harper (Stephen McNally) is a bank robber posing as a traveling salesman. He arrives in town, soon to be joined by sadistic benzedrine addict Dill (Lee Marvin) and bookish Chapman (J. Carrol Naish).
Boyd Fairchild (Richard Egan) is manager of the local copper mine, troubled by his philandering wife (Margaret Hayes). He considers an affair with nurse Linda Sherman (Virginia Leith), though he truly loves his wife. His associate, Shelley Martin (Victor Mature), has a happy home life, but is embarrassed that his son believes that he is a coward because he did not serve in World War II.
Subplots involves a peeping-tom bank manager, Harry Reeves (Tommy Noonan), and a larcenous librarian, Elsie Braden (Sylvia Sidney). As the bank robbers carry out their plot, the separate character threads are drawn together. Violence erupts during the robbery. Fairchild’s wife is slain and bank manager Reeves is wounded. Martin is held hostage on a farm with an Amish family. With the help of the father (Ernest Borgnine), he defeats the crooks in a savage gunfight. In the aftermath, Martin becomes a hero to his son, and Linda comforts Fairchild as he grieves for his wife.