Genre:
Crime, film noir
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
BD/DVD Release Date:
28th April 2014(UK)
Rating: 12
Director:
Richard Fliescher
Cast:
Victor Mature, Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Lee Marvin,
Buy:Violent Saturday (Masters of Cinema) (Dual Format Edition) [Blu-ray + DVD] [1955]
Violent Saturday (1955) is a rare bit of film noir in colour. Most noir was of course in black and white but there were handfuls that were shot in the obviously more expensive colour film stock. The most famous example of course would be Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock.
Violent Saturday is first and foremost a heist film in the vein of the following year’s The Killing by Stanley Kubrick. It also has touches of Douglas Sirk melodrama and even in it’s gorgeous Cinemascope photography. It’s about a gang of bank robbers, the first one who arrives Harper (Stephen McNally) who pretends to be a travelling salesman. Harper is soon joined by Dill (Lee Marvin) who is a sadistic speed freak and Chapman and it threads both the bank robbers story and stories of the locals with end in a electrifying climax on a Amish farm.
Lee Marvin is the real scene-stealer in the film with his sadistic beyond belief performance. The scene when he sadistically steps on a child’s hand after he knocks his Benzedrine out of his hand would not seem out of place in Kiss Me Deadly. Ernst Borgnine gives a early performance as a Amish farmer.
Richard Fleischer directed the film and he was one of the best old fashion directors who would do any kind of film. His filmography is a ridiculously impressive with films such The Narrow Margin, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (the Disney one), Compulsion, Fantastic Voyage and Soylent Green to name just a handful. Fleischer has been kind of forgotten due to the more auteur friendly directors of that time like Nicholas Ray, Douglas Sirk, and Robert Aldrich etc. despite having one of the most impressive careers of any post-war director.
Eureka as usual has pulled out the stops with a disc. It includes a appreciation by William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist, Sorcerer) who pronounced his love for the film and the work of Fleischer. It also includes another feature made for the French Blu-ray release, which Eureka has licensed. It also includes a impeccable transfer and has the expected length booklet to go with any Eureka release.
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