Violent Saturday (1955)

Violent Saturday (1955), directed by Richard Fleischer.

This is something of a collision of genres and styles. We have an old-style heist noir picture done in lush color with grand CinemaScope 2.55:1 aspect ratio. The crime gets mixed up with that soap opera genre of small town secrets and jealousies and adultery at the country club.

We have a wealth of characters and subplots, too many to jam into the 90 minutes running time:

The heist action is only in the final third and then it does turn violent.

Filmed in Bisbee AZ.

Like Robert Wise, Richard Fleischer is one of those non-auteur directors I find myself seeking out. A sampling of his work:

Noir crime thrillers:

True crime, exploring the psychology of insanity:

Costume epics:

Science fiction:

Swords and sorcery:

War and cops:

The thumbnails are from Twilight Time's Blu-ray, a vast improvement over their earlier DVD, which was made from a 4:3 letterboxed master originally intended for a laserdisc that never appeared. Nick Redman and Julie Kirgo provide the commentary track.

http://watershade.net/public/violent-saturday.jpg