Violent Saturday - Victor Mature

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka 'Sábado trágico')

Directed by Richard Fleischer
USA 1955

A number of otherwise insignificant small-town stories erupt into drama when a gang of hoodlums decides to rob the local bank. A father looking for pride in his son's eyes, a timid clerk who is a peeping tom by night, a man striving to re-win his wife's love, an Amish farmer faced with viciousness, and a proper older woman turned thief, all find themselves entangled with the bank robbers as a peaceful weekend turns violent.

***

In the unique marriage of heist caper and overheated melodrama, Violent Saturday (1955), a trio of bandits enter the quiet small Arizona mining town of Bradenville led by criminal mastermind Harper (Stephen McNally) who is masquerading as a costume jewelry salesman. Joined by Dill (Lee Marvin) and Chapman (J. Carrol Naish), Harper and his gang hole up in the Bradenville Hotel where they plot their robbery of the local bank. But in many ways, the heist is secondary. For director Richard Fleischer and screenwriter Sydney Boehm, far more interesting is their depiction of life in Bradenville, an on-the-surface peaceful small town which in fact harbors a number of feverish, sordid personal stories. At the top of the scandal ladder are the local aristocrats Boyd (Richard Egan) and Emily Fairchild (Margaret Hayes). Wealth is no buffer from trauma for the pair, who grapple with alcoholism and promiscuity. Other town scions are equally compromised. Married bank manager Harry Reeves (Tommy Noonan) harbors a crush on dishy nurse Linda Sherman (Virginia Leith), that has turned him into a sweaty, alley-creeping peeping Tom. Meek librarian Elsie Braden (Sylvia Sidney) is deeply in debt, and would do just about anything to get out of it, including steal. And family man and mine supervisor Shelley Martin (Victor Mature) has a young son ashamed that he never served in the war. The only truly unsullied members of the community are an Amish farming family led by patriarch Stadt (Ernest Borgnine), and even they are drawn into scandal on the day of the climactic Saturday bank robbery.

Excerpt from TCM located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: April 1955

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DVD Comparison:

20th Century Fox (Europe) - Region 2 - PAL vs. Twilight Time - Region 0 - NTSC

1) 20th Century Fox (Europe) - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT
2) Twilight Time - Region 0 - NTSC - RIGHT

DVD Box Cover
Distribution	Fox (Europe) - Region 2 - PAL	Twilight Time - Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:26:39 (4% PAL Speedup)	1:30:18
Video	2.35:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.27 mb/s PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s	2.35:1 Aspect Ratio Average Bitrate: 5.2 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: PAL
Bitrate: NTSC
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0),DUB: Spanish (Dolby 2.0)	English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
Subtitles	Spanish, None	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Fox - Europe Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Letterboxed Edition Details: • Ficha artística • Ficha técnica • Galería fotográfica Keep Case inside cardboard slipcase Chapters: 8	Release Information: Studio: Twilight Time Aspect Ratio: Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1 Letterboxed Edition Details: • Isolated Score Keep Case Chapters: 11

Comments:

ADDITION - Twilight Time - Region 0 - NTSC: Short story - still no 16X9 enhancement but it is sharper than the European edition and has no PAL speedup. It looks pretty good considering but it's a shame we can't have an anamorphic version.

Twilight Time states: "While we understand that most hardcore collectors of DVDs prefer all titles to be 16 x 9 anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions, in some instances this isn't possible when the studio has only non-anamorphic elements in the vault. It then becomes our decision to either not release the title, or to go with the 4 x 3 master available to us. As we at Twilight Time love films like "Violent Saturday," it is our feeling that to have it out in the only way we can, is better than to not have it at all. Fortunately, many of the titles we will be issuing in the series ++are++ anamorphically enhanced, so we ask your forgiveness and indulgence in advance, for those classic treasures left in the 4 x 3 format as a result of being prepared for laserdisc before being left in the cold when that mode of delivery was eclipsed by DVD. We are collectors, too--and appreciate your support. Thanks so much."

Announcing this deserves some praise as most DVD production companies will just try to pass this off on the unaware consumer. The transfer has, what I deem to be, a tad of edge enhancement - but it is less noticeable - and is interlaced (see last capture). Audio is fine - but no subtitles and only an isolated score as a supplement. This is solely for CRT systems as on most HD TV's the image will appear in a box about 50% of the screen. Of the two edition - I'd get the Twilight Time. You gotta love sequences like Amish Ernest Borgnine sticking a pitchfork in, criminal, Lee Marvin's back.

***

ON THE PAL EDITION: Pretty decent Fleischer-helmed film and this appears to be the only DVD edition available... anywhere. While they show the film in the proper Cinemascope 2.35:1 aspect ratio, unfortunately it is not anamorphic and we get a maximum resolution of 768. The image is not very sharp but colors look acceptable. The lack of 16x9 enhancement is a shame - I expect it would have really helped the visual appearance. This is single-layered and is progressive.

Audio offers English - unusually hollow at times - and there is a Spanish DUB choice and optional Spanish subtitles. It has PAL speedup and the disc is region locked to '2'.

Extras consist of only 2 static bio screens and a lacklustre photo gallery.

I think this film, certainly, deserves better. This is just barely passable as 'watchable'- but it is at least that.

Gary W. Tooze

DVD Menus

1) 20th Century Fox (Europe) - Region 2 - PAL - LEFT
2) Twilight Time - Region 0 - NTSC - RIGHT

Screen Captures