This is a film noir look at a bank robbery set in a 1950s Arizona town and a nearby Amish farm. The Amish characters drew me to watch this Hollywood feature by Twentieth Century Fox.
Harper (Stephen McNally), Chapman (J. Carrol Naish), and Dill (Lee Marvin) are three hoods planning a bank robbery on the main bank in the mining town. They arrive separately in town and case the bank. Harper looks for a place out of town to stash the getaway car and have another vehicle. He chooses the Amish farmer, Stadt (Ernest Borgnine), who has a wife and four children. Other major characters are the local mine owner, Boyd Fairchild (Richard Egan), and the mine manager, Shelley Martin (Victor Mature).
There's also a creepy bank manager, Harry Reeves (Tommy Noonan), who enjoys watching nurse Linda Sherman (Virginia Leith) undress at night at the local hotel since she doesn't pull the blinds down, and Emily Fairchild (Margaret Hayes), Boyd's wife, who is carrying on with a local golf pro. Boyd also has wandering eyes for nurse Linda.
It sort of goes as planned. Harper captures Shelley and takes him to the Amish farm, where everyone is bound and blindfolded in the barn. There is unplanned shooting at the bank, and when the robbers get back to the farm, they discover their captives have gotten free and overpowered the person left with the getaway truck to guard them. A shootout ensues, with the final coup de grâce administered by the Amish farmer.
It's all fairly standard film noir with some soap opera mixed in. Lee Marvin is menacing, and Victor Mature is heroic.
Ernest Borgnine is a somewhat odd Amish farmer, particularly with a hat that looks quite odd. The rest of the family are in dark clothes and rarely speak. Borgnine speaks like a 19th-century Quaker with lots of "thee" and "thou" terminology. He stoutly defends his pacifist beliefs until his son is shot by one of the robbers, and Lee Marvin is about to execute Victor Mature. Borgnine then uses a pitchfork in a manner not intended for that implement. It's a fairly typical way Hollywood converts pacifists in its war and western films. We also need to ignore the fact that there were no Amish in Arizona in the 1950s.
Harper (Stephen McNally), Chapman (J. Carrol Naish), and Dill (Lee Marvin) are three hoods planning a bank robbery on the main bank in the mining town. They arrive separately in town and case the bank. Harper looks for a place out of town to stash the getaway car and have another vehicle. He chooses the Amish farmer, Stadt (Ernest Borgnine), who has a wife and four children. Other major characters are the local mine owner, Boyd Fairchild (Richard Egan), and the mine manager, Shelley Martin (Victor Mature).
There's also a creepy bank manager, Harry Reeves (Tommy Noonan), who enjoys watching nurse Linda Sherman (Virginia Leith) undress at night at the local hotel since she doesn't pull the blinds down, and Emily Fairchild (Margaret Hayes), Boyd's wife, who is carrying on with a local golf pro. Boyd also has wandering eyes for nurse Linda.
It sort of goes as planned. Harper captures Shelley and takes him to the Amish farm, where everyone is bound and blindfolded in the barn. There is unplanned shooting at the bank, and when the robbers get back to the farm, they discover their captives have gotten free and overpowered the person left with the getaway truck to guard them. A shootout ensues, with the final coup de grâce administered by the Amish farmer.
It's all fairly standard film noir with some soap opera mixed in. Lee Marvin is menacing, and Victor Mature is heroic.
Ernest Borgnine is a somewhat odd Amish farmer, particularly with a hat that looks quite odd. The rest of the family are in dark clothes and rarely speak. Borgnine speaks like a 19th-century Quaker with lots of "thee" and "thou" terminology. He stoutly defends his pacifist beliefs until his son is shot by one of the robbers, and Lee Marvin is about to execute Victor Mature. Borgnine then uses a pitchfork in a manner not intended for that implement. It's a fairly typical way Hollywood converts pacifists in its war and western films. We also need to ignore the fact that there were no Amish in Arizona in the 1950s.