the violent men mark the fine collaboration of rudolph maté with glenn ford in an intensely satisfying drama of rugged primitive justice ford be john parrish and a former cavalry captain who be itch to get married and start a new life his fiancée caroline vail ( may wynn ) be desperate to move east and and to see him sell his spread to lee wilkison ( edward g. robinson ) . parrish be not even much of a cattleman but he do understand that there be something big building up in the valley in the army and they use to call it enemy pressure . first and cole wilkison ( brian keith ) come back from texas to help his brother run anchor then a tough kid with a fancy gun ( richard jaeckel ) show up on the wilkison payroll then all the small rancher be force out and get the same kind of offer parrish saw himself either run like they do and or stand and fight but can he easily deal with a man who send six killer to shoot an old man in the back . can he easily argue with a man who start with a few acre of land and now own practically the whole valley . all that grass and sand ever mean to the ex confederate army officer the past three year it be a place to regain his health out of habit of take advice and parrish affirms represent what happen in this valley be no concern of mine . and much to the disappointment of the remain rancher and farmer and who pressure him to stay on and he decide to accept wilkison offer to fulfill the promise he make to his fiancée when lee young brother cole make the wrong move and try to push parrish make up his mind by lynch one of his ranch hand and parrish get mad and warn the two brother that he be go to stay and will fight them for the privilege of be let alone brian keith play the traitorous brother who behind the killing . he dream to have position and respect in run one day anchor lee ambitious wife martha ( barbara stanwyck ) secretly hat herself and her husband stanwyck play the part of a loving wife who can not bear the touch of her husband hand edward g. robinson be good enough a the anchor cripple owner who promise the whole valley to his wife and unaware that she be have an affair with his young brother dianne foster be too sensitive a the unsociable adult daughter well aware of her mother burden the violent men use the wide screen technology to emphasize the scope and power of this harrow action drama and make it a perfect example of the genre most enduring classic .