The Violent Ones
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Doug Wilson
Herman Miller
| The Violent Ones | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster | |
| Directed by | Fernando Lamas |
| Written by | Charles Davis Doug Wilson |
| Based on | story by Fred Freiberger Herman Miller |
| Produced by | Robert Stabler |
| Starring | Fernando Lamas Aldo Ray Tommy Sands |
| Cinematography | Fleet Southcott |
| Edited by | Fred W. Berger |
| Music by | Marlin Skiles |
Production companies | Harold Goldman Associates Madison Productions |
| Distributed by | Feature Film Corp. of America United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Violent Ones is a 1967 film directed by and starring Fernando Lamas. The story was written and created by Charles Davis, Fred Freiberger, Herman Miller, and Doug Wilson. The film was shot in the Alabama Hills, Mojave Desert and Lone Pine, California. This was Tommy Sands' last movie before his retirement, though he would act in some TV episodes until 1978.[1][2]
David Carradine wrote that when he saw the movie in the cinema "I thought it was the worst picture ever made."[3]
Juanita, a girl in a town that's populated by Hispanics, is raped and beaten. The only thing she says before falling into a deep coma is say that her attacker is an outsider, a Gringo. Local Mexican-American Sheriff Vega arrests all three outsiders there are. All he can do is intimidate the prisoners so that one of them admits to being the attacker, or that the girl wakes up to identify him. The girl dies, and her father prepares a lynch mob.
The sheriff can't get any help from the state, and even Mendoza, his deputy, is unwilling to help him. The sheriff takes the prisoners out of the jail in a trip to the closest city where they can be processed. But the prisoners, an unstable kid, a brutish man and a coldly intelligent youngster have other plans.
Cast
- Fernando Lamas – Manuel Vega
- Aldo Ray – Joe Vorzyck
- Tommy Sands – Mike Marain
- David Carradine – Lucas Barnes
- Ned Romero - Mendoza
- Lisa Gaye – Dolores
- Melinda Marx – Juanita
- Rodolfo Acosta - Estévez
Production
Filming started in March 1967 under the title Touch White, Touch Black.[4] It was also known as The Chain.[5]
David Carradine wrote in his memoirs that "the picture was a sort of fiasco" where "the actors didn't seem to be in it for the right reasons; everyone seemed to be involved in booze or drugs. They couldn't work without being under the influence."[6] He wrote "the movie consisted of Tommy, Aldo and me chained to each other, riding on the back of a truck, with Fernando driving like a madman through the desert."[7]
According to Carradine, Lamas "was obsessed" as a director. "He had complete tunnel vision and was not a good director. He was very arrogant about it and funny. It was hard to keep a straight face."[8]
Reception
Variety called it an "out of date treatment of the old lynch mob routine."[9]
