IT'S JUST A LITTLE PEYTON PLACE. HOW BISBEE BECAME THE SETTING FOR VIOLENT SATURDAY

Violent Saturday, a novel by W. L. Heath. is a gripping crime drama set in the deep South in the mid Twentieth Century. Three bank robbers converge on the town of Morgan, Alabama with the purpose of looting the local savings and loan. The novel explores the racial tensions, class struggles and human frailties of the rural deep South in a manner that gives Peyton Place a run for its money. However, Violent Saturday, the movie based on the novel, was set in a fictional copper mining town in the Southwest. And it was this change that prompted the movie makers to choose Bisbee Arizona, Queen of the Copper Camps as the setting for the film. I'm Larry Elkins (elkinsphotos,com) and I will be your guide through the story of how Bisbee became the setting for one of the grittiest crime movies of the 1950's. Once the decision was made to move the movie's setting from a textile mill town in the Southeast U.S. to a copper mining town in the Southwest, the choice of Bisbee, one of the most prominent copper mining towns in America, for location shooting, was a natural. By 1955, when the film was shot, the Lavender Pit was operational. This allowed for the copper mine in the movie to be an open pit mine rather than an underground operation. Appropriate location settings abounded. Among those utilysed were the local bank, the Copper Queen Library, the mining company mansion (the Loma Linda), the Bisbee country Club (now the Turquoise Valley Golf Course), Central School and the Copper Queen Hotel. While Violent Saturday is ostensibly a crime movie about a bank robbery, the film is actually an exploration of complex human interactions in a small town where class tensions, hypocrisy, sexual repression, greed and raw ambition lie just below the surface. Indeed, Peyton Place invariably comes to mind. Among the stars of Violent Saturday, at least three rate as movie icons: Victor Mature, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin. Marvin later became a frequent visitor to Bisbee as well as a regular patron of many of the town's bars. Other cast members included Richard Egan, Stephen McNally and Sylvia Sidney. I could say a lot more about the movie itself, but if you google VIOLENT SATURDAY be prepared to be literally overwhelmed by the amount of information about both the film and, to a lesser extent, the novel. Violent Saturday, interestingly enough, was only the beginning of Bisbee's fame as a movie and tv location. SHERIFF OF COCHISE, a 50's tv series was set in Bisbee although it was not filmed here. Well over a dozen movies have filmed in Bisbee in more recent times. For instance, two sci fi films shot in Bisbee were the futuristic WORLD GONE WILD AND WILLIAM SHATNER'S GROOM LAKE. Bisbee served as stand in for 1940's Roswell NM in the made for tv movie ROSWELL, a retelling of the Roswell UFO incident and as early day New York City in FOUR EYES & SIX GUNS and YOUNG GUNS II. The Stephen King Supernatural thriller DESPERATION was largely filmed in Bisbee. And that's how Bisbee - Queen of the Copper Camps became Bisbee - Hollywood of the Desert.