Hell's Heroes

The Three Godfathers Story has been made seven, count them, seven times for the big and small screen including three silent versions. This one which was directed by William Wyler before he hit the big time is one no frills western, very much suggested by the work of gritty silent screen cowboy William S. Hart. In fact I'm surprised Hart never did a film version of this story himself.

If the three outlaws were bound for hell as suggested by the title Hell's Heroes, they certainly redeem themselves here. The only other versions of this story I've seen are the other two big screen sound films. Unlike those two, peripheral characters are reduced to ciphers and the story concentrates on the outlaws who after they robbed the bank in New Jerusalem, find a dying mother giving birth on the desert. As in the other versions the three promise to get the baby back to civilization and the nearest civilization is what they just left in New Jerusalem.

The three outlaws are Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, and Fred Kohler. All three have been screen villains so no heroic behavior is expected of them by the audience especially Kohler. Hatton was more known for rustic oldtimers though and he's the sentimental one who gets his friends to start thinking about doing the right thing by the infant.

There's an additional reason for them doing the right thing here that is not in either of the other versions which I won't reveal.

Certainly William Wyler's direction marked him as a man who would go on to bigger things than grind them out westerns. This is one of those, but Wyler and the material rise above it.

In childhood, my interest in cowboys centered around Fred Thomson and his horse Silver King. I did not pay much attention to the villains but I remembered that Fred Kohler was usually the leader of the 'black hats'. Raymond Hatton was only known then as the erstwhile partner of the popular comedy team of Raymond Hatton and Wallace Beery. Some time within the last five years or so, my constant monitoring of old time movies presented on TV resulted in my capturing 'Hell's Heroes'. What a discovery it was for me!

I had always remembered "The Three Godfathers" with Chester Morris, Lewis Stone and Walter Brennan from my teenage years. In fact, it had driven me to the local library to read the original story by Peter B. Kyne.

One would never have guessed that Charles Bickford would be the hero of this 1930 movie but he filled the role admirably. With the aforementioned Fred Kohler and Raymond Hatton in the supporting roles, the 'three godfathers' were a formidable thespian trio. This film, produced when it was without today's modern advantages, is an excellent model of fine early movie-making. And it should certainly be seen to get insight into the technological advances that subsequently resulted in the 1936 version with Chester Morris, Lewis Stone and Walter Brennan, as well as the Technicolor version in 1948 with John Wayne, Harry Carey, Jr. and Pedro Armendariz.

The strength of the novella by P.B. Kyne is evident through all three versions. If this title appears on your TV schedule, don't let the date of 1930 scare you away. The writing of screenplays by different persons may alter the end result but a strong well written story with excellent acting will always produce an enjoyable film. You might be surprised how dry your throat is at the end of this picture but you will also be strangely satisfied with the ending.

Although the manner of film narration dates this picture badly, it can be appreciated for its considerable merits, not merely as an historical curiosity. The juxtaposition of figures and landscape (particularly desert) is powerful, accenting the isolation and desperation of the outlaws. Its final scene, like that of "The Informer" (which it pre-dates), may be highly melodramatic, but works effectively within its context. Charles Bickford, in the early portion of the picture, is terrifying as a human rattlesnake: mean, ruthless, just plain down and dirty nasty to whoever crosses his path.

There is something captivating about this, the second film adaptation of Three Godfathers. For one, the settings bear the marks of reality.the dusty western town surrounded by vistas of nothingness.the gritty contrast thrown into stark relief by the desert sun. I kept wondering why this film's settings seemed like the real west(or at least my imaginings of it) so much more than today's westerns. Perhaps it was merely the fact that this film, from '29 was only that many years from the real thing. Another early talkie which benefits from the technological limitations of the time. No music scoring.just the plodding of boots, horse's hooves, and the spare dialogue of the three characters. It brought home the isolation of the main characters and the desolation of their surroundings. Yes, the ending was symbolically top-heavy and dialogue was stagy, but there was still that economy of story Hollywood so sadly lacks now. Point made, fade out.

This film starts off in a way that had me thinking the template for standard Westerns hadn't changed a whole lot over the years - three bad guys ride into a dusty town, meet up with another, act like general dickheads and then rob a bank before skedaddling, guns blazing. Where it diverges is out in the desert, when they come across a woman who has been abandoned in a covered wagon. When the leader (Charles Bickford) growls at the others "I saw her first," we feel real menace in what might come next. I won't say anything further about the plot, though the film was remade by John Ford a couple of decades later in '3 Godfathers', which true fans of the genre may know of. Anyway, what seems like a creaky old film with early sound technology gives way to a lean, unsentimental, and gritty story. William Wyler makes us feel the tension and the dirtiness of the setting, and the film zips by in a little over an hour. It's not completely fleshed out, but that's part of what I liked about it. It seems to me a raw little gem.