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.

I viewed this film as a historical piece on locations. It is footage of the town of the old mining town of Bodie, pre-fire which destroyed 90% of the remaining town in 1933. It is now a state park and the official ghost town of Calif. Having visited several times, it was amazing to see actual businesses and buildings that no longer stand. And the ones that do - 80 years later. The church that is seen in several of the exteriors is still there today, but none of the buildings seen between it and the main street exist. This would have been, in 1929, a long way to travel for a location shot with crew and equipment. I'm glad they did.

4 outlaws turn up in a small town to rob the bank and 3 of them get away after shooting the cashier Frank Edwards (Edward Hearn) dead. We follow Bob (Charles Bickford), Bill (Fred Kohler) and Tom (Raymond Hatton) as they make their getaway and encounter a woman in labour. She gives birth and dies but not before asking the 3 men to look after her baby whose father is the cashier that they have just killed. The bad guys decide to return to the town that they have just robbed and the baby gets even with the killers....

This film has many good scenes, eg, the robbery and the final scene at the town's church. The episode where the 3 men encounter the woman is gripping (will they rape her?) and the dialogue tense, intercut with poignant moments, for instance while Bill and Tom humorously discuss cleaning the baby, we cut to a shot of Bob burying the woman. Another example is an upsetting scene where Bob and Bill leave Tom by a tree. The whole story moves along at a good pace.

The cast are excellent. Bickford is a real bad guy and very dislikeable at the beginning. Kohler and Hatton are more likable characters and I enjoyed the journey that the film takes you on as we warm to the 3 bad guys who keep their promise to look after the baby. There are moments of humour, eg, when they first hold the baby and are unsure as to what to do and Bill says "how far do you think you can throw it?" and moments of harshness.

Definitely a film to watch again.

I've only seen this once but found it to be a remarkable and compelling early film from the dawn of the "talkies." It's title is misleading as a Christmas movie but this is a great film for Christmas with wonderful symbolism throughout the movie. Peter B. Kyne wrote the story about three desperate villainous outlaw bank robbers who are ironically confronted with the wife and newborn son of a man they had just killed and must now risk their own lives to try to save the child. Screenwriter Tom Reed adapts the novel in this William Wyler directed film. Wyler who had an illustrious 45 year career directing movies had been a silent film director and had just made the transition from silents to talkies the year before this film in 1929's Love Trap, his first full talkie feature. Wyler would go on to direct such classics as Jezebel, Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, Ben Hur and Funny Girl among many, many more fine films so it's interesting to see a film by him here at the dawn of his greatness. This film had been done once before as a silent in 1916 titled Three Godfathers starring Harry Carey and would be done again in 1936 as Three Godfathers with Chester Morris and again as Three Godfathers in 1948 with John Wayne and Carey's son Harry Carey Jr. This is so stark and gritty and imaginative that it is my favorite of the two remakes that would follow. Charles Bickford stars along with Fred Kohler and Raymond Hatton. Bickford enjoyed a long career in films and television but Hattaon was a screen actor for almost 50 years in a career that began in early silents in 1909 and continued through a small role 1967's In Cold Blood. Considering this was 1930 and what was accomplished here in story, dialog, sound and photography I have to knock this up a notch and give it a 10.

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.