Las orejas del diablo

Summary: An ex-confederate soldier, now a veterinarian, who has come to accept the ways of the North that have been imposed on the land, unwittingly helps a wanted criminal. Despite Hanley's efforts to accept the Yankees and their brand of modernity the local law enforcement, running on high emotion, exploit the tenuous link between the confederate and their wanted man by arresting him and sending him to a terrible place: Ward Bond's prison - and Bond has an extreme prejudice for men of the innocent man's sort.

This is an excellent film that resolves itself beautifully. Sterling Hayden, a wonderful actor who epitomises his era, turned in a great performance as the alienated and wrongly imprisoned man.

One of the best films to come out of the Poverty Row Lippert Pictures Studio was this hard nosed and brutal western drama Hellgate. The title is named after a prison on the New Mexico desert where Sterling Hayden is sentenced to some hard time.

A number of reviewers have already commented that the plot is taken straight from the story of Dr. Samuel Mudd. Hayden is a former Confederate soldier who has settled in a Union area of the west and just wants to forget the war. Hayden and wife Joan Leslie give some assistance to an injured man, Hayden is a veterinarian and therefore has some medical training. The man turns out to be a former Quantrill guerrilla and the locals are quick to believe Hayden has to be one also. He gets sentenced to Hellgate where he comes under the tender care of commander Ward Bond and Sergeant Major Robert J. Wilkie.

Though the plot may come from The Prisoner Of Shark Island, the jail is like the one Sessue Hayakawa ran in The Bridge On The River Kwai. It's set in a desert canyon with no water, it has to be transported in every month. The jails are underground carved right in the rock crevices. Like Hayakawa, Bond has no guards the desert does discourage most escapes. He does however have Pima Indians who can track escapees and get more for bringing them dead than alive.

If you know the story of Samuel Mudd from The Prisoner Of Shark Island you know what happens here in Hellgate. Sterling Hayden really dominates this film, especially when he vies for supremacy in his particular cell with James Arness, a pretty hard case himself. This is one of Hayden's best acted roles and ought to command some of the same attention given to The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing.

Don't miss this one if it is broadcast, especially for fans of Sterling Hayden.

Sterling Hayden, along with Macho-Man Robert Mitchum, were Contemporaries that had a Certain Charm of "Biting-the-Hand"...

Because They were Both so Good at the Craft of Acting, the Method Style of Non Acting, that They Could Send Caution to the Wind and Present Their "True-Feelings" Without Blow-Back.

Hayden, Performed to Get Money to Sail Away from it All, and Mitchum Because He Felt the Acting Profession was a Thing that Real-Men Didn't Do.

This Movie, It is Often Pointed Out, is a Remake of "The Prisoner of Shark Island" (1936).

But, that Only Makes it an Anomaly, a Remake that is as Good as the Original.

Made in the Early 50's Before the "Western" Genre Sunk-In and Became Entrenched, along with Science-Fiction...to Dominate the Decade.

Because of that, there was a Plethora of Pictures that were so Mainstream and Inoffensive that the Dust and Dirt and the Hard-Edged Life in the "Wild-West" were Removed for Mass-Appeal.

A Lot of What Passed was Anything but Realistic or Reflective of the "True-West".

Not so Here. Everything is somewhat Authentic from Frame-One, and Continued Throughout this Minimalist Treatment of a Man Sent to a "Hell-Hole" of a Desert Prison for Something He Did Not Do.

A Fine Cast, with Ward Bond as a Brutal Warden and James Arness as a Cell-Mate more than Make Their Mark in this Remarkable "Western" that is Worthy of More Attention and Praise.

A Must-See for "Western" Fans...For All Others it's...

Worth a Watch.

The Moves4Men channel on British TV is providing me with some excellent films that I wouldn't otherwise have seen (as well as some recordings which I delete within ten minutes of starting to view). "Hellgate" is one of the grittiest Westerns I've seen, especially considering that it was released in 1952, when the rigours portrayed on screen were usually somewhat muted.

The characters sweat copiously, their clothes are filthy and they show evidence of having no access to razors - in contrast to too many action films where the actors remain remarkably clean and well-shaven.

One reviewer here has referred to Ward Bond being "inexpressive", but he certainly looked thuggish to me, and Robert Wilke was as malevolent as ever. Perhaps Joan Leslie was a tad too pretty? The way the film ended was a bit anti-climatic and I would have liked to see a bit more soul-searching going on before the concluding decision was made.

I'm very glad to have watched this film.

Veterinarian Sterling Hayden is wrongfully accused and found guilty of being a member of the confederacy raiders during the Civil War. He is sent to a prison in the desert under the command of Lieutenant Ward Bond.

It's a variation on Ford's THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND that spends most of its length on the prisoners' attempts to escape. Hayden is peripheral to most of the actual story, as is second-billed Joan Leslie as his wife. There's a lot of focus on Bond, who is excellent in his sadistic role; I kept wondering how close to reality it was, given his real-world involvement in the Blacklist.