Opiniones de usuarios

John Russell was a very large, handsome and often scary looking man. Mostly he made westerns, though here in "Hell Bound" he's in a low-budget film noir picture.

The film begins with Jordan (Russell) coming up with a perfect plan to hijack a shipment of surplus narcotics left over from World War II. The military plans on destroying them--Jordan plans on relieving them of that responsibility and selling them for a fortune. However, to make the plan work several partners need to be gathered--a nurse, a derelict man in a raft, a crew member who will go into a diabetic coma and a government agent to look the other way. It's such a perfect plan he even made a movie and showed it to a mob boss--a man who is duly impressed--so impressed that he offers his girlfriend to play the part of the nurse. With all these things in place, what's to go wrong?!

While the film has a few slow moments, the execution of the robbery is exciting and a bit shocking in its brutality. I appreciated this, as these ARE criminal scum and they sure act like it!

As far as the nurse plot goes, it reminded me of the amazingly good but mostly forgotten Rory Calhoun picture, "The Big Caper". All in all, very well worth your time.

In HELL BOUND, John Russell stars as Jordan, the brains behind a big cargo heist, in which a fortune in drugs is at stake.

Much of the film's running time involves the logistics and preparation for the crime, including the gathering of the crooks to pull it off.

All seems well, until the weakness, addictions, and folly of the team threaten to ruin the whole operation.

Russell is very convincing in his driven, downright wicked role. He's the black heart of the story, and delivers an unflinchingly ruthless performance. June Blair is also good as Paula, the woman that Jordan needs for his plot, as is Stuart Whitman as the man who falls in love with Paula, causing a moral dilemma.

This is a tense crime thriller with a wonderful chase-through-a-scrapyard finale...

Taut and Tight Little "Heist" Movie with Heavy Film-Noir Influences, some Dire and Desperate Characters, Fine Acting, a Quick Violence-Prone Plot, and an Ending that is Visually and Viscerally Stunning.

Stone-Faced John Russell is in Full Sadistic "Bully" Mode as, He Recruits Men and Women with Varying Degrees of Desperation and Greed.

Russell Uses Physical Persecution Beating and Slapping People Around Non-Stop Preys on Drug-Addicts to "Mastermind" a Heist of Contraband (Drugs) Most always Referred to in the "Code-Enforcement" Days as "Stuff".

It's Sleazy, both in Personnel and Locations, The Docks, Burlesque, and Minimalist Rooming-Boards. Also Featuring a Pre-Tarantino "Foot-Fetish" Running Throughout.

June Blair (Playmate 1957), Shows a Bit More than Her Feet Here in the Form of Cleavage and Lingerie.

A Good Supporting Cast of...Stuart Whitman, Margo Woode, and Frank Fenton, among Others,

Make for a Solid, Disturbing, Cutting-Edge, Mid-50's Crime Noir that has High-Lights Galore for those that Like Their High-Lights Among the Low-Light Digs and Brutal Crime-Gang Domination Displays.

About as Violent and Nasty as it Gets in the Mid-50's.

The Ending Scene in the Rail-Yard is Unforgettable and Brings this Little Hidden-Gem to a Crashing and Crushing Conclusion.

A Must-See for Noir and Crime Buffs...For Others it's...

Worth a Watch.

This would have been very good as a 50 minute episode of an hour long TV crime drama series. The extra 20 minutes could easily be cut from the padding I mention, and a harder hitting more focused tale would be the result.

The film opens with a narration about the perfect crime - How to steal war surplus contraband worth 250 thousand dollars from a cargo freighter with no confrontation, nobody the wiser. Then the narration ends and we see that this has been a short film presentation by Jordan (John Russell) who is pitching this to a crime boss whose financial backing he needs. I can imagine that is true, because in 1957 making such a film that involves a freighter and a cast of hundreds would not be easy or cheap. It's not like you could just shoot it on your IPhone Pro.

Jordan gets the backing he wants, but then he makes a series of bad moves, all involving the cast of accomplices he picks. He needs a nurse, an actual maritime health inspector, and somebody to pretend he is lost at sea that is rescued by the freighter. The problems are in the nurse - she is actually the crime boss' girlfriend who is not a nurse, and the "lost at sea" guy - he is a junkie, unknown to Jordan. Junkies are characteristically undependable, a slave to their habit, and the fake nurse will have to ride around in an ambulance for a few days as an actual nurse before the heist. What if the ambulance driver starts tossing medical jargon at her like "banana bag" and tarchy?? What if she is asked to start an IV? The results could be grisly or at least malpractice.

I found a couple of more questions that were never answered. For one, how does Jordan know that a particular freighter has war surplus drugs onboard? Also, definitely a plot faux pas if you are diabetic. It is never a good thing for your blood sugar to "shoot straight up", and that means more insulin if it does happen, not less. But I digress.

On the positive side what this film lacks in logic and meaningful dialogue it definitely has in noir imagery. In particular, there are some great shots of a mass grave of the LA trolley cars towards the end. If you watched and remember "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", you'll remember that the trolley cars being abandoned in the late 40s weighed heavily into the plot of that film. Also, John Russell is great as ruthless villain Jordan, with his severe features and always dressed like a 50s insurance salesman. In fact he winds up being a little too ruthless for his own good.

In post-war L. A., Jordan makes a film about using a fake quarantine to steal surplus government drugs from a freighter. Wealthy investor Harry Quantro suggests doing it for real. Femme fatale Paula joins the caper.

I think that I missed half the hidden meaning and double entendre. Somebody needs to explain the two heads comments. One is for thinking but I don't know the other. Are they suggesting that she gives good head? What does putting her shoes on mean? What does half of this dialogue mean? It certainly keeps one on one's toes. This is a low budget B-movie. As such, they try to build atmosphere with a lot of empty industrial parks and dock locations. It fully uses the stacks of trolley cars. It's a lot of noir style, acting hard, and no money work-arounds. Why is the blind guy drinking milk? There are so many weird under-the-radar choices being made. I'm not saying that this is a classic but they are throwing everything at this and it's fun to see.

This is an odd movie. The plot resembles of that of "The Killing" from 1956 (no spoilers from me, folks!), but with a train yard instead of and airport and an inexplicable amount of random foot fetishism scenes.

The location shots of the seedy, ugly industrial underbelly of the Port of Los Angeles, filled with clanging freighters, trains, cranes, derricks, busted lamps, bridges, weedy open areas, parking lots, and seedy neon streets are spectacular -- beautifully filmed in high-noir style, and almost documentary in their precision. The trolley graveyard, Southern Pacific freight yard, and piles of scrap metal are literally priceless as settings. For anyone seeking great, sharp-focus, high-contrast footage of the industrial junk piles in Los Angeles in 1957, this is valuable footage.

The plot is ... a plot (see "the Killing") and the actors are competent, but the script is thin, so there are lots of unvoiced action scenes and facial dead-pan reaction shots that last too long. The repetitious, silent fetish scenes of women's feet, both in and out of shoes, also lack charm. And, inexplicably, several minutes are wasted on a pointless strip tease act right out of a Sack Entertainment exploitation film. The director was probably getting off on the high sleaze-quotient, but i found it awkward and childish.

I'm glad i saw this film, but i didn't really like it all that much.

When Jordan (John Russell) comes to a health dept office as a phony pharmaceutical rep, he is announced as Mr. Natas. A reverse-spelled Satan works well for "Hell Bound".

A 1957 film noir. Opening on a thieves' ploy to rob a ship of some drugs (the industrious fellow has even made a filmed previz of the caper), he successfully gains backing to pull off the heist but now he has to deploy his pawns in order to actually pull the job off. Talk about hopeful thinking as his players come into focus (a doctor who works on the boat who has health issues, a drug addict & the backer's moll, played by June Blair, who is supposed to be a nurse but ends up falling for her co-worker, played by Stuart Whitman). Our thief, played by John Russell (whose cheeks I remember from him playing the bad guy in Eastwood's Pale Rider), is all business but there's a certain amount of relish the audience gets as we witness his well oiled plan go right off the rails until the final frames of the film as he gets his just desserts when he's crushed to death by falling metal girders. Deus ex Machina indeed.

As a previous reviewer remarked elements of The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing are present in Hell Bound. I would my favorite noir film Kansas City Confidential to that list. It's the story of a perfect caper at least on paper and on film it is. John Russell in selling the idea to smuggle a fortune in narcotics actually films a dry run of it with actors and sells it to his money guy Dehl Berti.

Unfortunately he should have stuck with the actors for the real deal. Russell is a brutal man and he browbeats a pair to assist in the heist. Their roles don't quite go according to script.

Also unplanned is the money man's moll who plays the part of a nurse falls for the ambulance driver who was to be their patsy. June Blair later to join the Nelson household marrying David is the moll and Stuart Whitman is the ambulance driver. That's Russell's doing as well.

However Russell himself is a fascinating portrait in evil. Even with big plot holes he makes you want to watch this film. The end he comes to is also quite original.

Watch this one for John Russell.

Some great staging in that final sequence. Now I know what happens to old tram cars, including about every piece of scrap metal in LA. Apparently, port LA is not a good place to rest up, however, so I'll not be looking to vacation there. Anyway, looks like this fairly nifty little heist film was inspired by Kubrick's brilliant robbery feature The Killing (1956). Both focus on elaborate heists and the frailties of the gang involved. Here it's mastermind Russell, along with a corrupt health inspector, a heroin junkie, and an unwitting ambulance driver, plus a load of shipboard narcotics waiting to be stolen. But please, oh please, tell me that phony nurse June Blair will take on a phony patient, namely me. She's really luscious, and now I see why super-wholesome Ozzie & Harriet's number one son David married her, Playboy centerfold or not. I guess when she drops a shoe, it means action time for the lucky guy.

Anyhow, it's more a movie of parts than a suspenseful whole. The narrative does tend to meander some despite the riveting premise. Surprisingly, the focus is more on Russell and what he'll do next, than on the caper itself. But colorful characters and good acting bridge over the narrative. And for sure, gimlet-eyed Russell does get to stare down everybody in sight, and makes one hunky gang leader. And that's just a year or two before he went straight and became sheriff of Laramie (Lawman). Though obscure by any light, the film's still a decent little crime feature that shows off once more the minor glories of the American B-movie.

I appreciate the future daughter in law of Ozzie and Harriet's kinky shoe fetish, and The Lawman makes a good psycho villain (who knew?), and as a lifetime Los Angeles resident who well remembers the city's smog levels going way up once mass transit was cut, I found the finale in the Red Car cemetery heartbreaking, but as for the rest of this standard B picture hesit flic I kept wondering if audiences who saw it in '57 thought the same thing I did, namely,"Why pay to watch stuff I can get for free on 'M Squad' or 'Highway Patrol' and I'm not even talking about the best episodes"? Give it a generous C plus for the above plaisirs.

(1957) Hell Bound CRIME THRILLER

Wannabe racketeer, Jordon (John Russell) wanting to make more money by continuing to steal drugs from cargo ship, and he isn't able to do it without his former crew, as he knows someone who drives an ambulance and so forth. So, as a result of unable to get his drugs for the purpose of selling them in the black market, he resorts to obtaining his drug supply by means of using violence and assaulting measures.

A little movie that depicted a time when drugs om a cargo ship used to be a thing during WWII, and is not happening so much anymore as there is more border patrol and so forth .

He is the lead character here, an evil one for change, so delightful, delicious, a head master of a robbery, complex one involving a shipment of drug taken from a freight ship. It is an underrated film, small budget, totally forgotten now. It was aired on TCM and availabe on You Tube. There were batches like this one, in the more or less small Hollywood companies in the fifties, and even later. You have just to be lucky to find them. I highly prefer John Russell here than in Republic Pictures westerns or war dramas of the early fifties, or even the PALE RIDER crap, where he was the leader of a bunch of vicious killers who terrorized a mine town. A good little heist film to discover, but anyone will certainly prefer ASSAULT ON A QUEEN, in terms of robbery aboard a ship. Jaw dropping ending.

Stuart Whitman is the one who originates the first sand in the machinery, and he isn't even aware of it, but all the other actors are also surprisingly good. There are several very striking scenes when John Russell takes his accomplices under treatment, none of them having the courage to drop out of the hell bound enterprise, while one of them has to suffer badly for his just suspecting her female weakness. It's a great script with very apt music, and the characters are all convincing, especially the cold turkeys under the strain of insulin and that other stuff. Most impressive is the finale in the junk yard among the scrapped trams, the cranes and the trains, which would have provided ideal material for Hitchcock. He is missing here though, and there are no stars, while Stuart Whitman always makes good in any film.