Hellfire

The writers and producers of "Hellfire" seem to have wanted to throw away the formulas and cliché's usually found in Westerns. They put an emphasis on character development to bring us vivid characters, performed very well by superior b-movie actors.

This movie marked the beginning of my long-time infatuation with Marie Windsor. View it and your own Marie love affair will begin. She brings us a rare combination of strength and beauty and her performance is to be admired by both men and women. About 15 years before Jane Fonda saddled up, Marie gives us a precursor to Fonda's "Cat Ballou" but in a more serious acting style with less emphasis on comedy.

Bill Elliott underplays as usual but his role calls for it, and this is probably his best film performance. His performance beautifully compliments the dynamic Windsor. Elliott is known for underplaying, but underplaying is not always a bad thing. Elliott proves that here.

Elliott, Windsor and a restrained Forrest Tucker form an effective 3-way acting ensemble that is fascinating to watch, as aided by some great screen writing.

In the 1940's or today you don't always need big names or budget to make a successful film. Just watch "Hellfire" straight through and let the characters and unusual plot twists grab your attention. You will be entertained.

The color filming is good and all the supporting actors are first-rate. Look for the great Harry Woods in a small part- I wish he could have had a bigger role because every performance by Woods is essentially a screen acting clinic.

On the scale of classic westerns this would be a 6 but as far as Republic "B" westerns goes, this is a 9. An unusual script that could have been a disaster is smartly handled by veteran action director R.G. Springsteen and the solid casting of Wild Bill Elliott, Marie Windsor and Forrest Tucker. With characters like a reformed gambler turned preacher and a female outlaw, this oater had Worst 100 potential. But the tension is built by the credibility of the actors who make the whole thing seem feasible. The musical number (why did every western have to have one)is mercifully brief and the TRUCOLOR always makes a film look richer than its low budget production. It's currently in the WESTERNS Channel rotation, catch it for an entertaining 90 minutes.

I have heard of Marie Windsor, but never saw her in a film prior to this. Because she toiled at poverty-row studios I guess I had a prejudice against her without ever having seen her, but boy! She was terrific. Her character as Doll in this western with a religious twist was strongly written and strongly played. William Elliot seemed just right in his role as a bad boy trying to walk the straight-and-narrow. This really is a unique film in the history of westerns and the Trucolor makes this a time capsule of poverty-row color technology. Essentially a two-color process, it shows up in red-orange and green, although the skies appear as blue. The print streamed on Netflix was in excellent shape, with no excessive lines or dirt present, and the overall experience was one of gratitude that they have managed to save so many of these low-budget studio films. To the casual viewer who thinks only the majors could achieve quality, the modern-day viewing of some of these B films proves that they too could achieve quality if not consistently then at least occasionally.

In continuing to review previous movies or TV appearances of the cast of the original "Dallas" in chronological order, I'm now at 1949 with one of the earliest of the Republic B-movies that featured Jim Davis before his iconic role as Jock Ewing on that classic primetime soap. Here he plays one of the Stoner brothers-IMDb lists him as Gyp but I don't remember his first name ever mentioned-who's looking for a woman named Doll Brown-real name Mary Carson who also goes by Julie Gaye-who killed someone close to him. Marie Windsor plays this anti-heroine who had a rough life and is trying to find her younger sister hoping she's living a better life than her. She gets in with a Zeb Smith (William Elliott) who's a crooked gambler trying to reform himself after promising a dying preacher (H.B. Warner) to build a church for him. Brown is friends with a Marshal Bucky McLean (Forrest Tucker) who's looking for this Ms. Brown himself for personal reasons. I'll just say that this was quite a compelling western drama that's both a little action packed and touching when certain emotional changes are made. And there's also some nice singing by Ms. Windsor in the middle. So on that note, I highly recommend Hellfire.

You can't ask for more in a western than Wild Bill Elliott and Marie Windsor. Elliott was one of the manliest and most genuine western stars of the '40's, and no woman had more strong charactered parts in B westerns and film noirs than Marie Windsor.

This is a rousing movie about redemption and the hard road to reach it. Things don't come easy for the two stars, but they both just keep on a pluggin' away in true western style. What makes this movie more than just another formulaic oater is the fact that Doll Brown (Marie) is not your average swooning damsel in distress. One gets the feeling that the two stars had genuine affection for each other (notice that I said affection, not lust) and this shows through in the film.

Changes in the characters that take place during Hellfire seem like changes that would really happen if two people liked each other- it is not the usual surrender of one star (almost always the female lead) to the strength of the dominant one (almost always the male lead).

If you like Westerns (and here I mean not just Howard Hawkes or John Ford films and not just any weak programmer destined for a Saturday matinée second feature), you should enjoy this one.