Les hors-la-loi

As Mitch Barret : Alan Ladd exacts a merciless vendetta on small town inhabitants by becoming a sheriff. As Mitch manages to turn an implacable sheriff . Along the way , he joins forces with other people : Don Murray , Dan O'Herlihy , Barry Coe , Dolores Michaels to carry out a twisted plan. One Foot in Hell one Hand on a Gun one day a town would never forget . One Foot in Hell is one whale of a Motion Picture ! It is one of the most exciting , one of the most powerful human epics in the story of the West !

This is the thrilling story of the day hell came to town wearing a badge well starred by Alan Ladd , being one of the last movies , actually the last was The Carpetbaggers 1964 and subsequently dying of alcoholism. Alan Ladd starred some notorious Westerns as Branded , Drum Beat , The Proud Rebel , The Iron Mistress , Badlanders and his big hit : Shane . Based on a Playhouse story , called The last man with interesting script from Aaron Spelling and Sydney Bohem who produced , too . There is a good studio character , including a large plethora the roles with especial peculiarities , such as a drifter , a pickpocket , a Saloon girl and a drunkyard . Along with Ladd there appears a lot of familiar secondaries providing nice interpretations such as : George Coe , Dan O'Herlihy , Don Murray Larry Gates , John Alexander , Robert Adler , Karl Swenson , among others.

It displays colorful and glimmer cinematography by William C Mellor . As well as evocative and stirring musical score by Dominic Frontiere . The picture was well directed by James B Clark . This good filmmaker was an artisan who usually shot episodes for popular TV series as Batman, High Chaparral, Lassie , Daniel Boone The Monroe , Voyage to the bottom of the Sea , Firehouse , Loner and occassionally making feature films as A Dog of Flanders , Villa ! , Sierra Baron , Under Fire , Misty and My side of the Mountain. One Foot in Hell rating : 6,5/10 . Notable . The flick will appeal to Alan Ladd fans . Well worth watching .

The most amazing thing about this movie was Alan Ladd. And not in a good way. Probably because of his alcoholism Ladd was almost unrecognizable. Was this Shane?? Although he was only 47 he looked like a 65 year old out of shape grandpa. His acting seemed to have diminished as much as his looks. This film would have been a lot better with someone like Audie Murphy in the lead role. Sadly as Shane is my all time favorite movie and Ladds character my all time favorite character this movie was very hard for me to watch.

Alan Ladd's last western is this strange little item that did not get much play back in 1960, confined to second place on double bills. He should have done this one earlier when he was a much bigger box office name.

Ladd plays a settler traveling west and his wife comes down with some prairie malady. Going off to the nearest town he gets a prescription for a $1.87 worth of medicine. But then he runs afoul of some of the town louts and gets delayed long enough so that his wife sickens and dies.

The town fathers feel real sorry for him. In fact they feel so bad that they offer him the job of deputy sheriff. But when the sheriff dies and Ladd becomes sheriff it's the first step in an elaborate plan for revenge on the town. He hates each and every citizen of this place because of the death of wife Rachel Stephens.

Ladd puts together a gang in secret to rob the town bank at a proper moment when it's bulging with cash. Among others in his scheme are drunken cowboy Don Murray and working girl Dolores Michaels. Murray's part is very similar to the one he had the year before with James Cagney in Shake Hands With The Devil. In fact if you've seen that film, you know what happens in One Foot In Hell.

What could have been a great comeback role for Ladd goes for naught. I'm not sure it was his drinking at the time. More like it was wife Sue Carol who at this point was mismanaging his career. And face it, his day had past.

But next to what he was about to do over in Italy in Duel of the Champions, One Foot In Hell comes out like Stagecoach. It's not a bad film, as good as any of the B westerns that Audie Murphy was doing at this time. Still had he been 10 years younger and the film had been distributed differently, say with Paramount's studio power back in the day when he was their biggest star, One Foot In Hell could have been a classic.

As it is, it's not bad viewing. Note the script was by an up and coming television giant, Aaron Spelling.

What ostensibly starts as a formula Western of a man who encounters tragedy on the frontier and rises above it quickly takes a darker turn in this noirish 1960 MGM release. Alan Ladd is an ex-Confederate who encounters a rude reception from townspeople when arriving in the middle of the night with a sickly pregnant wife; delays in getting a bottle of inexpensive medicine to her result in her death. The local merchants are remorseful and try to bring Ladd into the community by making him a lawman, but he instead embarks on a sociopath's trail of revenge.

By sad coincidence the role of a nihilistic man who has seen his world destroyed and is now fully detached from moral constraint is well suited to Ladd in the last few years of life; childhood trauma, alcoholism, and a suicide attempt indicate a life which demanded heavy tolls for whatever success he achieved. Made in an era partial to sunnier Westerns, the Peyton Place-atmosphere of OFIH stands out in stark contrast. The cold-blooded killing of a lawman, back-shooting betrayal. And a lethal gunfight played out solely for betting are all present in a script that seems more appropriate to a 1970's Clint Eastwood outing. Black and white filming would have added a special patina to the story.

This being the twilight of the 1950's, studio pressures might have compelled writer Aaron Spelling (yes, he of 1980's prime time soap fluff!) to shift some emphasis to the more redeemable characters played by Dolores Michaels and Barry Coe. And just for a moment, I wondered if Michaels might have been Lauren Bacall appearing under a stage name.

Western watchers might pay special attention to the covered buckboard that appears throughout; the canvas appears to have transparent plastic windows, and the late 1860's is much too early for that.

One Foot in Hell is directed by James B. Clark and written by Aaron Spelling and Sydney Boehm. It stars Alan Ladd, Don Murray, Dan O'Herlihy, Dolores Michaels, Barry Coe and Larry Gates. A CinemaScope/De Luxe Color production with music by Dominic Frontiere and cinematography by William C. Mellor.

Incensed by the circumstances which led to the death of his wife and unborn child, Mitch Barrett (Ladd) plots revenge against the whole town of Blue Springs.

Alan Ladd's last Western doesn't find him in the best of shape or on the best of form, but it's a most interesting and entertaining picture regardless. In a veer from the norm, Ladd is playing a man gone bad, fuelled by hatred and thirsting for revenge, Mitch Barrett assembles a small group of strays and ruffians and sets his plans in motion. He wins the trust of the town and operates behind the facade of the law. Along the way he is extremely callous, the value of life means nothing to him now, while inner fighting and romance destabilises the group until the big denouement arrives.

The pace sometimes sags and there's a distinct rushed feel about the final quarter (one main character annoyingly dies off screen?!), yet there's still a lot to like here. The CinemaScope production is nice to look at, there's some very good scenes such as those involving cattle and liquid fire, while the all round nasty edge to the plotting and characterisations (Julie Reynolds' back story is a shocker) keeps it from being run of the mill. It's not the big Western send off that Ladd fans would have wanted, however it's still a recommended Western to like minded genre fans. 7/10