Hell Bound

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.