Hell to Pay

This Low Budget Western features some familiar Western TV Actors , supporting a lesser known main cast. Its the familiar tale of brother against brother, family conflict and attempts at redemption. In a town ran by an unscrupulous saloon owner, the brothers face off against competing elements ...and each other ! Virginian Star James Drury has a featured role as the straight arrow Town Sheriff, saddled with a thankless job and questionable town loyalty. Bo Svenson is the one-eyed villain and there are cameo appearances by stars of Laredo, Lawman and Gunsmoke. Even Lee Majors of Big Valley fame appears as a US Marshal! Some of the acting is amateurish, but the story is interesting and it was very nice to see the various TV Western legends on the screen again in this more recent western outing. Recommended for fans of classic Television westerns......

When I was in my early 20s The Over The Hill Gang came out and the oldtimers were such folks as Pat O'Brien, Chill Wills, Walter Brennan, Edgar Buchanan, Andy Devine and a bunch more old character actors who gave us so much pleasure on the big screen. It came out in 1969. In 2005 Hell To Pay came out and while the leads were young, the players in various supporting roles were a bunch of players I knew from back in the day from current TV westerns. They're the best part of this film.

Kevin Kazakoff and William Gregory Lee star here as a pair of brothers who split the family with their differing views on the Civil War. Kazakoff became a war hero in the Union Army while Lee just sat out the war and sharpened his poker hand and his connections with various loose women.

Kazakoff has settled on a new claim and wants to be a farmer. Lee hasn't seen any need to reform, but as we know in these westerns family ties in the end are the strongest of all.

However the real treat is to see a whole slew of people who starred in TV westerns back in the day back for a last hurrah. Several men and one woman Stella Stevens who it is certainly adding something to anything she appears in.

Best in the film of the oldtimers is James Drury as the town sheriff and Peter Brown as the town banker.

Not the greatest of westerns, but nostalgia fans like me will enjoy it.

The seasoned actors in this do know how to act and have proved that before but the Director, who also wrote and produced this travesty, is incompetent on so many levels. O.K. it's low budget but I know films students with lower budgets and lesser known actors who can do much, much better. For example, since there were people involved who should know better some of the gun rigs were totally out of place and never existed in those days. The stunt work was clumsy - the story stale and hokey. If some one gives you a copy of this use it for a coaster. By the way, I love westerns and have known many stunt men and even went to high school with one of the actors so I was looking for it to be good.

I considered the combination of professional actors and experienced real life wild-west shooters a bit of refreshment.

Admittedly a portion of the actors were "dated" but then the appeal of this movie is for the same group of folks. No, it ain't John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, or Tom Selleck but its an entertaining, straight forward movie intended to have no hidden messages or social commentaries. Which is what truly good movies are.....entertainment. I think this movie has the potential to become a sort of campy, cult classic.

True, a couple of the "Bad Guys" could have been better looking but you gotta go with what you can get!

Not sure if this is just a lousy movie or if it was intended to be a mockery of a "B" Western. Story line was so-so but the filming, editing and acting were just plain bad. Plus the music in the background was irritating to no end, too loud and just non-stop. Many times you could not make out the dialog over the background music. I'm in SASS (Single Action Shooting Society) and do some Old West shooting with them, and a lot of the actors are members of this group, so that's why I bought it. If you have no interest in this group of people, or that sport, you certainly most likely wouldn't even have this little bit of interest to help out with the film. The acting of even the veteran actors (particularly Stella Stevens) left a lot to be desired also.