Review of The Hellions

The Hellions (1961)
7/10
Comment on the "High Noon" vs "Firecreek" comparisons, above.
3 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I disagree with the commentator who opined that "The Hellions" resembles "Firecreek" in action and themes more closely than it resembles "High Noon". Points of similarity: 1. The Outlaw father is seeking revenge against the local lawman for a past injury. 2. It's a thriving frontier community, not a backwater full of "losers" like the town of Firecreek. 3. The departure-by-train that doesn't happen: Just as the Marshal'wife gets off the train to go back and help him fight, another character in "Hellions" makes a similar decision. But the townspeople in "Hellions" go only so far in leaving everything up to the Constible. When the chips are down, it's a very different ending.

I first saw this movie about 1962, and again on TV in the late 80's. (Beware of the edited-for-TV print.--Ugh! But I still remember scraps of the lilting theme song: Here they come and may they soon be gone/ Matthew, Jubal, Mark and Luke and John/ ...Live by the gun and sure as the sunrise/ Die by the gun you must,/ Just as the Hellions one by one/ Died in the Trans Vaal dust! (Chorus: They died in the Trans Vaal dust!)
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