User Reviews

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.

Real western addicts acknowledge that Republic Studios, despite their cost-cutting measures, turned out the absolute best horse operas in history. This fine and little known movie is exceptional even by Republic standards. No subtle stuff here....just an unusually tight and suspenseful script, committed performances from seasoned western stars and, of course, plenty of the usual gunfight action.

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.

HELLFIRE stands out by virtue of its unusual religious angle, which is carefully integrated into the standard Republic Pictures B-western framework in a way that strikes me as much more dramatically sound and emotionally honest than if such a plot had been treated in an A-western. Just imagine how sanctimonious THE GUNFIGHTER or SHANE would have been if the title characters, played by Gregory Peck and Alan Ladd, respectively, had suddenly gotten religion. The strength of HELLFIRE is its acknowledgment of the difficulty of grappling with a new-found faith in the violent hard-boiled landscape of the Republic Pictures western. The hero is only slowly finding his way and is still bound by such old habits as using his fists and firing his gun when trouble rears its head. His efforts to follow the "rule book" (the bible) are generally met with scorn and hostility by the people he encounters.

William (Wild Bill) Elliott stars as Zeb Smith, a dishonest gambler who takes the high road after an old preacher takes a bullet for him. (The preacher is played by H.B. Warner, who'd played Christ in De Mille's 1927 silent version of KING OF KINGS.) Femme fatale extraordinaire Marie Windsor plays Doll Brown, a bitter, unrepentant female outlaw in men's clothes who hooks up with Zeb as she tries to outrun Marshal Bucky McLean (Forrest Tucker) and the vengeful Stoner brothers, a motley trio that includes western regulars Jim Davis and Paul Fix. The plot follows the efforts of Zeb to get Doll to change her ways as he joins her on her mission to locate her long-lost sister. He even admits to her that his initial goal was to turn her in for the reward so he can fulfill the late preacher's dream of building a church. He puts himself in a difficult position in trying to gain her trust, but also risks becoming a wanted man himself as he aids Doll in her flight from justice.

Elliott was pretty wooden as an actor, although he looks and sounds the part just perfectly, but his low-key performance plays well off the standard Republic western histrionics of the rest of the cast (Tucker, Davis, Fix, Grant Withers, Denver Pyle, etc.). But as an acting showcase, it's clearly Marie Windsor's show all the way as she propels the action and provides the emotional core (and heart-wrenching finale).

The film is shot in that beautifully harsh palette of Trucolor that turns everything blue-green or orange-brown, giving the proceedings an otherworldly alternate-pulp western-dimension look.

Card cheat Bill Elliott (Zeb) changes his ways and promises to build a church out in the Wild West after Minister H. B. Warner (brother Joseph) takes a bullet for him. The building of a church had been Warner's dream and Elliott gives his word to raise the money for it. However, he also commits to following God's path. Things get tricky when he comes across Marie Windsor (Doll) on the hunt for her sister. She has pretty much everyone after her and there is a reward out for her - dead or alive.

A peculiarity of this film is the way in which it is coloured. I'm not sure how intentional it was but the colours are heavily biased towards blue-ish green and something rather peachy. I'm not sure whether this is due to the quality fading but it certainly is different. The story covers quite a lot of ground and I enjoyed the ride, despite some heavy over-preachy nonsense, particularly at the end. Shame about that, really. The ending is somewhat ambiguous - what happens next?

The standout in the cast is Marie Windsor who plays her bad girl role very convincingly and has you rooting for her all the way. Go on Windsor! Shoot the holy guy. I'm fed up of his wholesome ways. The film is a buddy buddy movie at its core as we follow the relationship that develops between Elliott and Windsor as they seek their goals together. And it's not bad.

(1949) Hellfire WESTERN

When an ideological pastor dies after he saves the life of a cheating gambler on the run and outlaw, Zeb (William "Wild Bill" Elliott), he converts him to a promises that he will build a church in accordance to the Bible. It is then he meets wanted felon, Doll Brown (Marie Windsor). Can he convert the wanted felon in the same manner that happened to him upon him meeting the pastor!

Again, this is yet another unique western that's never been done before. The first time I saw this was on PBS before internet exploded and so fort, the time when it was one of few channels that used to showcase commercial free movies at night, the impact was not as strong now as opposed to watching it as a child, considering the amount of Westerns we can watch these days.

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.

This is one of the best "B" westerns ever made. It stars the queen of the "B"s herself -- Marie Windsor, along with those two other great "B" stars, "Wild Bill" Elliott and Forrest Tucker.

It has an unusual twist which sets it apart from other westerns; Bill Elliot plays a card sharp and all-around bad dude whose life is saved by a preacher who takes a bullet meant for Wild Bill (all this takes place in the first five minutes of the movie so the plot is not ruined for you).

Bill promises the dying preacher that he will complete the preacher's mission and collect the money needed to build a church. He also promised to "follow the rules" i.e., raise the money without resorting to crime.

Bill Elliott's efforts to change his ways and avoid temptation make for a great movie.

In Hellfire, Wild Bill Elliott in one of the few times in his career does something less than heroic. When we first meet him he's a no good tinhorn gambler who gets caught with some cards up his sleeve. Just as he's about to get some frontier justice an itinerant preacher H.B. Warner steps in front of a bullet meant for Elliott. As he's dying he makes Elliott promise to build the church he was collecting funds for. But he has to do it by the rules as laid down in the Good Book.

History is full of folks who do an about face in belief and character, the most well known is from the Bible with Paul struck down on the road to Damascus and turning from a Sanhedrin persecutor to a full fledged believer in Christianity. But Elliott's about face was really a bit much to swallow.

Even more so is his idea that he can get all the money he needs if lady outlaw Marie Windsor will turn to the Lord and turn herself in. This woman makes Sharon Stone in The Quick Gun and Joan Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge in Johnny Guitar and Barbara Stanwyck in any number of westerns look like a Sunday schoolteacher is not about to do that. Windsor gives a great performance that is completely wasted in an unreal film.

Besides she's also got outlaw brothers Jim Davis, Paul Fix, and Lewis Faust after her. And sheriff Forrest Tucker whose agenda isn't all about law and order.

Hellfire is one of those films that Elliott hoped would break him out of the B picture cowboy ranks into something better. But instead of breakout, he got one weird film.

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.

When it was made(1949)this was probably pretty rough stuff. Windsor is great as the "loose woman" on the dodge, and Elliott, once again is the anti-hero...crooked gambler turned preacher. The supporting cast is tops with Jim Davis, Paul Fix, and many other familiar faces. This is a morality tale, told in fine fashion. A great companion piece to Elliot's "Savage Horde" (1950).

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.

Billy Graham proudly declared 'Mr.Texas' (1951), the maiden production of his company World Wide Films, "the first Christian Western". He probably didn't go to the movies much, otherwise he might have known about John Ford's '3 Godfathers' and 'WagonMaster', sandwiched between which came this rollicking candidate for cult status alongside 'Johnny Guitar'; although it's unlikely that the Reverend Graham would have approved of it bearing a title suggesting damnation rather than salvation.

Immaculately directed by R.G.Springsteen and atmospherically photographed by Jack Marta in Trucolor (like 'Johnny Guitar'), Dorrell & Stuart McGowan's tremendous script bears a passing resemblance to both 'Destry Rides Again' and to Ralph Nelson's 'Lilies of the Field' (1963), in which Sydney Poitier helped build a chapel for a group of nuns. Here the wonderfully laconic Wild Bill Elliott (billed as 'William') as former gambler Zeb Smith dedicates himself to honouring the dying wish of preacher H.B.Warner (who over twenty years earlier had played The Messiah himself in DeMille's 'The King of Kings') by raising the money to build a church in his memory.

Although from now on never without his Bible (which he calls 'The Rule Book'), unlike Destry Smith still relies upon his fists and his six-shooter to resolve tricky situations, on the grounds that it "Seems to be the only kind of sermon I can make folks listen to". The fun really starts with the entrance of the always awesome Marie Windsor as sloe-eyed female outlaw Doll Brown - "Fast on the draw and fast on the jaw" - who recoils from Smith's Bible like a vampire from a crucifix.

Without the film's religious content it's interesting to speculate on how some of the film's heady brew of sex and violence would otherwise have fared with the Breen Office - there's a torture sequence when Smith is strung up like Christ and a lit lamp held against his bared back; and it has a fascinatingly ambiguous ending probably dictated by just how far a criminal past was then permitted to go unpunished.

The review by Filmaven tickled me. I feared I was alone in believing this movie is one of the greats.

Marie Windsor, a fine actress in any role, just outdid herself in this film.

Bill Elliott was even better than usual, and so were all the other actors.

Best of all, though, was an excellent script, one definitely worthy of A movie budgeting and distributing.

There is a quality in this movie that is sadly lacking in most modern films, and the emphasis on a story line is one aspect that elevates "Hellfire" above the mass of films.

In the late 1960s, I saw this on TV and have remembered it fondly all these years -- correctly, as it turns out.

"Wild Bill" Elliott has been one of my favorite cowboy movie performers since my childhood, and Marie Windsor became one of my favorite actresses for this very movie.

Since seeing her in this, I have marveled at her in such other classic roles as the ex-wife in "Trouble Along the Way" and the gossip-target in "Paradise Alley."

She doesn't do her own singing in "Hellfire" but she sure does her own wearing of the dance-hall costume and reminds us that she was a great beauty.

As a gun-toting outlaw, she also made one superlative Westerner.

She looked very at home on horseback, and was thoroughly believable in this different role, probably my favorite of all her performances.

She and Elliott were very ably backed by Forrest Tucker, who, except for one scene, a type very few actors play well, probably wins the acting award in this movie. He was so cool, so at home, so confident, I was reminded that he was really a fine actor, not just a type, but a very capable actor (even when unfortunately cast in some terribly scripted movies or TV shows).

As was often true, a fellow cast member was the great Jim Davis. For several reasons, Jim Davis has long been one of my favorites. He had a memorable voice and his presence always provided quality.

Veteran Paul Fix has a small part, but he was another who always came across believably.

Veterans Grant Withers and Emory Parnell are sheriffs, and likable characters, and the great Harry Woods appears briefly but memorably.

Look for the great Trevor Bardette, Dewey Robinson, and Denver Pyle, with veteran Herman Hack going unbilled, as well as the iconic Olin Howland and Hank Worden.

This is a script I love and have loved for nigh onto 50 years, written by brothers Dorrell and Stuart McGowan. It's not corny or sappy like so many religiously oriented movies have been, but pretty much follows logically and reasonably (with only a couple small holes we can ignore) to its conclusion.

But even a bad script with this outstanding cast, and so superbly directed by a man I consider shockingly under-rated, R.G. Springsteen, would earn a high rating from me.

"Hellfire" I can give a 10, but only because that is the highest IMDb allows. It is one of the greatest minor-A Westerns I have ever seen and I highly recommend you go to YouTube and watch it.

After purchasing the DVD for $7.95 my expectation wasn't too high, but this western was just so enjoyable to watch, and hits you with intelligence you might not expect.

When card shark Bill Elliott makes a deathbed promise to a murdered preacher he takes an oath to build a church. Before long he meets tomboy outlaw Marie Windsor who's a real hellcat and looking oh so good in her tomboy get-up --- if only she wasn't pulling out her gun every 5 seconds.......................

I was interested that reviewer "earlytakie" commented on the use of Trucolor in this picture and grateful that it's been preserved. I second that. I have read that Trucolor was essentially Republic's name for Cinecolor, which I have found to generally awful, especially in its rendering of flesh tones. (For example, in the 1948 spy film Sofia--which I've also reviewed--it is annoying that the beautiful Patricia Morison is so unflatteringly photographed and appears to have a sickly, waxy complexion.) To return to the film at hand, I think the Trucolor here is very good, especially in scenes shot in the desert. If it is Cinecolor, then Republic's lab must have processed it in their own way, making distinctly better.

The picture is basically about two characters--a reformed gambler who has gotten religion and an angry young woman who masquerades as a male when performing as a bandit. Bill Elliot is a very low-key actor, who is a lot easier to take than many B-movie (or even A-movie) heroes, but he does get a little monotonous. As far the cross-dressing bandit: In 1908, Max Beerbohn, reviewing a production of Euripides's The Bacchae, in which a prominent actress of the day, Lillah McCarthy, played Dionysus, wrote in his review: "It is a dangerous thing for a woman to impersonate a man except in a Christmas pantomime." He thought Ms. McCarthy carried it off though. Similarly, when Marie Windsor plays a tough woman who masquerades as a tough male outlaw in the first 40 minutes of Hellfire, she is highly effective in the part, only not 100% convincing because of the womanly way she fills out her outlaw shirt.

At midpoint, when she shucks off her masculine guise and transforms into a sexy, genial but conventional saloon singer, the movie gets less interesting (though she is very appealing in her frilly costumes and flirts amusingly with sheriff Forrest Tucker). She has a great cynical line to Tucker, hinting at her past as a whore, "I've known a lot of men who were in love with their wives." A scene that is really worth waiting for comes toward the end, when she is in jail, lolling on her bunk hugging her rather oversized guitar--the most suggestive use of a musical instrument since Cary Grant played a saxophone in Once Upon a Honeymoon. I recommend this movie to all Marie Windsor fans (though from mid-point on rather deficient in action).

Incidentally, a few years later in the TV series Stories of the Century (produced by a Republic subsidiary), Ms. Windsor played the real-life outlaw Belle Starr, making her as ruthless and savage as could be imagined. She engages in a no-holds-barred, furniture-destroying battle with show's distinctly overmatched heroine (the bland Mary Castle), staged with his usual manic zest by William Witney. You have to see it to believe it. It's curious that this TV series, though obviously intended to appeal to "the whole family," was often (as here) more violent than anything you were likely to see in contemporary movies. It was even sometimes more sexy (as in the "Cattle Kate" episode, where Jean Parker plays a very lewd middle-aged outlaw) than anything in films at the time. It's a shame that the two leads, Jim Davis and Mary Castle, are not very interesting. (In the second season, Castle was replaced by the excellent Kristine Miller, a great improvement.) The show uses a lot of stock footage from old Republic films, judiciously cut in for the most part. An exception: at times when there is a scene in a modest smallish saloon, the film editor couldn't resist cutting in a laughably inappropriate extreme long shot of a huge saloon-cum-theater set packed with hundreds of extras watching six chorus girls dancing on stage. Maybe some kind of private joke.