Hell Bound (1957)

Sadly Over-hyped

Good concept, poorly executed.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

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.

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.

HELLBOUND – 1957 This is a surprisingly good low budget programmer from the end of classic film noir cycle.John Russell headlines as a villain with a plan to lift a large dollar amount of drugs off a ship docking in Los Angeles. He has come up with a rather elaborate plan to get hold of the drugs and get them off the ship with no one the wiser. All he needs is some up-front money to run the play.Russell takes his plan to mobbed up Frank Fenton. Fenton agrees to finance the play but insists that Russell use one of his people. He sends drop dead pretty, June Blair along to help out. Blair is no damsel in distress type.Russell's plan involves a ship-board contact, a fake sailor in need of rescue and a port authority health officer as well as a nurse.With Blair now in the picture, Russell has to pull his new girlfriend, Margo Woode, from the set-up. Woode works as a nurse on the ambulance Russell needs for the score. Woode arranges for Blair to take her place. Russell has bribed a crewman for the plans to the ship and where the drugs are kept. It is the perfect plan, Russell tells money man, Fenton.Russell has also bribed a port authority health officer, Stanley Adams into joining. Adams is always dreaming of taking a world cruise and intends to use his end for just that. George Mather plays the other member of the group. His job is to get on board the ship just outside the harbour. He will be adrift in a life raft. He will tell the crew of the ship his fishing boat sank. His job is to break into where the drugs are kept. He is then to pass them to Stanley Adams who is to take them off the ship. Needless to say it does not take long for the flies in the ointment to start to appear. Hardboiled dame Blair softens when she falls for the ambulance doc, Stuart Whitman. She decides to run off with the man. Russell beats the woman and leaves her for dead. He then puts Miss Woode back into play.Mather turns out to have a rather severe heroin addiction and starts to go into withdrawal just after getting on board the ship. Everything comes unglued and the plan falls completely apart. The ship docks, the ambulance to whisk Adams and the drugs away arrives. What happens instead, is Mather is brought off the ship kicking and screaming from a terrible case of the DT's. Adams has failed in his bit as well, he is dead from a bad ticker. The Police now arrive and put the grip on Miss Woode. It seems that Blair had survived the beating from Russell and spilled the whole plan to the Police.Russell, watching from the dock, takes off with the Police in hot pursuit. Russell leads the boys in blue on a merry chase through a metal scrapyard. He ducks in and out of rows of old trolley cars trying to throw off the pursuing Police. He seems to have done just that, when he gets his comeuppance in a most gruesome style.There are shades of several other perfect plans coming unraveled noir in this one. One cannot help but see bits of THE KILLING, THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, THE BIG CAPER etc throughout. Having said that, this one more than holds its own, in comparison to the better known film noir productions.The acting is quite good, with Russell in particular shining. He does what he needs to in order to get his plan into play. He is vicious, friendly or helpful depending on what is needed to make the set-up work. There is no doubt though that the man is a killer at heart. Ex Playboy centerfold, June Blair shows some real acting chops here in her first credited role.B film director William J. Hole Jr. does some nice work here. It does not hurt that he has film noir regular, Carl Guthrie handling the cinematography duties. Guthrie worked on noir as, DEATH IN SMALL DOSES, FLAXY MARTIN, BACKFIRE, UNDERCOVER GIRL, THIS SIDE OF THE LAW, Hollywood STORY, IRON MAN, STORM WARNING, THE TATTERED DRESS, CAGED and HIGHWAY 301.The story and screenplay was by another noir veteran, Richard Landau. Landau's work includes story or screenplays for, ROADBLOCK, STOLEN FACE, THE MAN IS ARMED, FBI GIRL, MURDER BY PROXY, HOT CARS, THE GLASS CAGE and THE CROOKED WAY.For a low budget production, the film is quite entertaining and well worth a watch.

John Russell was a very large, handsome and often scary looking man. Mostly he made westerns, though here in "Hell Bound" he's in a low-budget film noir picture.The film begins with Jordan (Russell) coming up with a perfect plan to hijack a shipment of surplus narcotics left over from World War II. The military plans on destroying them--Jordan plans on relieving them of that responsibility and selling them for a fortune. However, to make the plan work several partners need to be gathered--a nurse, a derelict man in a raft, a crew member who will go into a diabetic coma and a government agent to look the other way. It's such a perfect plan he even made a movie and showed it to a mob boss--a man who is duly impressed--so impressed that he offers his girlfriend to play the part of the nurse. With all these things in place, what's to go wrong?!While the film has a few slow moments, the execution of the robbery is exciting and a bit shocking in its brutality. I appreciated this, as these ARE criminal scum and they sure act like it! As far as the nurse plot goes, it reminded me of the amazingly good but mostly forgotten Rory Calhoun picture, "The Big Caper". All in all, very well worth your time.