Ghoulumbe Better than most people think

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Michael Morrison Though the copy of "Hell Town" I saw was pretty miserable, the quality of the script and of the acting more than made up for it.John Wayne by the time this was made was already a veteran actor, mostly in B Westerns. That "B" designation, by the way, was purely a reference to the size of the budget, something too many people don't seem to realize.This B Western, despite its budget, had a really intelligent script and a talented director and, most of all, some of the best actors available: John Wayne, Johnny Mack Brown, and the lovely Marsha Hunt, as well as the busy but today under-rated Syd Saylor, who, despite his being the hero's sidekick, doesn't even get screen credit!On a purely personal note, catching this film at westernsontheweb.com gave me my first opportunity ever to see "Hell Town," and I am so very grateful. As many reviewers have written here, this film is a milestone in the Duke's career, giving him an opportunity to show his innate talent, and giving audiences an opportunity to appreciate that talent.It is well past November, but I am giving thanks for my own opportunity to view this remarkable motion picture, and I am grateful to IMDb and to westernsontheweb for the information and the film, which I urge everyone to take time to watch.

FightingWesterner John Wayne plays an aimless and arrogant young man given a job by his cousin (Johnny Mack Brown) as a trail boss, who battles rustlers and successfully brings the cattle to market only to be lured by big city vice.One of the later films in Wayne's B-movie career, this is also one of the best and helped him considerably in his transition to full-blown movie star. Watch some of his earlier pictures and you'll notice that between them and this, he'd definitely grown as an actor.Bookended by two great action sequences, the one at the beginning is especially well made with vivid scenes of a cattle drive, rustlers, and a stampede.

whpratt1 John Wayne, (Dare Rudd) plays the role of a drifter who gambles his money away and just can't seem to settle down until he goes back to his relative, (Tom Fillmore) Johnny Mack Brown who owns a great deal of cattle and runs the bank in town. Tom knows that Dare has a bad reputation but he gives him a chance and offers him a job to cook for his cattlemen. Tom has a girlfriend named Judy Rustoe, (Marsha Hunt) and Dare soon becomes very interested in her and they both start falling for each other. Judy persuades Tom to give Dare a different job than being a cook and so Tom makes Dare a foreman in charge of his cattle and wants him to take the cattle to market and sell them in town for $10,000 dollars. However, there are many problems that face Dare as he travels with the cattle and the story begins to get very interesting. John Wayne was 30 years of age when he made this picture and Marsha Hunt was 20 years old, they both gave outstanding performances and Marsha looked very beautiful. Today, Marsha Hunt is 91 years of age as of 2008. WOW

bkoganbing John Wayne and sidekick Syd Saylor are heading from Montana to Wyoming to the ranch of Wayne's cousin Johnny Mack Brown. Wayne's a cocky sort, fancies himself a great lady's man and poker player. The Duke even in his later and more irascible years usually didn't have parts that called for that, but here he does show that side of his character and shows it well.Wayne moves in on Marsha Hunt who is Brown's girl friend. That does throw a monkey wrench into the relationship between the cousins. Later on at the hands of cardsharps Monte Blue and James Craig, Wayne gets himself in quite a hole. Johnny Mack Brown had an interesting career. He was an All American back for the Crimson Tide of Alabama before Paul Bryant took over the team. He opted for a Hollywood career and appeared opposite stars like Mary Pickford and Greta Garbo in silents. His Alabama drawl made him a natural for westerns and he was grinding out the B films just like the Duke was at this time. This is their only film together and they both complement each other's persona well.Although another great football player Jim Thorpe has a bit role in this film, some lists have Alan Ladd in the cast. I have to say that I examined it frame by frame and there's no trace of Mr. Ladd.Even without Ladd it's a passably good B western, could have used some better editing, but better than some of what Wayne was doing at Monogram at the time.