CheerupSilver
Very Cool!!!
Maleeha Vincent
It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.
Billy Ollie
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Michael Morrison
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.
vitaleralphlouis
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.......................
earlytalkie
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.
jetan
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.