Hell's Heroes (1929) Pre Code "Christmas" Noir Western Masterpiece

Directed by William "Willi" Wyler  (noted for The Best Years of Our Lives, and Mrs. Miniver. 

Wyler also directed Noirs Dead End, The Letter, Detective Story, Desperate Hours, Westerns The Westerner, The Big Country). 

Written by supervising story chief C. Gardner Sullivan and Tom Reed. Based on the novel Three Godfathers pub 1913, by Peter B. Kyne. 

The story was originally published in The Saturday Evening Post on November 23, 1912)

Three Godfathers is obviously written by a guy who knew about lot of survival lore of the Southwest and the Colorado part of the northwestern Sonoran Desert. 

In the original story the bank robbery is in Wickenburg Arizona. Of the four gang, one is killed by a preacher who was staked outside the saloon door preaching to the sinners entering and departing. He was asleep on the job at the time of the robbery and got woke up by the commotion of it all. He pulled out the two six guns he packed under his preachers frockcoat and started blasting away. 

The gang heads for the Colorado River, the border with California. They they kill their horses mid river and head north on foot into the bone dry Colorado Desert. They are headed towards the Santa Fe RR tracks to catch  a train at the southern edges of the Mojave Desert. 

They travel by moonlight from water tank to spring to water tank. Sleeping by day. At Terrapin Tanks they find the granite floor of the tanks dynamited, an abandoned wagon and in it a pregnant woman. The woman's husband thought dynamiting the tank was a faster way to go than digging out a sump and letting the water seep in. He then let their horses nose around the alkali mud below the tank and they run off four days back. All dead for sure. 

The woman has the baby, and dies, but not before making the three outlaws the godfathers of her baby boy and making them promise that they will bring her child to New Jerusalem, a mining boom town about 40 miles away, where she and her husband were heading to go into business with her relatives there. 

They find canned milk and other necessities for the baby and head out towards New Jerusalem. The wounded outlaw carrying just the baby dies first, in a white salt block cabin with a sun rotted canvas roof, on a dry salt lake getting religion. The "worst" outlaw next carries all the water and canned milk for the baby, while the youngest outlaw now carries the baby. They make better time now and as always they start out at sunset and travel at night. Without water the "worst" outlaw promises the youngest outlaw, when he can still talk,  that he'll make it across the twelve mile salt lake and last at least till dawn. At the end he can't speak at all but goes wandering off to the promised land towards the rising sun.

The youngest outlaw is now dumping everything he doesn't need and heading toward the mountain that has a flank upon which New Jerusalem sits. He runs into a stray burro with a pack on his back dying of thirst. He doesn't find a water bag but he finds a can of tomatoes, drinks some of it, and gives the rest to the burro, and with the burro leading, dragging the man and the baby together they all make the top of the ridge. The burro collapses and the man puts it out of it's misery with his revolver. By evening of Christmas Day, he stumbles with the baby into New Jerusalem, follows the sound of music to a hurdy-gurdy where a woman is playing a melodeum and gives the bundle in his arms to her. There's a lot of religious scripture to wade through near the end.  The novel ends abruptly, right there, and you don't know if the youngest outlaw lives or dies or what happens to the baby because it's all a boiled down to religious redemption Christmas tale. A bait and switch Western, lol.

According to Wiki (and my two cents): 

The novel has been adapted into films multiple times (the various adaptations)

The Sheriff's Baby, was the original 1913 Biograph film directed by D.W. Griffith and starring Harry Carey, Lionel Barrymore and Henry B. Walthall.

"Three outlaws, pursued by the posse, are crossing the desert when a child's cry halts them. Near a deserted wagon they see a mountain lion about to devour a baby, whose late guardians lie dead of thirst nearby. Driving off the beast, the outlaws rescue the baby, first feeding it and then taking it with them, despite the handicap of its presence. Attacked by Indians, they still refuse to desert "Little Pardner." In a running fight one outlaw is killed; another dies of thirst. The survivor escapes and, seeing the posse in the distance, fires a shot to attract their attention. The sheriff, coming up, is amazed to see, in the outlaw's arms, his own motherless baby, which he had left in the care of an old settler and his wife. The story told, he bids the outlaw go where he will, for he will never take him prisoner."

The Three Godfathers, a 1916 film with Harry Carey. This version follows the novel better but throws in a love story check out the details here

Marked Men a 1919 remake of the 1916 film, also starring Harry Carey, considered a lost film - never seen it.

Action, a lost 1921 film

Hell's Heroes 1929 directed by William Wyler

Hells Heels, a 1930 Oswald the Lucky Rabbit animated short directed by Walter Lantz - never seen it.

Three Godfathers, a 1936 film featuring Chester Morris, Lewis Stone and Walter Brennan with a lot of extra "Hollywood Western Garnish," and an added love story that came to define a lot of the Golden Age of American Westerns. In this version they find a mother with a baby already born at the dynamited tanks that's already about 8 months old and crawling around. 

3 Godfathers, a 1948 John Ford directed remake starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, Harry Carey Jr., and Ward Bond, This one also throws in a lot of signature John Ford touches along with his stable of favorite actors along with expanding on the "railroad" that the outlaws on the original story were heading for's role in the tale. Has an upbeat John Wayne ending.

Tokyo Godfathers, a 2003 Japanese animated film loosely based on the novel. -  never seen it.

The Cinematography of Hells Heroes was by George Robinson and the Music was by Sam Perry (sound and silent version) (uncredited) and Heinz Roemheld on the (silent version) also (uncredited). 

The film stars a thirty-eight year old Charles Bickford (Fallen Angel, Brute Force, Whirlpool) in only his second film as Bob Sangster. Early Westerns vets Raymond Hatton as Tom "Barb Wire" Gibbons, Fred Kohler as "Wild" Bill Kearney, Joe De La Cruz as Jose and Buck Connors as Parson Jones. Fritzi Ridgeway also starred in many two-reel westerns and also played second leads as Mrs Frank Edwards. Walter James (Street Scene, Citizen Kane) as Sheriff. Spanish actress and professional dancer Maria Alba (Road House, Mr. Robinson Crusoe, Kiss of Araby, and El código penal) as Carmelita.

Wyler's version is set much farther North in the Mojave, bordering on the High Sierras and using real life ghost town Bodie, California as the stand in for New Jerusalem. 

Wyler's film is bare bones bleak, and trimmed. It jettisons most all of the religious gobbledygook and adds a much more interesting  satisfying and Stylistically a very vivid and very memorable much homage-ed first act in New Jerusalem. It runs 1 hour and 8 minutes.  . 

Story

We see the Mojave. There's no mistaking it. Joshua trees.  The native Cahuilla have called them “hunuvat chiy'a” or “humwichawa." They only grow in the Mojave. We see a dry plain of probably creosote shrubs with a few scattered Joshua trees. 

Western landscapes can have a surrealistic quality and its an organic one by their very nature. If the desert landscapes are coupled with Dark Stories they are Noir Film Soleil, films of the sun. Those sun baked, desert or tropical set Noir. The Yang Noir. The Noir where everything you see can kill you.

Three riders appear as specks on the horizon riding slowly towards us. 

They are Tom "Barb Wire" Gibbons wearing a ratty almost "hillbilly" style broken down sombrero,  "Wild" Bill Kearney who will remind you all of a certain age, of Alan Hale Jr. (the captain from Gilligan's Island) and Jose (De la Cruz is what I believe he states his last name is as he dies later on). Jose sort of looks like a Mexican Jack Oakie. They complain about "Barb Wire" always playing the same song on his mouth harp. 

Fred Kohler as "Wild" Bill Kearney 

Joe De La Cruz as Jose

Raymond Hatton as Tom "Barb Wire" Gibbons

They come up to a sort of welcome sign marking the outskirts of the boomtown of New Jerusalem. It also tells bad men to stay away. There's a shot through a hangman's noose that decorates the sign. "Barb Wire" is framed by it. Sergio Leone remembered it as a kid and he homage-d it creatively, framing Tuco "The Rat" Ramirez the same way in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. 

The Trio passes the sign and we cut to Green Street New Jerusalem (actually Bodie, California). As the riders contemplate the noose and jabber about it, we over hear that Bob wouldn't have sent them the word to be there by three if it wasn't on for today. They ride out of the frame and we cut to....

Green Street 

Charles Bickford as Bob Sangster

"Bad" Bob Sangster rides up to New Jerusalem's Cantina and ties up his horse to the hitching rail. Music from the Cantina is drifting out to into the street. Bob is a tall, rough looking, dusty hombre, with a gruff way of speaking. He's a very early example of the antihero in Westerns. There' even a lot of picaresque humor in the film. 

Bob's obviously known to the patrons and the suspicious sheriff. He's been there at least a few days working on setting up his plan. In The Cantina a mariachi band plays and Carmelita in a short "traje de flamenca" is doing a prancing sort of dance with castanets.   

"Bad" Bob passes the town sheriff on his way to the crap table. They don't get along. But they both like Carmelita's peek-a-boo dance number with high kicks that's sort of like a Mexican can-can. The patrons throw their money on the floor so that she will turn their way.

Carmalita's Dance

At this point the film is basically an American "Cabaretera" Noir. During Carmelita's dance we get quite the eyeful of low angle up-skirts and a small vignette of the sheriff accidentally on purpose dropping something onto the sawdust so he can bend over to get a better look verifying to himself that Carmelita is dancing "commando" style. Trying to see the "varmint in the cave" (as Jimmy Stewart in How The West was Won puts it - wink wink)  How Noir of them? 

 

where's that varmint?

The varmint revealed!

There it is!

No wonder her audience is riveted on her every move.

As it gets nearer to three o'clock Bob gets his scheme rolling. At the end of her dance, as Carmelita is picking up her coins from the sawdust on barroom floor Bob calls her over to the bar. He swoops her up in his arms and asks her if she wants a kiss or a drink. She says she wants both. Bob sits her up on the bar and calls for drinks on the house. Everybody crowds around. Bob looks for the sheriff who he sees is still sitting where he was.

Bob sits her up on the bar and calls for drinks on the house. Everybody crowds around. Bob looks for the sheriff who he sees is still sitting where he was.

"ain't you drinking?

Bob: Hey Sheriff ain't ya drinkin'?

Sheriff: I'm mighty particular about who I drink with.

Bob: Well I ain't, else I wouldn't have invited you. [the barroom breaks out in laughs] 

The Sheriff walks over.

Sheriff: Who are you anyway?

Bob: Grand, Grand's the name Rio. I'm the fellow who owns the river. [more laughter]

Sheriff: Smart ain't ya.

Bob: Yeah.

Sheriff: Hey you been around this town for a couple of days . You ain't a prospector and you ain't a miner. What are you doing around here?

Bob: Me? I'm a Bank examiner. [more laughter]

Sheriff: Hey don't get fresh with me. [points at Bob] You answer when you're spoken to by the civil authority. 

Bob laughs. He reaches out his hand and lifts the tin star on the Sheriffs vest with a finger.

Bob: Civil authority, that ain't you is it? [more laughs] 

The confrontation is vaguely similar to Clin Eastwoods confrontations with law enforcement in Leone's Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960's. Bob turns away from the sheriff back to Carmelita. He asks Carmelita to sing him his favorite song which she hops up on the piano to do, displaying lots of leg to her audience. 

The Girl Fight

While she is singing Bob leans over and drags a blonde to his side at the bar. Bob puts his arm around her and turns away from Carmelita. 

Carmelita stomps on the piano, kicks at the player jumps off and runs to the bar

As they are drinking, Carmelita jumps off the piano and runs over to the blonde pulling her drink away from her lips in a swirl of liquid. She says something in Spanish. The blonde asks Bob what she said. He leans over a whispers in her ear. 

Blonde: Oh she did did she.

The blonde garbs Carmelita by the shoulder and then her hair and a hair pulling contest ensues. 

Bob interrupts them by getting between the two women, tells them jokingly that there will be no hair pulling in it see "ain't allowed", and then pulls pulls on both their hair and pushes the combatants back together. 

You can hear Bob's laughter throughout the fight when the two women end up on the floor all the men get a show when the dresses the gals are wearing ride up their bodies.

Bob slaps the chest of the man standing next to him not realizing it's the sheriff. 

Bob: Ain't that great! Oh.

Bob looks at the clock it's minute and a half to three.

Bob:  Hey I gotta beat it. Listen sheriff I'll tell you what. I'm gonna leave you to pick the winner see. Hah hah?

Bob is at the cantina's bat wing doors when the sheriff speaks.

Sheriff: Hey wait a minute where you going?

Bob: Well I'll tell you sweetheart, I think I'm going over to rob the bank. Aaahh.

The bank robbery almost goes smoothly and the distraction created at the saloon was working perfectly until one of the clerks gets brave and tries to reach for a revolver in a draw. Both Barb Wire and Wild Bill pull six guns and cut him down each claiming it was the other's whose shot missed and theirs's that got him through the pump.

The shot alerts the town and as the outlaws pass the church on Green Street the preacher standing in the doorway pulls out a colt and shoots Jose out of the saddle. 

the getaway

He was carrying most of the money and Bob swings around, goes back and snatches one of the money bags off the street. The posse is already riding out of town when the outlaws crest the ridge above town. When back out in the Mojave they get caught in a dust storm that rages into the night.

The next day a small sand dune stirs and three dust balls pop out of it. Bob, "Barb Wire", and "Wild" Bill shake off dust and sand. Their horses are gone spooked and stampeded.

Using some of their water they clean out Barb Wire's arm wound, and they grab their gear and start heading for a water hole called Terrapin Tanks. They use the water they have to wet Barb Wire's bandages through out their march, figuring that they can replace all they need at Terrapin Tank.

They travel mostly at night resting most of the day passing through alkali flats and over rock strewn ridges. finally coming to the draw that leads to the tank.

Just before they get to Terrapin Tank it all goes Noirsville when they find the abandoned wagon with the pregnant woman sitting in the draw.

However, in this definitely Noir version, when Bob first goes to investigate the wagon and finds the woman inside he makes the claim to his companions that he found her first. You get the unmistakable impression that Bob is going rape her, and whoever wants can be second.

I found her first

"Barb Wire" tells him the he's to old for women, and Wild Bill tells him, ok but when he gets thirsty they'll see him at the tank. How Noir is that?

When Barb Wire and Wild Bill get to the tank they find it dynamited and dry.

When woman tells Bob what happened to her driver and what he did and that she is about to have the baby Bob runs up the draw to the dry tank and asks the others for help they picaresque-ly tell him "you found her first." 

She  has the baby with "Wild" Bill acting as the midwife because he knows something about birthing animals from being raised on a farm. 

The dying mother asks the three outlaws to be the godfathers to her baby and deliver it to her husband (the bank teller that got it through the pump). 

After the woman dies, again picaresque-ly feeling guilty now "Barb Wire" and Wild Bill each claim it was the other's shot that killed the man. 

Noirsville

Wyler mad a great Classic Western masterpiece that also happens to be a pre code Film Soleil Noir. Hells Heroes performed well at the box office, including doing well in France and Germany, and was praised for its "interesting and realistic bit of characterization. (William Wyler: The Authorized Biography). All the performances are great.

Bravo! for what it is and when it was made a 9/10

The film made Charles Bickford a leading star.

"American character actor of gruff voice and appearance who was a fixture in Hollywood pictures from the earliest days of the talkies. The fifth of seven children, he was born in the first minute of 1891. He was a boisterous child, and at nine was tried and acquitted for attempted murder in the shooting of a motorman who had run over his dog. He worked as a lumberjack and investment promoter, and briefly ran his own pest extermination business. In his late teens, he gave up the business and traveled aimlessly about country. In San Francisco, an attempt to romance a burlesque actress resulted in an offer to join her show as a performer. He spent the next dozen years touring the country in road companies, then made a smash hit on Broadway in "Outside Looking In". Cecil B. DeMille saw Bickford on the stage and offered him the lead in Dynamite (1929). Contracted to MGM, Bickford fought constantly with studio head Louis B. Mayer and was for a time blacklisted among the studios. He spent several years working in independent films as a freelancer, then was offered a contract at Twentieth Century Fox. Before the contract could take effect, however, Bickford was mauled by a lion while filming 'East of Java (1935)'. He recovered, but lost the Fox contract and his leading man status due to the extensive scarring of his neck and also to increasing age. He continued as a character actor, establishing himself as a character star in films like The Song of Bernadette (1943), for which he received the first of three Oscar nominations. Burly and brusque, he played heavies and father figures with equal skill. He continued to act in generally prestigious films up until his death in 1967.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net> (IMDb)

Maria Alba