bkoganbing 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.

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.

MichaelM-3 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.