Hell's Heroes

Dir. William Wyler 68 Minutes

USA

1929

Starring: Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, Fred Kohler, Fritzi Ridgeway

***1/2/***** Early Wyler picture that is the first sound version of the "Three Godfathers" story, most popular through the John Ford/John Wayer joint in 1948 (unseen as of this writing). The film begins with four dusty, ragged men arriving into a town, causing a ruckus, and robbing a bank. When one of the men dies in the scuffle, the remaining three flee and soon lose their horses in a desert storm. While wandering to find resources, they stumble upon a woman giving birth. Before she dies, she asks they bring the child back to its father in the town. However, they know that the father died in the robbery. However, the three abandon their fear and journey forty miles (without water) to return the baby. 

Hell's Heroes feels like quite the ambitious project compared to many early sound pictures seen from this year, and he seems interested in widening the scope from the stage and trying to do something more meaningful with the visuals. Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, and Fred Kohler have a nice amount of chemistry together, and their characters contrast enough where their fates have more of an impact than ones with anonymous characteristics. But the gritty, barren landscape is put to beautifully good use, and this film revels in the death and destruction that is afforded by the western setting (even the water spring in the opening shot is not water at all, but poison). And even when the film gravitates towards its melancholic, though happy, Christmas ending, that feeling of death does not dissipate. Rather it is set aside from a moment of reflection, a moment of celebration, and, possibly, an idea of hope in the baby that perhaps things can be different. Wyler's later dominance as a top director in the studio age may give Hell's Heroesa boost in its visibility, but it has a sneaky effect and has his evolution and successes make quite a bit of sense. October 15th, 2019