United Artists, 71m 37s
The
noir heist film of the 1950s has its
origins in THE ASPHALT JUNGLE
(1950), a superb effort from director John Huston. Though not a huge commercial
success at the time of its release, the Huston film was followed by a number of
quality noir heist pics including ARMORED CAR ROBBERY (1950), ROADBLOCK (1951), KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952), 5 AGAINST THE HOUSE (1955), I
DIED A THOUSAND TIMES (1955), THE
KILLING (1956) and ODDS AGAINST
TOMORROW (1959), one of my personal favorites. HELL BOUND may owe a spiritual debt to all of the great heist films
that came before it, but director William J. Hole Jr. ensures his contribution
to the durable noir subgenre has more
than enough grit to stand apart. A potent distillation of the heist film, this
turbulent thriller from Bel-Air Productions anticipates the unfiltered violence
of the American crime film that would crest in the 1970s, with muscular
neo-noirs directed by the likes of Robert Altman, William Friedkin, Arthur
Penn, Roman Polanski, Martin Scorsese and Don Siegel.
Confidently
armed with a well-researched international drug smuggling scheme, Jordan (the
familiar face of John Russell) stands before businessman Harry Quantro (Frank
Fenton) with vigor. The operation involves infiltrating a freighter from the
Far East bound for the Port of Los Angeles. The plan is green-lighted with one
addition in the tantalizing form of Paula (June Blair), a woman who instantly spells
trouble. Jordan agrees to inject Paula into the cast of characters necessary to
perform the heist. But as the trained noir
eye should suspect, the plan of military precision does not translate to
perfect execution, thanks mostly to a destabilizing noir atmosphere rich with ironies and irresolvable problems. As the
curtain falls on the major protagonist Jordan, prevailing noir forces allow no time for reckoning over what went wrong.
Characters
of the heist film tend to be assembled based upon the unique skill set each
individual brings to the table. In HELL
BOUND, Jordan deliberately brings together people who are flawed, and that
speaks to his own flaw as a planner. Herbert Fay Jr. (Stanley Adams) is a
health officer who is a diabetic, and that irony is not lost on Herbie. His
physician happily informs him he no longer requires insulin shots, that to take
one could cause catastrophic heart failure, but Herbert's agreement with Jordan
calls for a potentially fatal injection. In the film noir, sometimes what should be good news is really bad news.
The viewer is granted a subjective shot from Herbert's disoriented view before
he gets a patented noir send off
(carted out feet-first). Another flawed recruit is Stanley Thomas (George E.
Mather), the "butcher boy" who killed his significant other on the
operating table. After he takes a vicious beating from Jordan, Stanley is on
board. The unwanted assignment leads Stanley to a strip club to visit the blind
dope dealer "Daddy" (Dehl Berti), a memorable noir peripheral character to say the least. Why would a blind man
be so excited to be in the presence of a topless dancer? Since
"Daddy" cannot see the leggy burlesque performer in front of him, the
viewer might assume there will be some touching going on off camera.
The
accomplice Jordan didn't ask for is the first to default on her commitment to
the heist. Early in the film, it is said Paula has "two heads on her
shoulders." One is the beauty, one is the pragmatic thinker. This
observation, though not 100% accurate, nicely anticipates her conversion from
femme fatale into conscientious maternal figure. Paula undergoes this
metamorphosis suddenly, when she witnesses a young boy's death en route to the
hospital (a truly chilling moment). It is made clear that under her carapace of
sexual confidence is a sensitive, unselfish creature. The duality of woman is
referenced again when Paula feels compelled to remind Eddie Mason (Stuart
Whitman) she is both a nurse and a
woman. In a genre that tends to emphasize woman as strictly one thing or the
other, HELL BOUND suggests such
categorization is troublesome.
Jordan
is a man with an existential belief system, though in fact he does not see
himself as a man, at least not in the same sense most of us probably do.
"I've got no blood," he tells Paula as he rebuffs her considerable
sex appeal. The narcotics acquisition plan comes first; not even a looker like
Paula can distract him. The accuracy of his odd self-description is confirmed
when he callously runs down an international connection who no longer is of any
use to him. Later Jordan victimizes Paula with a vicious knife attack. Jan
(Margo Woode), Jordan's original choice for Paula's role in the heist,
recognizes that something is amiss when she tells Jordan, "suddenly your
whistle is off-key." Though at the time of that quote Jan is not quite in
the know about what exactly happened with Paula, her comment tellingly reflects
the huge difference between Jordan's planned version of the heist and the
actual event. HELL BOUND's
concluding sequence is simultaneously predictable and fascinating as criminal
activity leads to logical consequences (though the manner in which that
certainty reaches its apex scores mega originality points!).
Executive
producer Aubrey Schenck, producer Howard W. Koch and Edwin F. Zabel founded
Bel-Air Productions, a film factory for low budget fare during the mid-1950s.
Koch's meritorious career includes executive producer credit on THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962) and
producer credit on THE ODD COUPLE
(1968). His first films as director both happened to be noirs: SHIELD FOR MURDER (1954) and BIG
HOUSE, U.S.A. (1955). Schenck's debut as producer was the film noir SHOCK (1946). Schenck and Koch also combined talents for T-MEN (1947), an incontestable noir must-see, with Schenck as producer
and Koch as assistant director. Cinematographer Carl E. Guthrie had extensive
experience capturing noir
productions, including his work on BACKFIRE
(1950), CAGED (1950), HIGHWAY 301 (1950) and HOLLYWOOD STORY (1951). Location
footage is crucial to HELL BOUND's
tone, particularly the industrial landscapes that compose the waterfront of
Terminal Island between the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, where overhead
shots minimize a man in relation to his surroundings. The byzantine complexity of
a cargo ship gives shape to the film's final act, even more impactful is the
footage of Jordan on the run within the streetcar cemetery near Southern
Pacific Railyard, an inspired choice of scenery for this film noir's resolution. A familiar face to fans of the Western,
John Russell appeared in a number of film
noirs of interest, such as SOMEWHERE
IN THE NIGHT (1946), UNDERTOW
(1949) and HOODLUM EMPIRE (1952).
June Blair was PLAYBOY magazine's Playmate of the Month within the January 1957
issue.
Like
the best examples of the genre always seem to offer, HELL BOUND has its share of moments that are sure to stick with
you, and it withstands repeat viewings without issue. Hopefully a Blu-ray
release of this top-shelf B noir will
become available at some point in the future. The print shown on TCM is less
than ideal but perhaps the best available source material out there. The option
available via Amazon Prime appears to be derived from the same print.
