VidMate
Free YouTube video & music downloader
ACTOR
Sterling HaydenJoan LeslieWard BondJames Arness
DIRECTOR
Charles Marquis Warren
SYNOPSICS
Hellgate (1952) is a English movie. Charles Marquis Warren has directed this movie. Sterling Hayden,Joan Leslie,Ward Bond,James Arness are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1952. Hellgate (1952) is considered one of the best Western movie in India and around the world.
A man is accused of spying for the confedaracy, and sentenced to the notorious Hellgate Prison. After he unsuccessfully attempts to breakout, and is sentenced to solitary confinement, he redeems himself when the prison is taken down by a plague.
Same Actors
Same Director
Hellgate (1952) Reviews
A reworking of "The Prisoner of Shark Island"
"The Prisoner of Shark Island" was a wonderful film starring Warner Baxter. Not only was it very interesting, but it was the real life account of the incarceration and subsequent commutation of Dr. Samuel Mudd's sentence as a result of his exemplary conduct in the prison in saving lives during an epidemic. "Hellgate" begins with a quote from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that makes it appear as if this film is a true story. I could find no information on the internet about the character 'Gil Hanley', but the longer I watched this movie the more I realized that it was a remake of this earlier film with the names and a few details changed. There are just too many similarities between the two tails for them to be anything other than a remake. The film begins just after the US Civil War with some ex-Confederate soldiers stopping by Hanley's ranch. He has no idea who they are nor does he know they are wanted men. He just knows one of them is badly hurt and so he helps them. The next day, Union soldiers arrive and ask Hanley questions about his activities. He willingly admits helping a man the night before but says he had no knowledge of doing anything to aid a criminal--he was just doing a humanitarian act. But, because Hanley was also an ex-Confederate in a region dominated by Yankees, he's quickly charged and convicted of being a member of the gang that is wanted by the authorities. However, there really was no direct evidence--just a lot of hatred towards the South and Hanley was railroaded. Soon, Hanley is sent to a hellhole prison in the middle of the desert. In the case of Mudd, he was sent to a barren island in the Tortugas--desolate islands off the Florida Keys. In both cases, the places are brutal and life is all but impossible. Eventually, though, when an epidemic breaks out, Hanley is instrumental in saving the prison where they are now without water (because it was contaminated). The acting is very tough and gritty. The film just exudes manliness with the super-rugged Sterling Hayden in the lead and supported by James Arness and Ward Bond--three of the very toughest men in their day. Bond was an ex-football player, Hayden's war record is phenomenal and Arness was severely wounded at Anzio. Both Arness and Hayden are 6'5" or taller and bigger than the average ox! Together, this film is just so gosh darn rugged and tough that it's tough to beat on this account!! And, if it had only been an original story, I would have scored it a bit higher, as on occasion I love a film like this...one where John Wayne himself would have been overwhelmed by the cast's testosterone level!! Well worth seeing, but I strongly recommend you also see the Warner Baxter film--it's one of the best seldom seen films of the 1930s.
Prison, Southwestern Style
Surprisingly well-produced and offbeat Western from budget-minded Lippert Productions. Note how well stocked with convicts the prison camp is, along with the realistic army tents for the staff. Hard to believe this "Devil's Island" is just a few miles from downtown LA in often-used Bronson Canyon. Lippert does a really convincing job recreating a desert penal colony in the middle of a big city. The prologue from Oliver Wendell Holmes suggests the story is based on fact, though that's not stated. Hayden plays a veterinarian wrongly convicted of guerrilla activity following the Civil War. At the prison camp he has to survive a guerrilla-hating commandant (Ward Bond), a cruel guard (the great Robert Wilke), and scheming fellow prisoners like James Arness. (The Hayden-Arness fistfight features two of the physically biggest men in Hollywood.) The camp is a real hellhole, with underground cells (well-done), a half buried punishment coffin called "the oven", and a posse of Pima Indians for those escaping on foot. And get a load of that trap door leading underground, as if the Devil himself were on the other side. I like the way armed guards are posted on the canyon rim and silhouetted against the sky— another nice touch. There's plenty of intrigue and action, although the typhus outbreak comes as something of an anti-climax following the jailbreak. Hayden underplays throughout, as does Arness. It's really Bond and Wilke who make the strongest impression. Then too, pretty Joan Leslie has her name on the marquee, but only appears for about 5 minutes as Hayden's long-suffering wife. Anyway, it's an offbeat and entertaining 90 minutes that'll make you think twice about helping suspicious-looking strangers,
how could this western be ignored?
Charles Marquis Warren is a director, screenwriter and producer associated with tough westerns about tough people, most of them above average.This western is so good you wonder why it has been ignored. There have been many films about terrible prisons, but few make such a strong impression as this one. Sterling Hayden and James Arness, together in a cell, hating each other plus Ward Bond hating them both and you are sure to have a lot of action. Plus the prison where water has to be brought every month, and profits from the geography to build the cells. There is no way to escape, if the guards don't shoot, or the Indians, the desert will kill. Hayden has an excellent performance as Gilman Hanley, he barely talks but is able to express every emotion. Don't miss this one.
Hellgate, the citadel of terror in the blazing heat of the Romara Desert.
Hellgate is directed by Charles Marquis Warren who also co-writes the screenplay with John C. Champion, the latter of which also produces. Andrew V. McLaglen is the assistant director. It stars Sterling Hayden, Ward Bond, Joan Leslie, James Arness, Peter Coe, John Pickard and Robert Wilkie. Music is scored by Paul Dunlap and cinematography by Ernest W. Miller. "It is not for us to decide at this date that the man, Gilman Hanley, was the victim of a nations unintentional injustice. Rather, it is our duty to see that the fate that befell him can never again befall any man". Oliver Wendell Holmes, Justice, U.S, Supreme Court. Lets cut to the chase, there was no Hellgate Prison, no Romara Desert and no Gilman Hanley. The film is set in New Mexico but filmed in California. And, as the few reviews about it will attest to, this is ultimately The Prisoner of Shark Island remade as a Western. But what a treat for Western fans it is. Doorway of the Damned! The Curse of Convicts! The Shame of America! Sweaty, moody and full of testosterone, Hellgate is also compact and firmly dealing in the innocent good guy suffering at the hands of a pathetic justice system. Hayden is our good doctor Hanley, well veterinarian actually, who administers basic first aid to a Guerilla outlaw and gets sent to America's Devil's Island. The prison is out in the desert, surrounded by a rock formation and the cells are underground lock ups in the caves. Punishment for misbehaving is slow whipping or a stint in the baking oven! Even if the convicts get out of the rock valley, there's Pima Indians waiting to hunt them down and secure a bounty for their heads. Hanley is in trouble, sadistic Lt. Tod Voorhees (Bond of course) doesn't much care for him, as he tells him, "You'll find I have a special regard for Guerillas", not only that but he is in a shared cell with some right characters, including Redfield (Arness), one tough mother who doesn't much care for another guy taking up the monthly water ration. What will follow is machismo moments, fights, torture, battle of wills, death and escape attempts, while anyone who has seen Prisoner of Shark Island will know that disease enters the fray and gives us a finale of punch the air satisfaction. Not all the acting is first grade stuff, though Hayden is perfect for this role, and the abruptness of the key Typhus infection turnaround for the finale kind of feels like a cheat after having endured some quality claustrophobia for the previous 75 minutes. But this is still a tight and taut production, an unquenchable thirst of moody black and white 50s cinema. Which for anyone else like me who loves Westerns and anything prison based, is manna from heaven. 8/10
Familiar material with a different slant
The early part of this story is the routine innocent-man-sent-to-prison story. Once Sterling Hayden arrives at the prison, however, things improve because of the unusual nature of the prison. It's located in a canyon near the southwestern tip of New Mexico. The canyon walls are more than 200 feet tall and beyond them lies a waterless desert patrolled by Pima Indians anxious to earn a reward for capturing any escapee. Prisoners are kept in underground cells. Punishment consists of being baked in metal coffins half-buried in the sand, or being whipped at a teasingly slow pace which allows the pain of each blow to sink in before the next one is delivered. Seeing how Sterling Hayden reacts to this environment and how he eventually overcomes it makes for a western which rises a bit above its standard materials.