Hell's Hinges (1916)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Admirable film.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Hell's Hinges (1916) rates as not only a masterpiece but, so far as its main story is concerned, as a unique offering with few if any imitators. Preachers in Hollywood movies are invariably sturdily pretentious, like the self-ordained church-builder in Hart's own The Silent Man. The preacher villain, the preacher cad, the preacher down-and-out, the preacher who'd sell his soul, betray his trust, desert his flock, indulge himself in sex and booze is a definite Hollywood no-no. Yet here he is - and most ably portrayed by Jack Standing, while Louise Glaum does the sex bit. Another writing innovation by scriptwriter C. Gardner Sullivan lies in the film's extremely pessimistic mood. It wasn't until Clint Eastwood rode the range in High Plains Drifter (1973) and The Unforgiven (1992) that Hollywood re-introduced the downbeat mood of damnation with which this film concludes. Although the direction is credited to Joseph Swickard, Hart himself directed the movie from early September to late October 1915. As it's a five-reeler running only 64 minutes, my guess is that Swickard's scenes were limited to the ten-minute introductory episode with heroine Clara Williams, clergyman Robert McKim and turncoat Standing. When Hart himself finally enters the action in cahoots with smooth heavy, Alfred Hollingsworth, he presumably took over the direction as well. Joseph August's appropriately bleak photography is seen to advantage in the superb, richly red-tinted print available

Just a few intertitles into "Hell's Hinges," I said, That must be by Gardner Sullivan. I stopped the movie -- which I was watching at YouTube.com -- and came to IMDb to see the credits: Sure enough, C. Gardner Sullivan wrote the story and the screenplay.Mr. Sullivan produced some of the most poetic intertitles in all of silent Hollywood, and went on to write some talkie screenplays, too.His prose coupled with the drama of the story and the acting of William S. Hart and a talented large cast and with the excellent directing of Charles Swickard as well as Mr. Hart and Clifford Smith make "Hell's Hinges" one of the most gripping of silent westerns.It is, in fact, so classic and so iconic that the great Jon Tuska included it in his PBS series, "They Went Thataway."That TV show was probably my introduction to William S. Hart, and when I moved to Los Angeles, one of my first missions was to find the (now defunct) Silent Movie Theatre, run by the lamented John Hampton and his wife, and beg for William S. Hart movies.Alas, the Theatre never showed any, but I was able to rent "Tumbleweeds" in a 16 mm. format to project in my tiny living room. (It's also available at YouTube and I urge you to see it.)I have been a Hart fan really since Jon Tuska's introduction, and my admiration has only grown with each Hart movie viewing."Hell's Hinges" is almost 100 years old at this writing, 21 August 2015, and it holds up extremely well, although I do recommend the "A cinema history" print at YouTube rather than another, which plays some Beethoven piano reductions as the music score, which is, of course, beautiful but really not appropriate.Also, the print by "A cinema history" is clear and crisp.Hart looked young and even chubby-faced, especially as compared to his craggier later looks, as in, for example, "Tumbleweeds." A trained stage actor, he was always able to portray his needed emotion or thought or action beautifully for the camera, and one can just look at him and realize why an entire town would be cowed.When you watch this, do remember the context: It was produced in 1916, and styles of acting and writing were different. Not worse, in fact in lots of ways better, but decidedly different, so remember context.Frankly, I LOVED "Hell's Hinges," and am so grateful to YouTube and "A cinema history" for posting this excellent movie and allowing me to watch it, and watch it again in the future.

Hell's Hinges is an early silent William S. Hart Western that sees Hart co-direct himself with Charles Swickard. He stars as Blaze Tracy, a gun-slinger who falls for a pastor's sister (Clara Williams) when she and her inadequate brother arrive in Hell's Hinges to preach the gospel. Once he catches her eye, this town will never be the same again. "Shoot first and do your disputin afterwards" Although a touch too heavy on the religious moral retribution angle, where the good-badman has his epiphany and the town of Hell's Hinges becomes a battle of the church against, well, this devil's den of iniquity, Hell's Hinges flies by. Acted superbly by Hart, a one time stage performer who was a hugely popular silent star of the time, film is full of action, often violent and closes down with a memorable bang. Jack Standing is suitably shifty as the hopeless parson (by parental pressure) easily led astray, and Williams provides some much needed emotional thrust when the film veers to being over preachy. 7/10

"Hell's Hinges" is one of William S. Hart's best Westerns, and it's available today in better condition than most of his others, including some nice tinting. Its religious story, the instantaneous first look at a pure woman transforming bad guy Hart into the good guy are basic to the formula of his Westerns. As fellow commenter metaphor-2 said, much of the power of the film comes from its simplicity. Even the small town, simple as a cheap producer can afford, helps intensify the climax. A town inhabited by evildoers and fittingly called "Hell's Hinges" ends in an inferno. It does well to overcome some of the overly preachy hokum and offensive moments such as the title that says the villain has "the oily craftiness of a Mexican". Hart gives one of his better performances stalking beside fiery blazes, looking to gun down the bad guys. The close-ups help his performance greatly. Pure Hart.