Watch The Hellions For Free

Very Cool!!!

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

"ragosaal's" review had it right with the outline of the movie. I too saw this movie at a theater in England when I was a youngster. And I too enjoyed the movie very much. I have from time to time checked to see if it has been made available to the public but it doesn't appear to have been. Some years back I had read that the ownership of this movie did not want to release it due to some political correctness issue. And it appeared they had no intent of re-releasing it ever. I have still continued to check just in case there had been a change of mind & in hope that at some new blood will think differently & release it as a DVD. The movie is a well acted movie by first class actors & the story is like High Noon with a solitary lawman fighting evil. It is a pity that such a well made movie is being withheld from an appreciative audience.

The Hellions according to some might well be considered Great Britain's first western although I think The Sheriff Of Fractured Jaw has a better claim. Ken Annakin better known for such Disney films with star Richard Todd like Robin Hood, The Sword And The Rose, and Rob Roy the Highland Rogue team together again for this film set in and shot in South Africa. It's the post Boer War era in the Union Of South Africa and the place still has a frontier feel to it. A family of real bottom feeders, the Billings clan headed by Lionel Jeffries is coming to town to settle a score with the local constable Richard Todd. They're a lot like the Clantons from My Darling Clementine and the Cleggs from Wagonmaster from those John Ford classics.In any event Todd who patrols the place unarmed gets his gun and wants some backup, but the town hesitates. Now he knows how Gary Cooper felt with those citizens of Hadleyville.In the end however Todd gets some help from a most unlikely source a man just sick and tired of kowtowing to these killers who collectively are known as The Hellions.Lionel Jeffries who usually plays comic village shows a savage side to him in The Hellions. Not something normally associated with him, but very good. Plaudits should also go to James Usys and Anne Aubrey as a husband and wife pair of storekeepers The Hellions intimidate.Note the harmonica parts of the music score are from the blacklisted Larry Adler who was probably the only American associated with The Hellions. They were a nice touch.As for the ending, think about the Frank Sinatra western Johnny Concho.

I saw this film on television ( in black and white ) around 1969/70 and thought it was incredible. Marty Wildes title song is up there with Gunfight At The OK Corral and Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling.Then the film vanished ( this was long before we could record films off TV and watch them over and over ) and many film reference books ignore it.Fans of the film know it's practically unobtainable in any format.But here's what's interesting...I recently bought a back-issue of ' Whats On In London' magazine, dated the week the film opened in London and it has the poster on the front. Which looks great.But inside, the films reviewer, F. Maurice Speed, states he doesn't know if the film was supposed to be a comedy, because it was so bad, and mentions some poor performances by one or two lead actors.I couldn't understand these comments, as in my memory ( 45 years on ) the film was a classic.Then I managed to get a VHS copy taped by a friend off American TV and the film, watched now, is awful, with the Hellions themselves all way over the top, especially James Booth who chews the scenery unmercifully.But the worst performance by miles is by South African actor Jamie Uys, who mumbles and whispers and looks down at his feet most of the time. It's hilarious because he is absolutely atrocious. He looks like he wandered onto the set to give someone a message and the camera kept rolling.It just goes to show that what you think is a great film when you're a kid can be a major disappointment when you catch up with is half-a-century later.

I disagree with the commentator who opined that "The Hellions" resembles "Firecreek" in action and themes more closely than it resembles "High Noon". Points of similarity: 1. The Outlaw father is seeking revenge against the local lawman for a past injury. 2. It's a thriving frontier community, not a backwater full of "losers" like the town of Firecreek. 3. The departure-by-train that doesn't happen: Just as the Marshal'wife gets off the train to go back and help him fight, another character in "Hellions" makes a similar decision. But the townspeople in "Hellions" go only so far in leaving everything up to the Constible. When the chips are down, it's a very different ending.I first saw this movie about 1962, and again on TV in the late 80's. (Beware of the edited-for-TV print.--Ugh! But I still remember scraps of the lilting theme song: Here they come and may they soon be gone/ Matthew, Jubal, Mark and Luke and John/ ...Live by the gun and sure as the sunrise/ Die by the gun you must,/ Just as the Hellions one by one/ Died in the Trans Vaal dust! (Chorus: They died in the Trans Vaal dust!)