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Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An overlooked gem from 1929. The premise has been remade a number of times, but I can't imagine any being better than this. I hope the three godfathers, actors Hatton, Bickford & Kohler, got big bonuses. They clearly deserve hazard pay for filming in the middle of nowhere. Looking like a parched pancake, it's a nowhere desert the three fugitives must limp across. Worse, there's no sign of relief in any direction. Yeah, they're tough guys, but this is a battle with nature in the raw, a desolate face that's both unyielding and waterless. And catch the rags the guys are wearing. The tatters get even holier as they trudge along. Wardrobe must have shopped on skid row, while I doubt that a grubbier threesome has appeared in Hollywood annals.Speaking of holy, there's a subtext of Christian symbolism to the story, without rubbing our nose in it. Note, for example, the brief cross-shaped cactus providing comfort to the martyred Barbed-Wire as his two buddies depart. Good subtle detail. Then again, the results suggest something of the Three Wise Men, western style. After all, when Mom dies, the three bank robbers are gradually redeemed by their care for the infant boy under what amounts to self-sacrificing circumstances. Their desert trek then becomes a moral proving ground the outlaws must cross in order for symbolic redemption to occur. At the same time, delivering the infant to the altar on Christmas day closes the Three Wise Men loop. By that time, each has shown a higher regard for the infant than himself. Nonetheless, I like the brief moments when the guys show their masculine libido. For example, Bob enjoys biting saloon girls in erotic fashion, while he and Bill jockey over who gets firsties with the girl in the covered wagon. Thankfully, filming was prior to the dead hand of Hollywood's censorship code. Anyway, it's legendary William Wyler's first talky and he hits a homerun, with both staging and performances. In fact, some of those desolate shots against the sky are downright iconic, proving again that artistry surpasses time. Also, the acting's first-rate. Seldom has a trio of tough guys interacted with such unforced naturalness, conveying a rare level of male bonding.. Too bad grubby Oscars aren't awarded for best shabby characters, because these three rank right up there with Sierra Madre's Bogart and Huston. So, don't pass this one up despite its obscurity. I'm really glad an old movie fan put me on to it, and I think you will be too.

Hell's Heroes (1930)*** 1/2 (out of 4) This early talkie from Universal is the first sound version of "Three Godfathers", which would eventually be remade in 1936 with Chester Morris and again in 1948 by John Ford with John Wayne in this lead. The story here is the same as three ruthless outlaws (Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton, Fred Kohler) rob a bank and then head out into the desert before losing their horses during a major wind storm. Soon afterwards they stumble onto a baby and the men must decide to let it die or try to walk it back to the town they were just running from. I've ended up watching these sound versions in reverse order as I started off with the Ford one many years ago and then just recently saw the Morris version, which was the better of the two. This one here is clearly the leader of the trio because of how raw it is. This movie is pretty mean spirited from the start up until the end and I really love that Wyler didn't pull any punches. Being the pre-code era we get a few things not available in future versions and that includes one sequence where the men argue about who's going to "take" the mother first. We also get a fairly violent scene involving a suicide, which is shown in a long shot. A lot of people bash American westerns saying they aren't ugly enough but that's not true here. The dirt, grease and ugliness of the characters are all over them and their unshaven faces make them look exactly like what their characters would look like. The three leads turn in wonderful performances but to me it was Hatton who steals the show as the big goon who quickly turns into a softy after finding the baby. Bickford is equally impressive and the final vision of him is quiet haunting and will certainly stay with you for a long time. The film runs a fairly short 68-minutes but there's enough heart and soul in this thing for two movies. Another impressive thing is that this was an early talkie yet you really can't tell as everything is recorded very well and it actually sounded a lot better than the same studio's Dracula and FRANKENSTEIN, which would follow the next year.

In childhood, my interest in cowboys centered around Fred Thomson and his horse Silver King. I did not pay much attention to the villains but I remembered that Fred Kohler was usually the leader of the 'black hats'. Raymond Hatton was only known then as the erstwhile partner of the popular comedy team of Raymond Hatton and Wallace Beery. Some time within the last five years or so, my constant monitoring of old time movies presented on TV resulted in my capturing 'Hell's Heroes'. What a discovery it was for me!I had always remembered "The Three Godfathers" with Chester Morris, Lewis Stone and Walter Brennan from my teenage years. In fact, it had driven me to the local library to read the original story by Peter B. Kyne.One would never have guessed that Charles Bickford would be the hero of this 1930 movie but he filled the role admirably. With the aforementioned Fred Kohler and Raymond Hatton in the supporting roles, the 'three godfathers' were a formidable thespian trio. This film, produced when it was without today's modern advantages, is an excellent model of fine early movie-making. And it should certainly be seen to get insight into the technological advances that subsequently resulted in the 1936 version with Chester Morris, Lewis Stone and Walter Brennan, as well as the Technicolor version in 1948 with John Wayne, Harry Carey, Jr. and Pedro Armendariz.The strength of the novella by P.B. Kyne is evident through all three versions. If this title appears on your TV schedule, don't let the date of 1930 scare you away. The writing of screenplays by different persons may alter the end result but a strong well written story with excellent acting will always produce an enjoyable film. You might be surprised how dry your throat is at the end of this picture but you will also be strangely satisfied with the ending.

Much tighter and less bloated with extra characters and subplots than the later versions. The story has enough plot on it's own. It avoids the pitfall of being syrupy, a pitfall that the John Wayne version does not avoid. It's not the sanitized west of most films of the genre. You just know that those hombres hadn't bathed in a month of Sundays. The film gets right down to business. It avoids another pitfall, as well. Early talkies tended to be just that--talkie. This film makes good use of visuals in developing the characters and moving along the story. It has much more of the feeling of the just past silent era about it than the just arrived talkie era.