Hellgate **** (1952, Sterling Hayden, Ward Bond, Joan Leslie, James Arness) – Classic Movie Review 12,071

Writer/director Charles Marquis Warren’s 1952 black and white Western film Hellgate stars Sterling Hayden as innocent war veteran Gil Hanley, who is wrongly sentenced as an American Civil War spy and sent to New Mexico’s hellish Hellgate jail, where soon there is a breakout, despite the hugely high barriers and the desert and hostile Indians outside.

Perhaps there are no surprises in the movie, but a hard-working cast helps raise a very much more than adequate, extremely intriguing Western-cum-prison yarn, an unofficial rejig of the story in the 1936 The Prisoner of Shark Island., though it is based on a story by director Charles Marquis Warren and producer John C Champion.

The strong movie is topped off by a good, tense atmosphere, taut handling, an excellent star turn by an ideally cast Hayden, and some fine character actor work. Overall, Hellgate punches well above its weight.

Also in the cast are Joan Leslie as Ellen Hanley, Ward Bond as Lt. Tod Voorhees, James Arness as George Redfield, Peter Coe as Jumper Hall, John Pickard as Gundy Boyd, Robert J Wilke as Sgt. Maj. Kearn, Kyle James [James Anderson] as Vern Brechene, Richard Emory as Dan Mott, Richard Paxton, William Hammel, Marshall Bradford, Sheb Wooley, Rory Mallinson, Pat Coleman, Timothy Carey, Kayle Anderson, Rodd Redwing, Ed Hinton, and Stanley Price.

Hellgate is the second of Warren’s three films for executive producer Robert L Lippert.

It was released on 5 September 1952.

It is shot at Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park, 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles; Corriganville, Ray Corrigan Ranch, Simi Valley, California; and Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California.

It runs 87 minutes.

The films of Charles Marquis Warren: Little Big Horn (1951), Hellgate (1952), Arrowhead (1953), Flight to Tangier (1953), Seven Angry Men (1955), Tension at Table Rock (1956), The Black Whip (1956), Back from the Dead (1957), Trooper Hook (1957), Without Incident (1957), The Unknown Terror (1957), Copper Sky (1957), Ride a Violent Mile (1957), Blood Arrow (1958), Cattle Empire (1958), Desert Hell (1958) and Charro! (1969).

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,071

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