| Hell's Hinges | |
|---|---|
Theatrical poster to Hell's Hinges |
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| Directed by | Charles Swickard William S. Hart (uncredited) Clifford Smith (uncredited) |
| Produced by | Thomas H. Ince |
| Written by | C. Gardner Sullivan (screenplay and story) |
| Starring | William S. Hart Clara Williams |
| Music by | Victor Schertzinger (uncredited) |
| Cinematography | Joseph H. August |
| Distributed by | Triangle Distributing Corporation |
| Release date(s) | March 5, 1916 |
| Running time | 64 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent film English intertitles |
Hell's Hinges is a 1916 American Western silent film starring William S. Hart and Clara Williams. Directed by Charles Swickard, William S. Hart and Clifford Smith, and produced by Thomas H. Ince, the screenplay was written by C. Gardner Sullivan.
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Hell's Hinges tells the story of a minister, Rev. Bob Henley (played by Standing), who comes to a gunfighter-plagued town with his sister, Faith (played by Williams). The owner of the saloon, Silk Miller (played by Hollingsworth), and his accomplices sense trouble and hire gunman Blaze Tracy (played by Hart), the most dangerous man around, to run the minister out of town.
Rev. Henley is seduced by the dance-hall girl, Dolly (played by Glaum), and falls from grace as his sister, Faith, rehabilitates Blaze Tracey, who finds something special in her, and soon Miller and the others have Blaze to deal with.
When Hell's Hinges was released, the reception of the film among New York critics was so positive that the producer bought space in newspapers around the country to reprint the reviews.[1] The following are excerpts from those reviews:
Grace Kingsley of the Los Angeles Times gave the actors high marks. She credited Hart with doing his "usual excellent work" and found Glaum to be "a really fascinating vampire."[2] Kingsley paid special note to Standing's performance as the reverend, calling it "one of the most subtle, but at the same time of the most sincere bits of film acting of his entire career," a performance exhibiting "intelligence and imagination ... in the very highest degree."[2] Kingsley found the film to be "marvelously well done" but took exception with the awkward dialect in the title cards:
"C. Gardner Sullivan appears to have written 'Hell's Hinges' for the purpose of allowing us to look our fill on fire and fights. Certain it is the thing is marvelously well done. There is a burning dance hall with men and women entrapped, which fairly makes you gasp, and there is a 'beau-oo-tiful' free-for-all fight between the sheep and the goats of 'Hell's Hinges.' All this is lovely enough in its way to make for forgiveness of the dialect of the subtitles, a dialect which 'never was on land or sea.'"[2]
The publication Moving Picture World gave the film as a whole a positive review: "Brilliant in subtitle, strong in treatment with occasional notes of true pathos, the marks of creative ability and sure craftmanship are there .... the cast is without flaw."[3] The publication further noted that Ince "is at his best when holding close to revelations of the human mind and heart."[3]
In September 1994, Hell's Hinges experienced a revival following a screening at the Film Center of the School of the Chicago Art Institute.[4] At the time, the Chicago Tribune's movie critic, Michael Wilmington, called Hell's Hinges "Hart's acknowledged masterpiece," "perhaps the finest movie Western made before John Ford's 1939 Stagecoach," and "as emotionally powerful as any American film of the teens, except for the masterpieces of D.W. Griffith and Erich Von Stroheim."[4]
Two months after the showing in Chicago and Wilmington's review, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[5]
In 1997, Film Comment published a review calling Hell's Hinges a "classic of its kind" and arguing that "to dismiss it casually as a western would be a mistake, for it more resembles The Atonement of Gosta Berling than it does Riders of the Purple Sage.[6] The reviewer gave particular praise to Hart's directorial skill:
"The camera placement here, the simple yet effective symbolism, and the flair for spectacle as in the brilliantly handled mob scenes where all of Inceville goes up in smoke, the real 'feel' of the old, dusty, unglamorised West, all should have earned Hart a reputation as one of the great directors. ... For the most part, 'Hell's Hinges' offers highpowered drama rather than traditional western action. ... Fine camerawork utilising long panoramic shots, excellent cutting and a sure control over the masses of extras fuse this into an episode of astonishing vigor. Hart, his assistant Cliff Smith, his writer Gardner Sullivan and cameraman Joe August were one of the sturdiest (and least appreciated) teams of craftsmen the cinema ever produced."[6]
In 2009, the band Caledonia Mission wrote a song for Esopus magazine inspired by the movie. The song is named "The Ballad of Blaze Tracy."[7]