Hell Bound (1957)

'Hell Bound' starts off in a way that was common for docu-noirs and police procedurals of the 50s... With a segment portraying a crime in progress and a voice-over explaining what's going on. However, the segment in this movie goes on for quite long, and the voice-over does not introduce us to the federal agents who will risk their lives to stop these types of crime. Instead, the voice belongs to criminal mastermind John Russell ('Hoodlum Empire'). He made a home-movie detailing his plan to steal narcotics from a ship, so he can pitch it to mobster Frank Fenton ('Bodyguard'). Fenton is impressed and even lets his girl June Blair (Playboy Playmate of January 1957) take the place of Russell's girl Margo Woode ('Somewhere In The Night') as an ambulance nurse, which is part of the plan. Russell goes about finding the right men for the rest of the crew, using murder, death threats and blackmail to get these men on board. But as is always the case, there's no such thing as a perfect plan and of course the heist falls apart...

This is one gritty late 50s noir! Russell plays his character as mean-spirited and intense as possible. The only person he feels any sort of affection for is Woode, but I'm not sure it's genuine affection or if he's just using her while she's useful to him. Russell played mostly in westerns, but he would've made a pretty solid regular had he been offered more opportunities in noirs. The same could be said for Blair, who was just starting her movie career. Possibly due to being a playmate earlier the same year, this is her first big and credited role. And she does really well, I was pleasantly surprised. Her character's easily the most complex one in the movie, and she makes it work. She's quite the sexy femme fatale at the start of the movie, with a foot fetish to boot. But things become more difficult when she starts her job as an ambulance nurse, falling in love with ambulance driver Stuart Whitman ('Johnny Trouble'). As for mobster Fenton, this would be his final movie, he died before the movie opened. Which is perhaps why we see him only in the scene where Russell shows him the home-made movie? In any case, he doesn't have much to do here...

The noirs and crime movies of the 50s aren't particularly known for being lit in the stark way that 40s noirs were. With the advent of TV, movies gradually became brighter lit and day-for-night scenes became more fashionable. This is also the case here for the most part. But first-time movie director William J. Hole Jr. who did mostly TV work and accomplished cinematographer Carl E. Guthrie ('Backfire') do make the movie pretty good to look at, with some nice camera work and interesting shots. And they even manage to bring in some nice noir lighting in the scene where Russell viciously threatens a junkie to play an integral part in his plan inside a darkened room with plenty of noir shadows. The directing and editing is quite good, things move at a quick pace, and the outdoors scenes are very kinetic with plenty of action.

At just over 70 minutes long there's no place for slow filler scenes here. Even the seemingly filler scenes between Blair and Whitman serve a purpose and don't distract. There is also a funny scene where the junkie tries to score some heroin from a milk-drinking dealer who's enjoying a burlesque dance (performced by real-life pin-up model Virginia De Lee). At the end of the scene it turns the dealer's blind! It is a seemingly useless scene, but it establishes the junkie's need for drugs later on in the movie, and by introducing an odd character, it keeps things entertaining. What I also appreciated was the fact that the movie focuses on Russell and the crew, the police don't show up until the final part of the movie. Which is a quite exciting finale! It plays out at a trainyard where abandoned train carts are stacked, and is beautifully shot and staged, with a pretty cool final scene. A tense and brutal finale of a pretty good and gritty heist flick.

7+/10