Hell's Hinges (1916)

Originally posted to Facebook on 7/22/2018

This week we jumped a decade back from 1927 to 1916's Hell's Hinges, which I wanted to see before we got too far removed from the silent era. This was our sixth film from 1916 -- having watched the fifth a year and a half earlier. It was the first film we've seen starring William S. Hart, who was a prolific actor during this period, making eight other features in 1916 alone, and continuing that pace throughout the teens. The majority are lost, but enough survive to get a decent idea of his work.

The film concerns a young Reverend named Robert Henley, played by Jack Standing, and his sister, played by Clara Williams, who journey west to set up a ministry. It is immediately established that Henley is a womanizer, and not up to the task of being a community's moral leader. They arrive at Hell's Hinges, a semi-lawless western town, which nevertheless has a contingent of church-goers who welcome their arrival. "Blaze" Tracy, played by Hart, is not one of them, nor is "Silk" Miller, played by Alfred Hollingsworth, who is charmingly described as "Mingling the oily craftiness of a Mexican with the deadly treachery of a rattler." It was at this point that our hopes for the film began to dim. The film's arc is that Hart becomes attracted to and/or inspired by Clara Williams' character, and begins to mend his ways -- though her role is a bit underdeveloped as the catalyst for his change, and his attraction to her seems to be more about what she represents, rather than her specifically. Her attraction to him, if it truly exists, is even less well motivated.

I had expected skipping back to 1916 to be more of a regression than it actually was. The acting was a little broader, and the film was definitely shot and framed a lot more statically than some of the films we've been seeing recently, but the story was still competently and economically told -- notwithstanding the flaws discussed above. The screenplay was written by C. Gardner Sullivan, who had previously, with Thomas Ince, written 1915's The Italian, which also featured Clara Williams. It was interesting to see Hart for the first time, and to see how he fit perfectly into the tradition of the taciturn western hero -- a clear antecedent to, for instance, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood -- though in some ways he is more extreme than either of them. His character was also surprisingly morally ambiguous for a western hero, though his previous sins are referred to non-specifically rather than detailed.

Next week, we move on to 1928, with Show People, our third film from that year. It stars Marion Davies and William Haines, and is directed by King Vidor, all of whom we've seen previously during this project. The list, as always, is here: https://bit.ly/2lZtfmT.