HELL BENT (1918) and STRAIGHT SHOOTING (1917) are two very early John Ford westerns that were recently discovered in the film archives of the Czech Republic. Both were 35 mm prints and after undergoing 4K digital restoration they look better than they ever have before. This has been much needed as the previous versions available from public domain specialists like Alpha were of very poor visual quality with an inappropriate public domain soundtrack. They have been released individually in America by Kino Lorber and in England as a double feature by the Eureka Master of Cinema series.
Here the director is billed as Jack Ford and HELL BENT and STRAIGHT SHOOTING are two of several pictures he made with actor Harry Carey during the silent era. They were shot for Universal who in their early days devoted themselves to quickly made and inexpensive entertainment aimed at small town America rather than the big cities. Ford made over 30 movies at Universal in a little over 4 years before moving over to Fox where he had bigger budgets and better technicians. The Carey character, Cheyenne Harry, was patterned after the “good bad man” persona which William S. Hart had introduced before World War I.
The plots of both were Western staples which had been used on earlier pictures especially Hart’s. They involve the conversion of an outlaw due to the influence and efforts of a “good woman”. In HELL BENT Cheyenne Harry arrives in the town of Rawhide where he befriends the local tough guy Cimmaron Bill (Duke Lee) and meets winsome Bess Thurston (Neva Gerber). Bad guy Beau Ross (Joseph Harris) shows up, kidnaps Bess, and Harry must save her with the help of Bill. The picture ends with a harrowing desert scene which looks forward to Erich von Stroheim’s GREED.
STRAIGHT SHOOTING, which is Ford’s first credited feature, has Cheyenne Harry hired by a wealthy rancher (Duke Lee) to help evict a poor farming family from his land. It doesn’t take long before Harry sides with the farmers leading to the inevitable showdown. This time around the “good woman” is Molly Malone while future star Hoot Gibson has a small role. Both prints look very good although according to Ford biographer and disc commentator Joseph McBride approximately 20 minutes is missing which accounts for sudden image jumps and some confusion in the storylines.
Even at this early stage Ford was already demonstrating his ability for location shooting and for visual composition within the frame. HELL BENT comes with a new score provided by Zachary Marsh while STRAIGHT SHOOTING features one by Michael Gatt. There’s also a new interview with the ubiquitous Kim Newman and a rare 1970 audio interview with Ford along with two video essays by Tag Gallagher on the director and the films. Yet another fine silent film release from the Eureka Masters Of Cinema series and a must for fans of John Ford.
The Capsule Critic 