Hell's Hinges

Hell's Hinges is a 1916 American silent Western 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.

In 1994, Hell's Hinges was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and is considered by some to be one of the finest silent Westerns.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Due to Hart’s personal familiarity with the real West, the town of Hell’s Hinges looks remarkably like paintings by renowned Western artists. Extras and small part were portrayed by men and women that look like they lived in the West.
 * 2) William S. Hart was one of the most popular silent Western stars with more than two dozen films of varying lengths to his credit before starting this film. In addition to that, his characters were a lot more morally ambiguous than typical early film cowboys, often being killers, crooks and fugitives would chose good, but on their own terms. Here his character Blaze Tracy is a self-described killer seeking retribution on behalf of the devout sister of a rather pathetic minister.
 * 3) Blaze Tracy is a very compelling antagonist/anti-hero, He starts off as a notorious gunman, but he has to seek retribution against Faith's presecutors. Then later Silk decoys Henley to his saloon, where he's induced to drink till he is intoxicated. Blaze temporaily leaves town only to return and find the church burned down, Henley killed, and Faith brokenhearted over the disaster that has come to the good element. In fury, Blaze shoots the treacherous Silk, sets the saloon on fire, and sees the flames wipe out the town, as the result of a high wind.
 * 4) The film's cast is unusually effective for a period when performances tended toward broad histrionics.
 * 5) * William Hart's role and Clara Williams' performance as the approiately-named Faith are confident and comparatively restrained for their day.
 * 6) * Hart blends action with genuine character work and excelling in the close-ups, where his facial expressions carry the story unaided.
 * 7) * Fan-favorite actor John Gilbert can be seen as one of the roughnecks in a mob that taunts and tempts the minister to drink and torch the church.
 * 8) The cinematography by Joseph August is equally confident and adds a level of sophistication to the production.
 * 9) The film was ahead of its time with its pessisimism. In later films, a town like "Hell Hinges" would be tamed by a lone hero who would bring law and set the community on its path to civilization. This film doesn't have that optimism. Tracy finds humanity lacking and saves only himself and one good woman, while even the town’s former churchgoers are left to wander the desert sands.
 * 10) Interesting storyline where a reluctant, weak minister preaches to the adoring young ladies of his church, but the church elders send him West with his godly sister, convinced that temptation would be too much for him. Then they arrive at a town called "Hell’s Hinges", where a few decent citizens greet them warmly, but the town’s bad men see him as a threat to their existence and want to drive him out.
 * 11) The story contains lots of suspenseful rising action (mostly after the halfway point), although it's still filled with the real interest of the West, which despite being slightly exaggerated, isn't done to a point of ridiculous proportions.
 * 12) The destruction of the entire village of Hell’s Hinges by the fire is a very powerful scene that carries real emotional weight; no less than thirty-eight buildings in the vicinity of Inceville went up in smoke, and you could bet there were countless deaths.

Reception
When Hell's Hinges was released, the reception of the film among New York critics was positive enought that the producer bought space in newspapers around the country to reprint the reviews. New York in particular had a ton of critics that praised the movie.

In September 1994, Hell's Hinges experienced a revival following a screening at the Film Center of the School of the Chicago Art Institute. 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 Western film of the teens, except for the masterpieces of D.W. Griffith and Erich Von Stroheim." 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. The reviewer gave particular praise to Hart's directorial skill:

The Film
Hell’s Hinges on the National Film Preservation Foundation