Because I've never heard of this movie, I didn't really expect it to be very good. My prediction was partially right, as the film's storyline somehow manages to be both very sparse on details and hard to follow at the same time, ultimately leading to a confusing and mediocre plot. I thought the acting was good enough for such a little known movie, and there's even a respectable amount of unexpected moments that caught me off guard (especially the ending). The movie's premise is very simple, which is why I didn't think the story was particularly strong: a criminal based in california named Jordan (John Russell) is trying to rob a cargo ship containing millions of dollars worth of narcotics from the second world war. He enlists the help of various people in order to accomplish this. His scheme is foiled later because his girlfriend falls in love with someone named Eddie (Stuart Whitman), one of Jordan's associates. Jordan doesn't find out about his girlfriend's secret relationship until later. Once he does, he goes to her apartment and slaps her around several times before fatally stabbing her. Jordan leaves and tries to cover his tracks, but inevitably, the cops are right behind him. He flees to a junkyard where trolley cars are stacked on top of each other, waiting to be scrapped. As he attempts to hide in an open topped train car, a magnetic crane picks up a large amount of metal beams and drops them inside, crushing him to death. While this movie isn't really anything amazing, I have to admit it has one of the darkest and most brutal endings to a noir I've seen in a while. John Russell plays the typical noir "protagonist": a man whose life is irrevocably changed all because of some woman he gets involved with. He wants to see his drug heist plan be successful so he can end up a millionaire, but bad luck (also known as Paula) intervenes. June Blair was a good pick for Paula in this movie, as she appears to be a good person due to her career as a nurse. As she's pleading with Jordan not to kill her, it makes you actually feel sad that he's about to murder a valuable member of society in cold blood. There's also many sexual scenes involving her, which are about as intimate as post Hayes Code movies could allow. There's even a scene where a heroin dealer is watching a barely-dressed woman dance in a nightclub, which demonstrates the fact that films back in the 50s were often just as edgy as ones now. Even in the 30s, once Hayes Code started to be enforced, the use of the word "narcotics" in film was prohibited. The final scene, which takes place at the junkyard, was filmed on Terminal Island near LA. The trolley cars shown stacked on top of each other were in the process of being scrapped in order to have their metal recycled. Before closing in the 80s, the site also scrapped ships from the US navy that were retired. Overall, Hell Bound is not a very impressive movie, but with such good acting from its main characters, (as well as its disturbing ending), it shows how even mediocre movies can be made a lot better by competent performers.
Review of Hell Bound
