Hell Town (1937)
Dare Rudd and Dinkey Hooley, roaming cowhands, drift into Montana, where they meet Dare's cousin, Tom Fillmore, cattleman and banker. Tom offers them jobs but they pass, until Dare sees Tom's sweetheart, Judy Worstall and decides to take the job. He is put in charge of a cattle drive, replacing ranch-foreman Lynn Hardy, who is in cahoots with Bart Hammond, rustler. Dare delivers the cattle to the railhead and is about to return when he is persuaded into a poker game by Buck Brady, a crooked gambler. Dare is almost cleaned out when Tom appears and takes a hand and discovers the dealer is switching decks.
CRIMSON-STREAKED ROMANCE HITS THE TRAIL!
Tom Fillmore: Why don't you get married and settle down? Why, you're running around like a maverick without a brand on.
Dare Rudd: Well, I don't like branding. It hurts in the wrong place.
Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA
Kernville, California, USA
Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
(Studio)
Paramount Ranch - 2813 Cornell Road, Agoura, California, USA
(Studio Western street seen in footage reused from other Paramount Zane Gray movies. Some interiors were done inside ranch street practical interior sets.)
This is one of 20 Zane Grey stories, filmed by Paramount in the 1930s, which it sold to Favorite Films for re-release, circa 1950-52. The failure of Paramount, the original copyright holder, to renew the film's copyright resulted in it falling into public domain, meaning that virtually anyone could duplicate and sell a VHS/DVD copy of the film. Therefore, many of the versions of this film available on the market are either severely (and usually badly) edited and/or of extremely poor quality, having been duped from second- or third-generation (or more) copies of the film.
Original name of this movie is ?Born to the West?, the title of the Zane Grey novel.
Due to a studio clerical error, Alan Ladd was credited for an appearance in this film as an "Inspector". He does not, in fact, appear in it and there is no "Inspector" involved in the story. However, his name is included in 13th position in the credited cast published by Weekly Variety 16 March 1938, and this information was erroneously picked up by the American Film Institute Catalog of Feature Films 1931-1939. By the time it was re-released, Ladd had become a prominent and popular player, so his name was likewise prominently displayed, often receiving equal billing right along with John Wayne, not only on all the re-titled advertising material, but also in most television program schedules once telecasts began.
On its first reissue, the company added random stock footage of cattle drives, chases, and stampedes to bring the running time to over an hour.
Re-titled "Hell Town" by Favorite Films for its 1950 re-release, this film was often shown in tandem with the re-release of The Thundering Herd (1933), re-titled 'Buffalo Stampede'.
Re-titled "Hell Town," this film was first telecast in New York City Friday 8 January 1954 on WCBS (Channel 2), in Detroit Sunday 7 February 1954 on WXYZ (Channel 7), in Los Angeles Sunday 20 June 1954 on KNBH (Channel 4); in San Francisco it was first broadcast Thursday 3 March 1955 on KPIX (Channel 5).
Continuity
As Tom tells Lyn that Dare is the new manager, the portrait of George Washington on the wall behind, appears and disappears between shots.
Tom throws his pen on the desk twice between shots.
Hammond raises his knife and fork twice between shots.
Anachronisms
The cards of the pack used in the poker game have modern numerals on each corner, unlike of the cards from the Old West.