Tonight's Movie: Hell Bent for Leather (1960) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

One of my favorite Audie Murphy films, HELL BENT FOR LEATHER (1960), has just been released on Blu-ray in the Audie Murphy Collection III from Kino Lorber.

I watched the new Blu-ray in Lone Pine a few days ago in conjunction with touring the movie's nearby locations. I'm glad to say that the Blu-ray print looks good, and I liked the movie even more than when I reviewed it via a Region 2 DVD for Classic Movie Hub in 2022.

Indeed, my friend Toby Roan, who recorded the commentary track for Kino Lorber's new Blu-ray disc, recently mentioned to me that HELL BENT FOR LEATHER has echoes of the Randolph Scott-Budd Boetticher "Ranown" Westerns, and I quite agree.

The most obvious reason for the comparison is that HELL BENT FOR LEATHER shares the Lone Pine locations of the best Ranown films, but it's also apparent in the theme of a couple in danger (THE TALL T), the strong villain (in this case, Stephen McNally), and the compact 82-minute running time.

Murphy plays Clay Santell, a horse trader who is assaulted and has his horse is stolen by a murderer, Travers (Jan Merlin). Travers leaves his distinctive rifle behind, causing Santell to be mistaken for Travers when he walks into a small town looking for help.

Santell believes he'll be turned loose by the townspeople once the sheriff (McNally) returns to town, but is stunned when the sheriff says he's going to escort Santell to Denver to stand trial for murder. It's a waking nightmare.

Santell manages to escape from the sheriff, who actually knows what the real Travers looks like. He stumbles into a situation where he must force a young woman, Janet (Felicia Farr), to go on the run with him; initially resentful, Janet's sympathies soon shift to Santell.

Ultimately the young couple must confront both the sheriff and Travers in the rocky, forbidding desert.

This is a very good film which was briskly directed by George Sherman, who headed up many a good Western. The cast is uniformly strong in a solid story, scripted by Christopher Knopf. The "couple on the run" theme is a familiar trope, but there's a reason for that -- it works very well, and this film's spin on the story is a good one.

The movie was filmed in widescreen Eastmancolor by Clifford Stine. As mentioned, much of the film was shot outdoors in the Alabama Hills outside Lone Pine, California.

The supporting cast includes familiar faces such as Allan "Rocky" Lane, Bob Steele, Robert Middleton, Olan Soule, John Qualen, and James Westmoreland.

To read about this film in greater depth, please visit my Classic Movie Hub piece from January 2022.

I also shared photographs from some of the movie's locations here almost exactly a year ago. One of the location photographs, with Gary Cooper Rock in the middle distance, is seen here.  Click on it to enlarge it for a closer look.

Blu-ray extras consist of the aforementioned commentary track by Westerns expert Toby Roan and a newly mastered trailer. The disc also contains trailers for three additional Audie Murphy Westerns.

To my knowledge, this Blu-ray is the first time HELL BENT FOR LEATHER has been available for home viewing in the United States. It's very exciting to have it available at long last, especially in such a good print. Sound quality is excellent.

The other films in the set -- which were also filmed in Lone Pine -- are POSSE FROM HELL (1961) and SHOWDOWN (1963), which I'll be reviewing in the near future.

Though I haven't yet seen the other two films, based on the first-time availability of HELL BENT FOR LEATHER I'm confident this is a set Western and Audie Murphy fans should pick up as soon as possible.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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