1961 Directed by Herbert Coleman
Murphy goes after bad guys who shot his friend the sheriff and abducted a local girl. In a plot reminiscent of High Noon, the posse of town blowhards gradually abandons Murphy; only tenderfoot banker Saxon remains, to prove his manhood. When they find the girl, obviously abused by her captors, Murphy shows her acceptance and sympathy whereas the others disply only revulsion.
Die gnadenlosen Vier, Quadrilha do Inferno, Dødsridtet, Justicieros del infierno, Lännen nopein ase, Les cavaliers de l'enfer, To apospasma tis Kolaseos, La squadra infernale, Cadenas de odio, Quadrilha do inferno, Potera din iad, Djävulsritten, Potera iz pakla, Les Cavaliers de l'enfer, Cehennem Takımı, 지옥에서 온 포세
USANR
USA
Former gunfighter Banner Cole (Audie Murphy) goes after a group of outlaws who have brutalised a small town, aided by a ragtag group each with a score to settle, in this western co-starring John Saxon, Zohra Lampert, Vic Morrow, Robert Keith and Royal Dano.
The film gets into some very dark subject matter for the time, and with a more brutal portrayal of the west it seems to foreshadow later revisionist explorations into similar subjects. It has a similar premise to Gunpoint, another Murphy western that I saw recently, although the I didn’t find the characterisations as strong here, making it feel weaker storywise.
Lampert gives probably the best performance as the young woman who had been captured by the…
The complexity (kind of) of masculinity.
The posse that rides out from Paradise behind Banner Cole (Audie Murphy) is from hell because it is full of men consumed by the performance of masculinity. One (Robert Keith as Jeremiah Brown) was once in the military, and believes declaring himself a leader makes him a man. Another, Burt Hogan (Frank Overton), is there because he thinks he can only be a man if he avenges his brother's death by killing the one who murdered him. It doesn't matter to Hogan what the truth is — he puts bullets into the dead body of a different man and leaves, concealing his shameful fear behind the loud announcement that he has done his manly…
Audie Murphy und der ewig gern gesehene Kultmime John Saxon jagen vier Banditen hinterher die in dem putzigen Örtchen "Paradise" eine Bank ausraubten, hinterhältig Leute abknallten und eine junge Frau entführten.
Vier abscheuliche Individuen stellen eine Kleinstadt auf den Kopf. Paradisisch ist da nun nix mehr.
Die Hatz nach den Ganoven entwickelt sich zum Spießrutenlauf. Wollen zunächst großmaulig gestandene Kerle mit auf Verfolgungsjagd, springen die meisten wieder ab. Andere nerven schier unerträglich mit ihren Binsenweisheiten und dämlichen Gebahren und sind somit nur im Weg, oder unnötiger Ballast.
Vom großen Heldenmut bis hin zur Feigheit ist alles dabei und während der Jagd nach den Tätern werden bei dem ein - oder anderen bis Dato festgefahrene Werte…
Posse From Hell doesn't feel like the debut film of director Herbert Coleman, a man who distinguished himself as an assistant director and second unit director under Alfred Hitchcock. His name isn't well known, and as a director he has few credits, but this little Western from 1961 when Audie Murphy was still riding high in the saddle, is a rather decent film. Paired alongside John Saxon, who isn't quite as prominent as that poster might suggest, Murphy's Banner Cole leads a posse after four outlaws who've broken out of jail, killed four townsfolk, robbed a bank, and taken a young woman hostage. Saxon plays a banker from back East, sent with the posse to recover the money, and he…
Herbert Coleman - Rechte Hand, Second Unit Regisseur und Produzent von Alfred Hitchcock. Als hauptverantlicher Filmemacher trat er daher nur ganz selten in Erscheinung. Das wird mir beim Anblick seiner Gnadenlosen Vier recht schmerzlich bewusst, denn trotz seiner Reduziertheit ist der Film von höchster dramaturgischer und optischer Brillanz. Eine B-Western-Perle, wie sie sonst nur echte Könner vom Schlage eines Budd Boetticher hervorzubringen im Stande waren.
After a hellacious opening in which four gunmen ride into the town of Paradise at dark each carrying rifles or shotguns enter the saloon named Rosebud and with complete sinister intent take over the saloon while a mob forms outside. The movie could barely keep up with how taut the opening was. Audie Murphy as hardened deputy who tells volunteers for the posse some of them will be killed probably and that kind of honesty upsets the local town leaders in a pit of hypocrisy that stays with the ride out to find the four killers and all the way back to Paradise. It's classic stuff. Epic scenes too numerous to mention of riding with the snow-covered Sierra Nevada mountains…
I love Audie Murphy the most when he gets to show a little of his dark side (no doubt he had one), and this is definitely a darker one. For an early 60s US western 'Posse from Hell' is pretty gritty and violent, and also deals with themes like rape more than I expected. John Saxon is great as always, as is Lee Van Cleef in a smaller part and Vic Morrow is extremely charismatic as the main bad guy, eventhough he really only has one big scene to prove it. The bad guys are built up so much in the first scene that I wish we would have seen a little more of them later on. Other than that this is pretty damn close to 4 stars.
Herbert Coleman only directed two films and they were both in the same year. This is the better of those. The other being the alliterative WW2 film "Battle at Bloody Beach." Think of this as a kind of "High Noon" plot in that there is a rallying of townsmen to fight the titular posse. Except instead of waiting on them to come to town, they ride out in search of Vic Morrow and crew.
Audie Murphy is a little funnier here than I've seen him before - in a way that makes dads laugh. John Saxon also is in this as sort of Western dandy, and he really steals the picture in his modernity and syllable pronouncing speech.
Audie Murphy leading a posse against a nasty group of criminals. Strong incident and Murphy/Saxon dynamic is pretty good. There' some fine character work in the sidelines (particular by Rodolfo Acosta). Strong misanthropy and Murphy's ruthless pragmatism has a certain Hawksian feel to it. The film has a harsh doomed quality. Director Coleman whose only other film credit is a Murphy war movie from the same year was a long time Hitchcock assistant who on the basis of this one should've get more chances.
Lean, mean, very much in the Boetticher mold, with freshly deputized Murphy chasing down a quartet of nogoodniks (led by a young Vic Morrow, a nasty piece of work), aided by a shrinking group of incompetents, drunks, and greenhorns. The sharper-than-average screenplay by Clair Huffaker understands, unlike most westerns of the period, that rape isn't just a convenient plot driver to set men on the vengeance trail; for the victim, it's a life-shattering event with difficult, unshakeable repercussions. (Major props to Zohra Lampert for her performance here.) The blossoming bromance between Murphy and John Saxon's foppish Easterner carries serious Tennessee's Partner vibes.
Somehow I've managed to watch more Audie Murphy flicks than any other actor except Charles Bronson since I…
This is somewhat generic but well-acted and directed, with an appealing core of misanthropy and violence.
John Saxon and Audie Murphy sharing frames, turning the manliness to the max in this B-western goodness. Opens with a bang, and keeps on banging throughout. No messing around here. Pure and hard west.
