Hell's Island

All the Classic Stuff is Here for a Sorta Exiting-Wounded Film-Noir, a Genre Forced Out of the Minds of Film-Makers and Audiences...

Pushed to the More Family and Living Room-Friendly by the "Powers that Be".

Starting Around 1950 Forces Seen and Unseen (the Puppet Masters), were Manipulating in Motion, Trying to Coral the American Herd Toward the Oncoming "Eisenhower-Era" that Shunned the "Dark Stuff" of Pop-Culture...

Targeting Film-Noir, Rock 'n Roll, and Comic Books, to Name 3 Big-Ones, and By Hook and by Crook They Managed to (for the Good of us all) Changed...

Film-Noir into "Police-Procedural"......Rock 'n Roll from its Black and Hillbilly Roots into "White-Bread-Teen Idols", with about as much "Soul" as an Infantry-Soldiers Boots, and Finally......the Dark, Violent, Ghastly and the Wonderfully "Arty" Very Popular Comics, Like the Infamous "E. C.'s...into Saintly, Sappy, and Not-as-Much-Fun..."Code-Comics" that were Without an Edge, Insufferable.

This Phil Karlson Directed 1955 "Film-Noir", Starring John Payne and Mary Murphy , could be Looked-Upon as a Homage, an Old-Timey Look- Back to the Pure-Noir Days Before the "Death-Warrant" became Official and was Now Taking its "Last Bow".

Karlson is Considered One of the Best-B-Movie Directors and His Filmography is Stunningly Impressive and Here He Knows what He is Doing.

This is the Twilight Time of Film-Noir, the Ingredients are Here but the Packaging is "New", Ordered by those more "$$$$" Focused, with "Art" a Secondary, if any, Concern.

Shot in Vista-Vision, Nothing Says Tightly-Bound and Claustrophobic Like a Wide-Screen......Photographed in Technicolor, Nothing Says Encompassing, Threatening, and Inescapable Shadows Like All the Colors of the Rainbow.

Karlson, and Crew, to Their Credit, Recognized the Power of What Film-Noir Delivered and its, at the Time Waning Want from the "Big Brother" Types, and "Hell's Island" UN-Apologetically Delivers what Fans of Film-Noir Love and Respect from Their "Bastard-Child", Organic Rebel-Genre.

But, 5 Years or so After the Push to Purge Pure Film-Noir from Existence this was What Resulted and it is a Good Representation of the Walking-Dead Films-Noir of its Day.

Fans would have to Pay Their Respects and Wait for it's Resurrection in what became Known as "Neo-Noir" and Start the Cycle Reborn and "Rebooted".

Note...It's been reported from numerous sources that a "Good" Print of the Movie is hard to find...it's certainly worth a restoration and a "New-Look". Because it is a sign-post for the State-of-the-Art for Film-Noir in 1955. Historically it is worth a watch and deserves, considering all that was said above, makes it a prime-cut that should not be over-looked.

We begin with a scene under the opening credits where a man (John Payne) is being held at gunpoint by a man in a wheelchair and his cronies. What's going on? Turns out the one being held up is a former D.A. assistant, now a bouncer, hired to retrieve a missing ruby on a Caribbean island, where he knows his ex-girlfriend (Mary Murphy) is. When he gets there and sees her in a market, she runs away. He finds out that there is intrigue aplenty and his ex is possibly in it up to her neck. Can he trust her?

This was a decent one, the third of three teamings of John Payne with director Phil Karlson. (first was Kansas City Confidential, second was 99 River Street) It uses a lot of familiar elements from other noirs and does so mostly successfully. I found the story kinda bogged down here and there, but is generally solid. Some good action and surprises.

The other two movies I mentioned are better, especially the mighty K.C.C., but this is still worth a look, especially if you enjoy Payne as a tough guy.

As an aside, Mary Murphy sure can walk away!



*the lovely actress, not the incredibly annoying screeching woman on those dance shows!

A guy gets hired to find someone's ruby and some stuff happens. Sorry to be so vague, but it's a nondescript kind of movie. Very familiar scenario with the usual shadowy characters, convoluted backstory, femme fatale, double-crosses, witnesses suddenly getting killed, and so forth. It's executed well enough but has little spark. Earlier Phil Karlson directed John Payne in 99 RIVER STREET and KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL, both much more exciting and memorable films. Not that Payne is bad here, nor is the direction, it's just a meh movie. It is a joy to see Francis L. Sullivan... although he doesn't much screen time, he does have a hell of an exit scene. As for the visual style, it's a VistaVision Technicolor production... unfortunately my copy was fullscreen, faded and damaged, so I can't really comment. Worthwhile if you really need a noir fix, but pretty bland.

This is a decent film noir production. It stars John Payne in the latter portion of his career--when he was no longer a pretty-boy or light-weight singer. He was good as an angry noir hero and I certainly thought that he was up to the task. However, the plot is another story. While it's not bad, it's VERY, VERY familiar--like the writer was simply regurgitating portions of other movies he'd recently seen. In MANY ways, it's a reworking of "The Maltese Falcon" that is set in Mexico--and even has a similar sort of dame and a fat guy doing a Sidney Greenstreet imitation! It is also like several other B-movies I've seen over the years. Nothing particularly original about this one. It's got a few weaknesses (the woman is so OBVIOUSLY evil yet our hero doesn't recognize this for the longest time--even though he's a well-educated guy!) and about all you'd expect from a film of this sort--double-crosses, murders and the like. A decent time-passer but no more.

John Payne teamed with director Phil Karlson in the last of their three collaborations. Not as good as Kansas City Confidential, Hell's Island still packs quite a wallop. And Mary Astor from The Maltese Falcon, Claire Trevor from Murder My Sweet, and Jane Greer from Out Of The Past have nothing on Mary Murphy as one scheming two timing dame.

The ever avuncular Francis L. Sullivan hires Payne who was once involved with Murphy to go to some Caribbean island and check on a ruby that her husband Paul Picerni smuggled into the country. He figures that Payne can get close to her. Picerni is on another island in prison.

Payne and Murphy were supposed to be married, but she threw him over for the high flying and high living Picerni. Presumably when she married him Murphy did not know about the smuggling that allowed him to live the good life in the tropics.

Three murders later and Payne who is still carrying a Statue of Liberty size torch for Murphy starts to wise up. Paul Picerni only has one scene in the film and it's with Payne. He tells him the facts of life and really opens up his eyes, can't say more.

Mary Murphy is probably best known as the good girl that biker Marlon Brando fell for in The Wild One. But as far as I'm concerned Hell's Island contains her career performance.

If you see this fine tropic noir film, I think you'll agree.