Posse from Hell (1961)

Director:

Herbert Coleman

Writers:

Clair Huffaker (novel)
Clair Huffaker (screenplay)

Release Date:

1 May 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

Two steel-nerved and two-fisted men take apart a gang of gun-mad killers who had looted the whole Southwest!

Plot:

Murphy goes after bad guys who shot his friend the sheriff and abducted a local girl. In a plot reminiscent of High Noon...

Plot Keywords:

Rattlesnake | Based On Novel

Cast

Audie Murphy	...	Banner Cole
John Saxon	...	Seymour Kern
Zohra Lampert	...	Helen Caldwell
Vic Morrow	...	Crip
Robert Keith	...	Captain Jeremiah Brown
Royal Dano	...	Uncle Billy
Rodolfo Acosta	...	Johnny Caddo (as Rudolph Acosta)
Paul Carr	...	Jock Wiley
Frank Overton	...	Burt Hogan
Ward Ramsey	...	Marshal Isaac Webb
Stuart Randall	...	Luke Gorman
Lee Van Cleef	...	Leo
Charles Horvath	...	Hash
Henry Wills	...	Chunk
James Bell	...	Benson

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (Certificate #19825) | Norway:16 | West Germany:12 (nf) | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Ranch, Malibu Creek State Park - 1925 Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas, California, USA

Company:

Universal International Pictures (UI)

Posse from Hollyfad

The producer spent enough money on this film for it to have been a real tribute to Murphy and some new talent that came along with him. In spite of liberal financing, the chemistry of the picture is as a gourmet meal spoiling & decomposing over some hot days of being left out on the table -- and yet not as if this film had gone stale from protracted timing or over-working. Simply put: the production money had been spent in the wrong places; although technically, there was no lacking of potential, and a number of scenes are actually very good -- only to be spoilt in brand "x" followups & careless errors. The screenwriting editors seem greatly to be blamed. The cinematography was "competent" TV-style dead-panning, with little imagination. It seemed to have been deliberately sabotaged by corny, even shoddy, lapses in set, dialogue, and cinematography -- all set to lavishly overdone Gershwin music. It is as if somebody tried to make an upside-down parody of 'Schindler's List' into a Western -- and succeeded in canning all of the "vitality" of the picture. This film is as if all of the life had been taken out of 'Hud' and lot's of action / colour had been forced-in instead. This film is a cinematographical nightmare that one has in the early morning hours before awaking, after eating too much of a rich dinner. Audie should have known better than to have made this film the way it was; he ought to have produced it himself and done it right. In sum, 'POSSE...' is one of the examples of fine Westerns ceasing to be made. At best, it paved the way for the "spaghetti" phenomena that ushered in the Clint Eastwood era...and the last death throws of the Westerns' golden age [...1927-1961...]. One can only ask, 'Why?'