classicsoncall Audie Murphy fan or not, one needs no other reason to watch this Western than to catch all the cool supporting players. Not all of them are on screen much or last very long, but there's a bit of a who's who list of veteran character actors in the bunch, guys like Harry Lauter (the first to go actually in an early violent scene), Royal Dano, Lee Van Cleef, Ray Teal, Rocky Lane and I. Stanford Jolley among the cast list. And that's without even mentioning the great support from John Saxon, Vic Morrow and Rodolfo Acosta.This one has Murphy in the role of a conflicted hero. I'd be curious to know how many times he appeared in films as a villain and as a good guy; he seemed to pop up in these B Westerns on both sides of the law as it were. One thing I thought the story could have done a better job with was with Cole Banner's (Murphy) back story, as we're given some sort of a hint by the dying Sheriff Webb (Ward Ramsey), but those details never materialize.Leading a rag-tag posse in pursuit of four bank robbers from the town of Paradise, Banner takes some meager satisfaction in acknowledging that most of it's members aren't worth their salt. Probably the best element of the story deals with elite New York banker Kern (Saxon) and Indian guide Johnny Caddo (Acosta) proving their worth out on the trail, while hell bent for leather gunslinger Wiley (Paul Carr) freezes up during his very first, real live gunfight. That was a tough exit for Wiley.There's also the uncomfortable theme of rape occurring off screen that provides moments of angst for Helen Caldwell (Zohra Lampert), kidnapped by the Crip Gang and left to fend for herself in the desert. Desperate to the point of suicide over her fate, Banner manages to convince her to return to Paradise and deal with her abuse constructively. I was relieved the story didn't try to take her relationship with Banner in the direction of a romance, it would have been all wrong for the dynamic of the picture.Over all I'd rate this as one of Audie Murphy's better Western efforts, a notch below my personal favorite, "No Name on the Bullet". The one you really need to see though is his true life story depicted in 1955's "To Hell and Back", depicting Murphy's World War II service. As far as this picture goes, it seems to me there was one plot element left dangling at the end of the story, and that would be - how did Johnny Caddo's body make it back to Paradise for burial in the town cemetery?

chipe Very superior B-Western. It is well cast. The posse is made of heterogeneous, well fleshed-out characters --more so than the usual Western. I enjoyed everything about the film, even stolid, amiable star Audie Murphy, who seemed tolerable. Most of the time, in an understated way, he seemed to keep from laughing out loud or reprimanding his inept posse crew. It must amuse most fans that while Murphy was the most decorated American soldier in WW II (maybe US history) in real life, his movie presence is often milquetoast.I want to mention three very unusual things about this movie, all commendable in my opinion: One, in most Westerns the bad guys hold up the bank, quickly race out of town, and an instant posse takes off after them. But here there was an amazing scene that I found believable and in tune with the movie. The bad guys killed the marshal and some others and DIDN'T rush out of town. Instead they took over the saloon, sat down at some tables and gave orders and threats and killed some as examples, for an extended period of time. It made some sense to me. The townsfolk were not soldiers or gunmen. They didn't want to die, so they didn't fight back.Two, when the posse came across one fatally wounded outlaw (Van Cleef), he lie on the ground telling them that they had a duty to care for his wounds, but Murphy said they couldn't spare a man to take Van Cleef back to town or to tend to him on the spot, so they had to leave him to die there.Three, most Westerns would end with the death of the last outlaw, but not this one. After the last outlaw is killed, Murphy carries John Saxon (good as a posse member) a few miles back to town in triumph to be congratulated. But the film refuses to end there. There is a lot of talk about the dead marshal who had recommended bad boy gunfighter Murphy for the job, about Murphy possibly becoming the new marshal and talk with the girl (Zohra Lampert, a favorite of everyone) about her future.

Spikeopath Posse from Hell is directed by Herbert Coleman and adapted to screenplay by Clair Huffaker from his own novel of the same name. It stars Audie Murphy, John Saxon, Zohra Lampert, Rodolfo Acosta, Royal Dano, Robert Keith and Vic Morrow. Out of Universal-International, it's an Eastman Color production with cinematography by Clifford Stine and music supervised by Joseph Gershenson.1880 and four escapees from death row ride into the small town of Paradise intent on causing mayhem. After robbing the bank and killing innocent men in the saloon, the men escape out of Paradise, taking with them a female hostage. A posse is formed, to be led by the slain Marshal's friend, ex-gunfighter Banner Cole, but good men are hard to find and Cole senses he would be better off on his own. But although many will die from this point on, from such adversity can heroes and friendships be born....A little under seen and under appreciated is Posse from Hell. Hardly a deep psychological Western that strips bare the characters out on the trail, but certainly a picture high on action, blood and gutsy bravado. The title is a little misleading because the posse assembled is practically a roll call of stereotypes: gunman turned good, tenderfoot, man of different race ostracised, vengeful brother, pretty gal emotionally damaged, ex-army guy, wanna be kid gunslinger, and on it goes. Yet there is grim textures in the narrative (rape/revenge/cold blooded murder) and Gershenson scores it with horror movie strains. Even the blood red titles that open the picture look like something from a Hammer Horror production, clearly Coleman, Huffaker and co were aiming for a hellish wild west while cheekily having their posse formed out of a town called Paradise! A place where not all the citizens are stand up folk.For Murphy fans this rounds out as real good value, he gets to do a number of great scenes like pouncing on a rattlesnake and diving through a window, while there's plenty of gun play moments for him to get his teeth into. But it also represents a good characterisation performance from him as Banner Cole, a man rough around the edges but definitely beating a humanist heart underneath the tough exterior. Around Murphy is a group of solid pros and up and coming stars, there's the odd iffy performance (Frank Overton) and overacting (Paul Carr), but nothing that overtly hurts the film. Main problem with it is that the villains remain elusive to us as characters, galling because we have been teased greatly in the opening section where we were introduced to some delicious villainy from Morrow as the leader Crip and Lee Van Cleef as Leo. More Morrow as a reprehensible bastard was definitely needed!Major plus point is the use of Lone Pine, Alabama Hills, for the exteriors. A wonderfully rugged, yet beautiful part of the world, where the weird rock and boulder formations envelope the characters as a reminder that it's tough out here in the west. It's an area that Budd Boetticher and Randy Scott used to great effect for their superb Ranown Westerns. It's a shame that Boetticher never worked with Murphy more, for I feel sure he really could have gotten another 25% out of him, especially around the early 60s period. Still, Posse from Hell is a very enjoyable Audie Murphy picture, a bit more violent than most of his other Westerns, it's one that if you can forgive the odd creak here and there? And not expect some posse containing Satan's offspring? Then entertained you shall be. 7/10

Brooks-9 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?'