The Hellions
1961 British film directed by Ken Annakin
- 2 November 1961 (1961-11-02) (London)
Running time
South Africa
The Hellions is a 1961 British adventure film directed by Ken Annakin[1] starring Richard Todd, Anne Aubrey, Lionel Jeffries, Ronald Fraser and Colin Blakely that was set and filmed in South Africa.[2]
Plot
A lone law enforcement officer, Sam Hargis (Richard Todd), battles criminals in South Africa when the Billings family of Luke Billings (Lionel Jeffries) and his four sons ride into town to get revenge on Hargis for a previous clash, when he ran Luke Billings out of town.
At first, the locals leave all of the fighting to Hargis, saying that it is his sole responsibility. However, after the Billings kill two innocent residents, some of them arm themselves and shoot dead all the Billings except Luke who, during a fist fight with Hargis, falls from a roof and is killed.
Cast
- Richard Todd as Sam Hargis
- Anne Aubrey as Priss Dobbs
- Jamie Uys as Ernie Dobbs
- Marty Wilde as John Billings
- Lionel Jeffries as Luke Billings
- James Booth as Jubal Billings
- Al Mulock as Mark Billings
- Colin Blakely as Matthew Billings
- Ronald Fraser as Frank
- Zena Walker as Julie Hargis
Production
The film was offered by Warwick Productions to Ken Annakin, who agreed to direct as he had fond memories of South Africa from another film, Nor the Moon by Midnight.[3]
Filming took place in Brits, a small town north of Pretoria. Annakin decided to make the film " as a spoof of the normal American Western. With many laughs and broad gags — such as were used so successfully years later in Cat Ballou. We proceeded to shoot the film this way."[4] Annakin fell so ill with polio during the shoot he was unable to make it on set so Harold Huth and his assistant Clive Reed took over and directed under Annakin's instructions from the hospital bed. It took Annakin months to recover.[5]
Reception
The New York Times called it "High Noon on the veldt... wide screen drivel."[6]
Annakin later wrote " Most of the critics panned the film for being uneven — which was not surprising since I had directed big portions of the scenes tongue-in-cheek while Harold Huth and Clive Reed, God bless them, had loyally tried to complete them but somehow had allowed everything to be played straight"[7]
References
Notes
- Annakin, Ken (2001). So you wanna be a director?. Tomahawk Press. ISBN 9780953192656.
External links
- The Hellions at IMDb
- The Hellions at BFI
- The Hellions at Letterbox DVD
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Films directed by Ken Annakin
- It Began on the Clyde (1946)
- Fenlands (1946)
- Holiday Camp (1947)
- Miranda (1948)
- Broken Journey (1948)
- Here Come the Huggetts (1948)
- Quartet (1948)
- Vote for Huggett (1949)
- The Huggetts Abroad (1949)
- Landfall (1949)
- Double Confession (1950)
- Trio (1950)
- Hotel Sahara (1951)
- The Story of Robin Hood (1952)
- The Planter's Wife (1952)
- The Sword and the Rose (1953)
- You Know What Sailors Are (1954)
- The Seekers (1954)
- Value for Money (1955)
- Loser Takes All (1956)
- Three Men in a Boat (1956)
- Across the Bridge (1957)
- Nor the Moon by Night (1958)
- Third Man on the Mountain (1959)
- Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
- Very Important Person (1961)
- The Hellions (1961)
- The Fast Lady (1962)
- The Longest Day (1962)
- Crooks Anonymous (1962)
- The Informers (1963)
- Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)
- Battle of the Bulge (1965)
- The Perils of Pauline (1967, part)
- The Long Duel (1967)
- The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968)
- Monte Carlo or Bust! (1969)
- The Call of the Wild (1972)
- Paper Tiger (1975)
- Murder at the Mardi Gras (1978)
- The Pirate (1978)
- The Fifth Musketeer (1979)
- Institute for Revenge (1979)
- Cheaper to Keep Her (1981)
- The Pirate Movie (1982)
- The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1988)
- Genghis Khan (unfinished)
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