Hell's Hinges

The Reverend Robert Henley and his sister Faith arrive in a town whose name is itself a warning: Hell's Hinges. The saloon owner Silk Miller and his men see what a church would do to their business and hire Blaze Tracy, the most dangerous gunman around, to run the preacher out. But Blaze sees something in Faith's face he was not expecting and changes sides. The town has no intention of forgiving that. This silent western, starring William S. Hart, is one of the films that laid down the genre's first shapes. The line between good and bad looks firmly drawn, and yet Hart's character is a man who knows both sides of it. Charles Swickard is the director named on the credits; sources hold that Hart and Clifford Smith shot scenes too, without their names appearing. The fire at the end is counted among the boldest images of its period.