Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Audie Murphy plays Clay Santell, a horse trader who offers to help out a man traveling through the desert on foot.

The man promptly steals Clay’s horse, but is winged making his escape and drops his silver-engraved shotgun.

Clay hoofs it to the nearby town of Sutterville, where folks take one look at that shotgun and figure he’s Travers, a shotgun-wielding killer with 14 murders to his credit, including an elderly couple who lived near town.

Marshal Harry Deckett (Stephen McNally) shows up, and Clay figures he’ll talk some sense into the townsfolk.

But Deckett’s been trailing Travers for four months to no avail. If he can take in a less dangerous man, pass him off as Travers and reap glory in the process … well, that’s just fine with him.

Realizing the fix he’s in, Clay breaks away and escapes into the rocky countryside with a pretty young captive named Janet (Felicia Farr).

She comes to believe in his innocence, which puts her at risk, too.

From that point, the chase is on, with Clay trying to locate the real Travers while the marshal and the good folks of Sutterville try to track down him and Janet.

Audie Murphy as Clay Santell, wondering about the cool reception he’s receiving in Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Felicia Farr as Janet, trying to reason with Marshal Deckett in Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Review:

Murphy made a series of better than average Westerns in the 1960s, and this one benefits from a unique plot. You don’t find too many marshals in Western films who are eager to take in the wrong man because they can’t catch the right one.

This marked the last Western for Felicia Farr. Like Murphy, she plays something of an outcast. A flood robbed her family of its livelihood when she was young. Once her mother died, her father turned small-time crook, giving the family a bad name. No one’s very surprised that she’s helping a suspected outlaw.

Former cowboy stars Bob Steele and Alan Lane have bit roles.

Stephen McNally as Marshal Deckett, letting Clay Santell know he might pass for an outlaw in Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Jan Merlin as Travers, the wanted killer, holding a gun on his pursuers in Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Directed by:
George Sherman

Cast:
Audie Murphy … Clay Santell
Felicia Farr … Janet
Stephen McNally … Marshal Deckett
Jan Merlin … Travers
Robert Middleton … Ambrose
Rad Fulton … Moon
Herbert Rudling … Ferrick
Malcolm Atterbury … Gamble
Joseph Ruskin … Shad
Allan Lane … Kelsey
John Qualen … Old Ben
Eddie Little Sky … William
Steve Gravers … Grover
Beau Gentry … Stone
Bob Steele … Jared

Runtime: 82 min.

Robert Middleton as Ambrose, describing his encounter with a lawman to Clay Santell in Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Herbert Rudley as Perrick (right), reading a letter Clay Santell claims will clear him in Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Memorable lines:

Marshall Deckett: “That’s one thing I’ve never been able to measure — how far a man has to run to be safe.”

Ambrose: “We in fine company. Four lowdown, miserable hound dogs, and one plump little partridge, ripe for plucking. Figure there’s enough of that partridge to go around?”

Janet: “I used to love this country. Now it seems so ugly.”
Clay: “It’s not the country. It’s some of the people who live in it.”

Clay: “What’s the matter with you people. Whole mountain have to cave in on you before you believe anything.”

Felicia Farr as Janet and Audie Murphy as Clay Santell, reacing to unexpeced visitors in Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Audie Murphy as Clay Santell, demanding that Marshal Deckett set him free in Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Stephen McNally as Marshal Deckett, coming face to face with the outlaw he’s been tracking in Hell Bent for Leather (1960)

Felicia Farr as Janet, sharing the story of her background with Clay Santell (Audie Murphy) in Hell Bent for Leather (1960)