Fate brings three small-time thieves together in 1876 Texas.
Tanner Beard plays James McKinnon, who arrives in Dallas with his pockets full of stolen cash and a watch handled down by his family in Ireland.
By the time saloon gal Katherine Prescott gets through with him, only the watch remains.
Eric Balour plays Will Edwards, a member of the James-Younger gang, hired to get revenge against a guy named “Champagne” Charlie Austin.
When a barroom encounter leads to gunfire, he wants no part of the killing. So he and McKinnon swipe a stage and head to Granbury, where the friend who’s supposed to help them has just gotten shot over a bowling wager.
So they turn to Kelly (Lou Taylor Pucci), an errand boy for town boss J.H. Gordon. And they all wind up on the run together after he steals a derringer supposedly used to kill Lincoln and a posse shows up.
Now they’re on the run with stolen hides, a stolen gun and no horses. The owner of the hides is on their trail. So is the owner of a boat in which they made their getaway.
Not to mention the posse. And the Comanches who live in the area.
Eric Balour as Will Edwards, a small-town crook on the run in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Tanner Beard as James McKinnon, who finds himself robbed, hunted by the law and stranded with an outlaw he doesn’t know in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Review:
It takes a while to get going with characters appearing and disappearing in a flash before the film’s focus settles in on James, Will and Kelly.
But even before the focus becomes clear, the acting and direction is a notch above what we’ve come to expect from 21st Century Westerns.
Not everything works. The shootout over a game of bowling is ludicrous.
But more works than doesn’t and we get solid performances from several supporting members of the cast, including Jenna DeWan-Tatum as Katherine, Henry Thomas as John St. Helens (the man who claims he’s really John Wilkes Booth) and Jamie Thomas King as Doc Holliday.
Lou Taylor Pucci as Kelly, the man who winds up with John Wilkes Booth’s pistol in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Henry Thomas as John St. Helens, the man who says he’s really John Wilkes Booth in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Directed by:
Tanner Beard
Cast:
Eric Balour … Will Edwards
Tanner Beard … James McKinnon
Lou Taylor Pucci … Kelly
Henry Thomas … John St. Helens
Jeanna DeWan-Tatum … Katherine Prescott
Summer Glau … Maggie Moon
Kevin Alejandro … August Edwards
Jamie Thomas King … John Henry Doc Holliday
Drew Waters … Champagne Charlie Austin
Jim Beaver … J. Wright Mooar
Glenn Morshower … J.H. Gordon
Runtime: 108 min.
Jeanna DeWan-Tatum as Katherine Prescott, the whore who steals James’ heart and money in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Summer Glau as Maggie Moon with her father after bandits have hit their home in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Memorable lines:
James: “Indians are sneaky. I should stay behind in case they start killing people.”
Holliday, offering James a drink: “The fires of hell mixed with the waters of heaven.”
Holliday to Charlie Austin: “You couldn’t shoot your hand if you put your finger in the barrel.”
Will, bending over to pick an arrowhead out of the water: “Look what I found.”
Kelly, acting frantic: “Put that back. They say it’s bad luck to find an arrowhead in a creek.”
Will tosses the arrowhead down quickly, clearly afraid of bringing on bad luck.
Kelly: “Just funning, ya, Irish.”
Jamie Thomas King as Doc Holliday, the dentist who pulls James’ aching tooth in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Glenn Morshower as J.H. Gordon, angered that someone has died on his property in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Buck Taylor as moonshine dealer Pete Snyder in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
The tracker whose boat and whiskey the three young men steal in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011). Does anyone know who plays this part?
William McNamara as Jones Moon, looking for the men who robbed his homestead in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Summer Glau as Maggie Moon, admiring a pretty dress her pa can’t afford in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Jeanna DeWann-Tatum as the pretty whore Katherine Prescott who turns James head in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
Tanner Beard as James McKinnon, Lou Taylor Pucci as Kelly and Eric Balour as Will Edwards, spooked by a noise in the brush in The Legend of Hell’s Gate (2011)
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