Civilization's influence, particularly as manifested in Christianity, was especially evident on the frontier and was a pervasive theme in many of the William S. Hart westerns. The impact of faith was also a recurrent theme in Thomas Ince's productions, as I outline in my biography, and together these elements created a masterpiece.
In Hell's Hinges, the theme was vividly demonstrated in C. Gardner Sullivan's script, which is less a western than a religious parable. The saloon owner and a gunslinger (Hart) resolve to undercut any effort to bring the gospel to the town of Hell's Hinges.
However, meeting the minister's sister causes a transformation in the gunslinger, and he refuses to allow the first service to be broken up by the lawless men from the saloon. Weakened by liquor, the minister is seduced by one of the dance hall girls, but the congregation remains loyal to their faith. He is killed when the saloon owner torches the church, but in revenge the gunslinger burns the saloon.
The whole corrupt city goes up in flames, a cleansing akin to the Biblical flood from which only Noah's ark survived, as the gunslinger and the minister's sister ride off to a new life together. As in Ince's The Wrath of the Gods two years earlier, the clash of faith—and lack therof—can only be resolved by a destructive but cleansing conflagration. However, Hell's Hinges went even farther; as the critic for Photoplay Magazine declared, "In making the hot settlement's only clergyman a negative villain, author and producer did a bold thing; but in making the town's combined destroyer-saviour an out-and-out bad man, they were bolder still." The vivid film, directed by Hart and Charles Swickard in five reels, cost $32,676.43 and was shot from early September to late October 1915.
In Hell's Hinges, the theme was vividly demonstrated in C. Gardner Sullivan's script, which is less a western than a religious parable. The saloon owner and a gunslinger (Hart) resolve to undercut any effort to bring the gospel to the town of Hell's Hinges.
However, meeting the minister's sister causes a transformation in the gunslinger, and he refuses to allow the first service to be broken up by the lawless men from the saloon. Weakened by liquor, the minister is seduced by one of the dance hall girls, but the congregation remains loyal to their faith. He is killed when the saloon owner torches the church, but in revenge the gunslinger burns the saloon.
The whole corrupt city goes up in flames, a cleansing akin to the Biblical flood from which only Noah's ark survived, as the gunslinger and the minister's sister ride off to a new life together. As in Ince's The Wrath of the Gods two years earlier, the clash of faith—and lack therof—can only be resolved by a destructive but cleansing conflagration. However, Hell's Hinges went even farther; as the critic for Photoplay Magazine declared, "In making the hot settlement's only clergyman a negative villain, author and producer did a bold thing; but in making the town's combined destroyer-saviour an out-and-out bad man, they were bolder still." The vivid film, directed by Hart and Charles Swickard in five reels, cost $32,676.43 and was shot from early September to late October 1915.