Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

LeonLouisRicci Audie Murphy Over John Wayne Any Day. Real Life War Hero Audie Murphy was an Admired Man who was Brave, Courageous, and True. He Admitted that Acting was a Battle He Never Won. With a Likable Screen Persona He Soldered through a Career including many a Western. This was One of His Best.A Solid Cast of B-Movie Actors, Striking Color Cinematography, more Violent than usual for the Time, some Truly Good vs Evil Characters, and Philosophical Musing make this an Above Average Entry in the Wagonload of Westerns in the Time Period (1950-Early 1960's).It's a Grueling Task for the Make-Shift Posse on the Trail of some Hideous Bad-Guys lead by Vic Morrow and Lee Van Cleef. Audie and John Saxon reach Deep for some Soul Searching and the Ever Elusive, Nasty and Clever Outlaws show some Serious Signs of the Change about to Occur in Hollywood.A Must See for Western Fans, especially Audie Murphy Cultists. The Story is well told and as Entertaining as All Get Out as these things go. This is one that the Most Decorated Military Hero in History can be Proud.

bkoganbing Posse From Hell is my second favorite Audie Murphy western, his best being No Name On The Bullet. It's Audie who is leading the men who make up the Posse From Hell, he's a deputy tracking down the killer of the marshal and another citizen from his town of Paradise.Four prize specimens scheduled to hang escape from territorial prison and come upon the town and terrorize it, taking with them as hostage and sex toy Zohra Lampert. The leader of the four is Vic Morrow who packs a deadly shotgun. Morrow is absolutely riveting in his evil, this may very well be his career role.In fact Posse From Hell has many good supporting parts, Robert Keith plays a vain Civil War soldier looking to recapture some of his former prestige or acquire some he never had. John Saxon also stands out as a bank clerk who's from the east who joins the posse to see if he has the right stuff. Rudolfo Acosta who usually plays bad guys plays an Indian who joins the posse as a tracker and takes a lot of guff from the more self righteous whites. Seeing how deadly Morrow is with a shotgun this is an image that will disturb you and stay with you a long time. A nice cast of familiar players help Audie Murphy make this one of his best westerns. An absolute must for his fans.

Spikeopath Posse from Hell is directed by Herbert Coleman and adapted to screenplay by Clair Huffaker from his own novel of the same name. It stars Audie Murphy, John Saxon, Zohra Lampert, Rodolfo Acosta, Royal Dano, Robert Keith and Vic Morrow. Out of Universal-International, it's an Eastman Color production with cinematography by Clifford Stine and music supervised by Joseph Gershenson.1880 and four escapees from death row ride into the small town of Paradise intent on causing mayhem. After robbing the bank and killing innocent men in the saloon, the men escape out of Paradise, taking with them a female hostage. A posse is formed, to be led by the slain Marshal's friend, ex-gunfighter Banner Cole, but good men are hard to find and Cole senses he would be better off on his own. But although many will die from this point on, from such adversity can heroes and friendships be born....A little under seen and under appreciated is Posse from Hell. Hardly a deep psychological Western that strips bare the characters out on the trail, but certainly a picture high on action, blood and gutsy bravado. The title is a little misleading because the posse assembled is practically a roll call of stereotypes: gunman turned good, tenderfoot, man of different race ostracised, vengeful brother, pretty gal emotionally damaged, ex-army guy, wanna be kid gunslinger, and on it goes. Yet there is grim textures in the narrative (rape/revenge/cold blooded murder) and Gershenson scores it with horror movie strains. Even the blood red titles that open the picture look like something from a Hammer Horror production, clearly Coleman, Huffaker and co were aiming for a hellish wild west while cheekily having their posse formed out of a town called Paradise! A place where not all the citizens are stand up folk.For Murphy fans this rounds out as real good value, he gets to do a number of great scenes like pouncing on a rattlesnake and diving through a window, while there's plenty of gun play moments for him to get his teeth into. But it also represents a good characterisation performance from him as Banner Cole, a man rough around the edges but definitely beating a humanist heart underneath the tough exterior. Around Murphy is a group of solid pros and up and coming stars, there's the odd iffy performance (Frank Overton) and overacting (Paul Carr), but nothing that overtly hurts the film. Main problem with it is that the villains remain elusive to us as characters, galling because we have been teased greatly in the opening section where we were introduced to some delicious villainy from Morrow as the leader Crip and Lee Van Cleef as Leo. More Morrow as a reprehensible bastard was definitely needed!Major plus point is the use of Lone Pine, Alabama Hills, for the exteriors. A wonderfully rugged, yet beautiful part of the world, where the weird rock and boulder formations envelope the characters as a reminder that it's tough out here in the west. It's an area that Budd Boetticher and Randy Scott used to great effect for their superb Ranown Westerns. It's a shame that Boetticher never worked with Murphy more, for I feel sure he really could have gotten another 25% out of him, especially around the early 60s period. Still, Posse from Hell is a very enjoyable Audie Murphy picture, a bit more violent than most of his other Westerns, it's one that if you can forgive the odd creak here and there? And not expect some posse containing Satan's offspring? Then entertained you shall be. 7/10

Brooks-9 The producer spent enough money on this film for it to have been a real tribute to Murphy and some new talent that came along with him. In spite of liberal financing, the chemistry of the picture is as a gourmet meal spoiling & decomposing over some hot days of being left out on the table -- and yet not as if this film had gone stale from protracted timing or over-working. Simply put: the production money had been spent in the wrong places; although technically, there was no lacking of potential, and a number of scenes are actually very good -- only to be spoilt in brand "x" followups & careless errors. The screenwriting editors seem greatly to be blamed. The cinematography was "competent" TV-style dead-panning, with little imagination. It seemed to have been deliberately sabotaged by corny, even shoddy, lapses in set, dialogue, and cinematography -- all set to lavishly overdone Gershwin music. It is as if somebody tried to make an upside-down parody of 'Schindler's List' into a Western -- and succeeded in canning all of the "vitality" of the picture. This film is as if all of the life had been taken out of 'Hud' and lot's of action / colour had been forced-in instead. This film is a cinematographical nightmare that one has in the early morning hours before awaking, after eating too much of a rich dinner. Audie should have known better than to have made this film the way it was; he ought to have produced it himself and done it right. In sum, 'POSSE...' is one of the examples of fine Westerns ceasing to be made. At best, it paved the way for the "spaghetti" phenomena that ushered in the Clint Eastwood era...and the last death throws of the Westerns' golden age [...1927-1961...]. One can only ask, 'Why?'