The Hellbenders — The Hellbenders(Blu Ray)

Sergio Corbucci’s The Hellbenders (I Crudeli) was released in 1967. Sandwiched between two bigger and brasher efforts often cited as the director’s best, Django (1966) and The Grand Silence (1968), it’s no wonder that it’s often relegated in conversations of Corbucci’s work. Its profile is limited by swapping the action of those better-known movies for suspense and, on the face of it, reworking the plot of 1965’s The Tramplers (directed by Albert Band, who uncoincidentally produced this).

However, this high-definition restoration from StudioCanal is the perfect chance to reappraise an unconventional and influential Spaghetti Western that takes us on a doomed odyssey in the immediate aftermath of the American Civil War.

 It’s 1865, and the South may have surrendered, but Colonel Jonas (Joseph Cotten) is determined to continue the cause of the Confederacy. He and his three sons, under the banner of his former regiment, the Hellbenders, massacre a convoy of Union soldiers and loot $1 million in new dollars. They plan to restore the South’s cause by posing as a burial escort and smuggling the cash in the coffin of a deceased Captain Ambrose Allen.

 With forged papers, all they need is someone to pose as the captain’s widow. When their first stand-in, Kitty (María Martín), proves to be too much of a liability, Jonas’s most level-headed son, Ben (Julián Mateos), recruits gambler Clare (Norma Bengell). Still, even with the gambler reluctantly on board, the crew face apparently impossible odds, including Union patrols, Mexican bandits, a $100,000 price on their heads and simmering internal tensions.

 Lodged at the end of the Civil War and the start of the Western era, The Hellbenders’ tone may feel strange for viewers familiar with Spaghetti Westerns like Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy. There are no antiheroes here, just shades of villainy as the Colonel’s plot progresses—a heist getaway that lasts the duration of the movie. While the film may not hand Cotten his greatest role, he plays a scene-stealing central villain: an ideologically driven zealot ‘in love with the cause’. Taking disenfranchised ex-Confederates as a subject may be interesting, but this has to be a doomed mission, packed with a succession of near-misses.

 The Hellbenders trades the action of a film like Django for repeated, tense set-pieces that threaten to derail the gang’s plot. The suspense of every meeting with sheriffs, Union soldiers and priests is finely tuned with extreme close-ups and crash zooms. As the film progresses, we’re torn between what might happen first: one of the figures they cross paths with finally joining the dots or the gang pulling itself to bits.

 The Hellbenders isn’t the first western to use a coffin for something other than a body, and Corbucci plays with the familiarity and inherent repetition of the simple plot. Shot between Spain and Italy, some locations may be recognised from other Spaghetti Westerns. In Corbucci’s vision, landscapes are reused to lightly suggest, with an air of abstraction, a circular journey rather than the direct one we’re told about.

 All the build-up pays off in the final scenes and a jolting third-act twist. On the way, while not action-packed, The Hellbenders includes some savage and gratuitous gunfights, none more so than the savage opening massacre of soldiers and horses escorting the money that starts the fire that smoulders throughout; the heat that rises for the rest of the film is nurtured by the impressive price tag hanging over the gang’s head.

 Another element that swoops in to turn the repetitive structure into a benefit is Ennio Morricone’s score (although, swamped with Western work at the time, he’s credited as Lee Nichols). It’s the first Western score the composer built around a trumpet, and fans will recognise refrains from other movies he worked on that touched on the Civil War years.

 This disc’s extras, including an introduction by Jean-Baptiste Thoret and Hell on Wheels, Howard Hughes’ video talk on the making of the movie, help support the case that The Hellbenders should be regarded alongside Corbucci’s better-known films. An audio commentary by filmmaker Alex Cox and an interview with assistant director Ruggero Deodato round out an informative package.

 With its potential for revisionist history, crash zooms and a central nihilistic mission with a twist, it’s easy to see why Quentin Tarantino named The Hellbenders on his list of favourite westerns. This restoration doesn’t overcome the colour variation that critics noted on the film’s release. Still, it’s undoubtedly the best format to watch this fascinating, lesser-regarded Corbucci and measure its legacy.