Hell Bent (DVD)

Hell Bent (1918) is a rousing Western from the series of Cheyenne Harry adventures that director John Ford (still credited as Jack Ford early in his career) made with star Harry Carey (Straight Shooting). Cheyenne Harry was an outlaw with a heart of gold, played with stoic warmth by Carey, whose performances were a pivotal influence on John Wayne. In Hell Bent Harry flees the law after a poker game shootout, and arrives in the town of Rawhide, where he becomes friendly with local cowboy Cimmaron Bill (Duke Lee) and the kindly dance hall girl Bess Thurston (Neva Gerber), who is tending to her sick mother. Gang leader Beau Ross (Joseph Harris) falls hard for Bess, and kidnaps her. Cheyenne Harry goes to desperate lengths traveling across the deadly desert in order to free Bess from the hard-bitten Ross.