William Wyler Read Free Page A

known as Terrapin Tanks. But when they reach their destination, they discover that the water hole is dry. Then they find a woman in a wagon (with no horses) who is about to give birth. A baby boy is born in the evening, and before she dies, the mother names the child after the three men, asking them to be her baby's godfathers and to save him. Bob Sangster, the leader, agrees to her request, and all three men commit themselves to the well-being of the child. Having lost their horses, they must walk through the desert, taking turns carrying the child. Gibbons, because of his wound, is the first to die. Wild Bill Kearny dies soon after of thirst and madness, but not before telling Sangster how to get to New Jerusalem, the closest town. Sangster reaches the town on Christmas Day, thirsty, bloody, raving, and clutching the child to his breast. He hears music coming from a saloon, hands the baby to a woman, and collapses.
    Wyler's film, unlike the book and Ford's famous remake (his original does not survive), lacks sentimentality. Wyler wanted the film to be realistic, rooted in the sweltering desert locales. The screenplay, by Tom Reed, considerably darkens Kyne's story. Unlike the original and the other film versions (notably Ford's), Wyler's film begins and ends in New Jerusalem—the site of the bank robbery. Sangster knows that returning there means sure death because during the course of the robbery they killed a teller, who turns out to be the baby's father, in an ironic twist that is unique to Wyler's version. The Sangster of Hell's Heroes is a gruff, selfish character, unlike either his counterpart in the book or the almost saintly Robert Hightower (Wayne) of Ford's film. And whereas the novel's Sangster is the first to agree to the dying mother's request, Wyler's Sangster is the last; the others practically have to force him to do so. Initially, he even refuses to share the milk they find in the wagon with the baby; he wants to drink it himself.
    In both the novel and Wyler's version, Sangster dies after reaching New Jerusalem. In the final version of Wyler's film, but not in novel, he deliberately drinks poisoned water so that he can walk the last mile; then he dies on a church doorstep. In Ford's version, however, Hightower lives, and his heroism saves him from hanging. He is sentenced to one year in jail, and the film makes it clear that after he serves his time, he will return to help raise the boy, who has been adopted by the sheriff and his wife.
    Wyler's original ending was more brutal than the one in the released film:
    The surging, angry crowd has surrounded Bickford [Charles Bickford, the actor playing Sangster].
    A dance-hall girl snatches away the child from the dazed bandit. The crowd knocks him down, ties him. A rope is thrown around him and a horseman begins to drag him through the street. The Sheriff rushes up, claims Bickford in the name of the law. He picks up the fallen man, promises to hang him.
    We see the bandit's face—inhumanely gruesome, nightmarish. The Sheriff shakes him. No sign of life. He slaps his face again. With his finger he pries open the bandit's eye and we see the dead, glazed white. The Sheriff announces him dead. Ugh! 7
    The supervisor Junior had hired to oversee Wyler thought the director's commitment to realism had ruined the film. He wrote to Junior that the ending was “the most gruesome scene we have ever seen on film and…will give audiences nightmares for weeks.” Junior obviously agreed even before he saw the ending, for he wrote to Wyler: “It looks from this report that you have evidently butchered a great picture.” 8
    Wyler filmed Hell's Heroes on location in the Mojave Desert and the Panamint Valley in August because he wanted the sweltering conditions to emphasize the realism of the setting and the extreme predicament of the three outlaws. Indeed, the desert functions as a force of nature, a brutal stage on which a tale of redemption is played