THE HELLIONS no stars

Another contender for the worst film ever made. "The Hellions" was a South-African western with a British director and a largely British cast, modelled on "High Noon" but an insult to Zinnemann's classic; indeed something of an insult to 99.9% of westerns in general. It has all the tropes of a good western but none of the qualities and is poorly acted by a cast who really ought to have known better but then they have some pretty terrible dialogue to contend with. The only pluses are some highly colourful photography from future Oscar-winner Ted Moore and the gunfight that ends the film is both unexpected and reasonably well handled by director Ken Annakin. Nevertheless, this is one to avoid.