Only in Hollywood would a guy who directed mostly silent movies become a dialogue director – which is exactly what happened to Jacques Jaccard in 1938! In fact to judge by this movie, Mr. Jaccard was a dead loss all around. But maybe that's not true. I take that back. I haven't seen sufficient of Mr. Jaccard's movies to judge his competence. But I do have this movie on hand in a very acceptable Grapevine DVD. Except for the fact that it stars Yakima Canutt and that both Yak and Cliff Lyons do some amazing stunt-work, Hell Hounds has little to recommend it. Production values deserve a "C" rating at best, and the same goes for Mr. Jaccard's direction which at best is thoroughly routine. Admittedly, the movie was obviously made on the cheap and succeeds in the difficult feat of having both too many and yet not enough subtitles. Yes, in some scenes we watch the actors, particularly Yak and Lafe McKee, mouthing at each other, but what they are saying we can only guess. Other scenes, however, where the dialogue is obvious, are broken up by a multitude of unnecessary titles! A further problem, alas, is that the heroine is a foundation member of the old bug-eyed school of over-emphatic acting. Yak also overacts, particularly in emotional moments where he overdoes the sorrowful look. Yes, the plot is a mixture of typical Western Action and True Romance, but at least Grapevine DVD has provided us with a very nice tinted print.

Hell Hounds of the Plains (1927) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Deputy Yak Hammond (Yakima Canutt) is trying to make his relationship with Esther Lawson (Neva Gerber) more serious but her father demands that he start a group known as the Hell Hounds from robbing the horses in town. The father says Yak can marry his daughter if he catches the bad guys but the father doesn't realize that the ringleader is his own son. HELL HOUNDS OF THE PLAINS is a decent "B" Western that manages to be entertaining even though it's technically poorly made. I say that because there are just so many scenes that are shot so poorly and really don't contain anything good looking. This includes several scenes early on where the story is told so poorly that one has a hard time following what exactly is going on. Even the editing is quite poor and there's certainly no good pacing to the film. With that said, the Western clichés are actually quite good and this includes some great stuff involving the horse thieves and even the relationship between Cannutt and Gerber was well handled. I really can't say either one gave what we'd call a "good" performance but they're good enough for this type of material. One certainly shouldn't come into this expecting the work of John Ford but silent Western buffs should find enough entertainment here to make it worth viewing once.

Hell Hounds of the Plains (1926) stars Yakima Canutt as Deputy Yak Hammond with the fetching Neva Gerba as his romantic interest. Yak was in the lead role rather than a stuntman and/or supporting character that he later specialized in. Supposedly he had voice problems that kept him from playing the lead in talkies. It is a fair oater, with Yak busting up a gang of horse thieves led by his girlfriend's brother, much to the chagrin of her upstanding paw when the varmint's identity was revealed at the end of the movie. Double irony, as the prospective father-in-law had made catching the gang's leader a precondition to giving Yak his daughter's hand in marriage. Features a great knock-down drag-out fist fight between Yak and the villain, and Yak was the man who invented the realistic movie slug fest. The film also offers a fine performance by Yak's mount, Boy the Wonder Horse, who scrambles down ravine walls, jumps off cliffs and dives into the water with or without Yak aboard.