Wonderful character development!

One of the best films i have seen

Absolutely the worst movie.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Hell's Half Acre is directed by John H. Auer and written by Steve Fisher. It stars Wendell Corey, Evelyn Keyes, Elsa Lanchester, Marie Windsor, Nancy Gates and Leonard Strong. Music is by R. Dale Butts and cinematography by John L. Russell.Filmed and set in Hawaii, one could be forgiven for thinking this couldn't possibly work as a piece of film noir. In fact, the opening credit sequences lends one to think this could well be a frothy Elvis Presley type of movie - but it most assuredly isn't.Cash or Cave in?Story has Corey up to his neck in femme fatales, shifty criminal acquaintances and coppers. Which is not bad for a guy who was apparently killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor! The Hell's Half Acre of the tile is what is termed in the film as a shabby tenement district, this is the seedy underbelly of what we know as the paradise island. The location makes for some excellent atmospheric noir touches, with the production line abodes and the ream of wooden stairs and banisters making for a moody backdrop. At night the shadows come in to play, hanging nicely off of the alleyways and tawdry bars.Dirty Rat!Though a little too contrived for its own good, the many characterisations on show make the annoying itches easily scratched. From two-timing dames and thugs in need of anger management - to alcoholic slobs and batty taxi drivers, this has a roll call of colourful people drifting in and out of Hell's Half Acre. There's even some censor baiting going on, though the whiff of violent misogyny could have been less pungent.Some serious noir credentials are found with the makers, Auer (City That Never Sleeps), Fisher (I Wake Up Screaming), Corey (The Big Knife), Keyes (The Prowler), Windsor (The Narrow Margin), Gates (Suddenly), Lanchester (The Big Clock) and Russell (Moonrise), and that's only really scratching the surface. With its distinctive setting and well controlled unfurling of noir conventions, this is well worth a look by the noir faithful. 7/10

It's almost mandatory that when you film in Hawaii you film in color. But that would have put Herbert J. Yates and Republic Pictures on the horns of a dilemma. They were making a noir film set in Honolulu which is most often done in black and white anyway. And Yates was trying mightily to keep his studio afloat with the advent of television which overtaking Republic's bread and butter, B westerns.Evelyn Keyes and Wendell Corey star in this film where Evelyn hears that the husband she thought lost on the Arizona in December of 1941 is on trial for murder in Honolulu. She goes to Hawaii to investigate. Corey the long lost husband is now a syndicate big shot and has confessed to killing a former partner. A third partner Philip Ahn is looking to take advantage of the situation and inherit all of Corey's assets.No sooner does Keyes arrive in Hawaii than she's hip deep in the case when she tries to visit Corey's current girlfriend Nancy Gates. She spots Ahn near the home where he has just recently murdered Gates. That puts both Corey on a personal hunt and the Honolulu PD on a hunt for Ahn.I have to say that while Ahn has played villains before, he was never quite as brutal as he is in this film. His opposite number Keye Luke plays Honolulu's chief of police and he's a wise and compassionate soul and really in the end comes through for Keyes. Corey also does the decent thing in the end.A couple of other interesting roles are Jesse White as a hapless drunken gunsill and his slattern of a wife Marie Windsor who next to Gloria Grahame played the most tramps of the Fifties.Some story plot holes that you could have driven the Arizona through when it was afloat unfortunately mar Hell's Half Acre. But the characterizations are just fine. I only wish that color had been used because having been to Hawaii black and white doesn't do it justice.

I guy was supposedly killed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, his wife of only a week insists that he might still be alive and cannot get on with her life (a pretty dumb cliché). So, she goes to the island to investigate and finds that the man who MIGHT be her husband is in police custody--held on a murder rap. Can this all get sorted out by the end and niceness once again be restored to pretty Oahu? I noticed that some of the other reviews saw some plot holes in this one. I would agree--several times the plot SHOULD have been worked out better in order to make logical sense. However, despite these shortcomings, the film is pretty good--a nice example of a B noir film with a strange locale. I say strange because it's set in Hawaii--and it gives some lesser actors and Asian-Americans a chance to act. For example, Philip Ahn played mostly one-dimensional Japanese soldiers in WWII-era films. Here, he's a wonderful villain--with some personality. The same goes for Keye Luke. Here he's no longer #1 Son (from the Charlie Chan movies) but plays a cop in his own right. As for the rest, Wendell Corey (a dependable supporting actor) is in lead along with support from the likes of Evelyn Keyes, Marie Windsor and Jesse White. Together, this ensemble case does a very nice job. Not a great film but an enjoyable time-passer.

Dismissed as a sleeper, this thriller has become possibly the most durable of Republic's mid-1950's features. John Auer directs this gritty screenplay of Steve Fisher. Chet Chester(Wendell Corey)is well known and the popular owner of a hot Honolulu night spot, despite the fact that he is an ex-racketeer. When a former cohort comes to "shake-down" Chet, his girlfriend Sally(Nancy Gates)kills the man and Chester takes the blame assuming he has enough money socked away to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. Meanwhile a Dona Williams(Evelyn Keyes)arrives from stateside to see Chet thinking he is her long-lost husband believed to have been killed during the attack of Pearl Harbor. When Sally is murdered, Chet escapes custody and runs to hide in Hell's Half Acre, a rundown area of Honolulu where low-lives, wannabees and various degrees of the criminal element find a place to dwell. Keye Luke plays a sympathetic Police Chief and Philip Ahn is perfect as the story's creepy villain. Elsa Lanchester is cast as Lida O'Reilly, a comical and doting cab driver. Also in the cast: Marie Windsor, Jesse White and Robert Costa.