Hell's Half Acre (1954) User Reviews

Offbeat and overlooked film noir set in Hawaiian Territory

[bmacv · 7/10 · 8 February 2004]

Hell's Half Acre (habitués just call it `the Acre') is a rabbit warren of tenements and dens of iniquity in post-war Honolulu – a South-Seas casbah. It's also the title of John H. Auer's movie which has the distinction – between the lapse of the Charlie Chan cycle and the arrival of TV dramas like Hawaii 5-0 and Magnum P.I. – of being the only film noir set in the (then) Hawaiian Territory. A little clumsy and four-square (with little of visual interest), it boasts an offbeat story line and a dandy cast.

Stateside, widowed young mother Evelyn Keyes hears a recording by a songwriter from the Islands who, she's told, has been imprisoned for killing a crime lord. Certain phrases in the song remind her of her husband, presumed lost on the Arizona during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. She breaks off her engagement and flies to Honolulu; her guide to the local culture is cabdriver Elsa Lanchester, a `character.' Police Chief Keye Luke arranges for Keyes to see the mystery man (Wendell Corey), but when the prisoner learns that his current girlfriend (Nancy Gates) has been murdered, he escapes custody. Keyes penetrates deeper into the Acre to find him, while his underworld associates, their greed and curiosity piqued, try to find her....

All too briefly, Hell's Half Acre features Marie Windsor, as the wife of fish-and-poi slinger Jesse White (she's two-timing him with sinister Philip Ahn). The crummy rooms Windsor and White occupy in the Acre are one of three main locales, the others being Corey's Waikiki beach house and The Polynesian Paradise, the nightclub he owns (technical advisor to the film was Don The Beachcomber). There's an elevated quotient of violence, particularly violence to women, and the somewhat murky story isn't sweetened up (though touristy material sometimes intrudes). Auer never got a crack at first-rate material to direct (maybe he never showed he could do it), but Hell's Half Acre holds its own against his better-known The City That Never Sleeps. Like so many of the better noirs, its surprises emerge from out of the past.

Discovered double life in Hawaii.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 20 July 2011]

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.

An enjoyable B

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 6 December 2011]

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.

Case History of Chet Chester.

[hitchcockthelegend · 7/10 · 7 March 2017]

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

Aloha Oy Vez

[bkoganbing · 6/10 · 7 March 2013]

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.

Honolulu Gets Dark At Night

[boblipton · 6/10 · 27 April 2021]

Evelyn Keyes flies to Hawaii. According to Navy records, he was killed at the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. However, Wendell Corey has just been arrested by the Honolulu police for murder, and the picture in the papers looks like her husband, twelve years older and with a scar. She can't be sure, so she shows up at police chief Philip Ahn's office, only to find that Corey has fled into the city's red light district.

This might be set in Hawaii, but despite the sunlit views of the Big Island and the languid steel guitars, director John H. Auer leads us into a darkening and corrupt world that it all looks and sounds menacing, despite the low-key acting of the two leads. It's not great, but it's always interesting, with nice turns by Elsa Lanchester, Marie Wilson and Jesse White.

Honolulu Mystery

[richardchatten · 7/10 · 4 November 2020]

An offbeat drama with a dream-like guitar score and a strong female contingent, including hard-bitten floozy Marie Windsor. Shot in glacial black & white on location in Honolulu by cameraman John L. ('Psycho') Russell.

The script by Steve Fisher looks as if it began life set on the mean streets of New York; which would account for the unexpected presence of Elsa Lanchester as a taxi-driving Earth mother who takes Evelyn Keyes under her wing in the search for Ms Keyes' amnesiac husband Wendell Corey.

Aloha Noir

[carolynpaetow · 7 October 2002]

This flat-footed, full-of-holes feature is nonetheless fascinating because of its Honolulu locale and exotic characters. Marie Windsor as Jesse White's wife and Philip Ahn's mistress? Film noir nirvana! And the Production Code vision of a hellish den of iniquity? A crisply clean framework of lumber and whitewash enclosing gambling parlors and taxi-dancehalls!

Hawaii blues.

[ulicknormanowen · 6/10 · 13 July 2020]

It looks like a giant hide and seek play in Hawaiian paradise ("hell" is too strong a word to depict even the shady places ) ; the screenplay is derivative as it blends film noir with war melodrama .Both stars , Corey and Keyes only meet halfway through the film. Keyes plays the most endearing character of the story : she's in search of a man she was married to for three days ,left with a son she depicts as the seventh wonder of the world ; she made sure he was carefully brought up to become....what his father could have been .When reality is too hard to live with ,it's better to keep the legend .Mainly for a teenage boy in a military school.

Wow this is not Very Good

[arfdawg-1 · 2/10 · 24 October 2019]

Good reviews - both here and from the pros, but I found this flick not so good. The acting isn't particularly good and the drama is tepid.

Additionally the look of the leads leave lots to yearn for.

Elsa Lancaster plays a former teacher from Wisconsin who is now a taxi driver in Hawaii with a British accent.

The continual implanting of annoying choruses singing Hawaiian songs gets on my nerves.

The plotting is slow which emphasizes the lack of good acting.

I wanted to enjoy this movie, but I didn't

Film Noir in Hawaii? It works.

[madbomber03 · 8/10 · 16 September 2000]

This little gem of a film noir B movie is about a woman trying to track down her long lost husband in Hawaii after the War (WWII) where he was supposed to have died. In the process she finds herself in the middle of an underworld power struggle. Beautifully filmed in Hawaii with Ms. Keyes really working those facial expressions, as she tended to do. The film is tight, cynical and at times redeeming. Just a good little film.

Every major city must have a Casbah.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 23 November 2013]

There's something to be said for putting Wendell Corey in Hawaiian shirts; It makes him seem alive rather than the boring suits he wore in films such as "The File on Thelma Jordan" and "Harriet Craig". Here, he's a victim of blackmail whose girlfriend kills the blackmailer and ends up being killed herself with Corey blamed for the first murder. When his ex-wife Evelyn Keyes learns about this, she heads to Hawaii just three days after getting re-married to help him and tell him about his son which he seems never to have known about. Along with a rather chatty taxi driver (Elsa Lancaster, cast in a thankless role even in spite of being given third billing above the titles), Keyes ends up in Hell's Half Acre, a hiding spot for criminals and even works as a taxi dancer briefly to make contacts. Corey's business partner (Philip Ahn) is obviously involved in something shady, while Keyes must deal with a ton of creepy characters, including Jesse White who drunkenly attempts to rape her.

This is a film that is sometimes a bit hard to take, too sleazy to be believable yet not sleazy enough to not be. The characters are mostly one-note, and the original murder (done by Nancy Bates, quickly dispatched soon afterwards) is never set up to give us a potent reason behind the blackmail. Marie Windsor, as White's floozy wife, at times looks exactly like Bates did before getting bumped, so that's another detail that can't help but go unnoticed. Charlie Chan's "number one son", Keye Luke, is the only element of nobility in the film as the police detective determined to help Corey prove his innocence if only he'll stay put. Ahn's seemingly classy villain is given an obvious evil temper, yet somehow, the motivations, even if sinister, are never convincing. As far as film noirs go, this is one of the weaker ones, and you may long for a classic episode of "Hawaii Five-O" after this to get the bad taste out of your head.

The finale is so unconvincing that I spent a few minutes shaking my head with its unbelievability and supposedly honorable ridiculousness. Even though Corey has sprung to life a bit in this and Keyes is a lovely heroine, the enormous number of improbabilities here make this one for definite warning.

Tiki Noir

[mgtbltp · 8/10 · 31 July 2013]

Director: John H. Auer, Story by Steve Fisher, Cinematography by John L. Russell with a surprisingly great cast, Wendell Corey, Evelyn Keyes, Marie Windsor, Jesse White, Nancy Gates, Keye Luke, Phililip Ahn, Robert Costa, Leonard Strong, and Elsa Lanchester. The film takes place in for that time period the Hawaiian Territory. Hell's Half Acre is to Honolulu what Bunker Hill was to Los Angeles, the ghetto district of Honolulu, a multi-story labyrinth, a rats nest of cribs, flop houses, clubs, gambling dens and dime a dance joints.

I wonder if this film along with Cry Vengeance & Alaska Seas were a way of priming the territories for statehood as in "see your just as corrupt as the rest of U.S.".

Story opens with a couple planning to be married, Chet and Sally Lee (Wendell Corey and Nancy Gates), sitting in Chet's tiki nightclub "Chet's Hawaiian Retreat" the ultimate Tiki Bar. Chet Chester has a burn scar on the left side of his face, he is something of a racketeer, at the start of WWII he started a syndicate in Hell's Half Acre with "Slim" Novak (Robert Costa) and Roger Kong (Phililip Ahn), then after the war he bought them both out and went legit. Now he pretty much has gained some pull and respectability Honolulu. He has enough leisure time on his hands to also compose and record songs.

Chet's friend Roger Kong is throwing a party in his honor by staging a Hawaiian band & chorus floor show playing Chet's hit song "Polynesian Rhapsody" While they listen, sinister looking Novak passes a threatening note to Sally Lee who excuses herself to meet him in the clubs office. He tells her that he is going to blackmail Chet exposing his past so he and Roger can re start the syndicate. Sally, taking no BS from Novak, puts a bullet in his forehead, in a surprisingly pretty graphic sequence for 1954.

Sally Lee goes back and tells Chet what she did. He tells her that he will take the rap for her but that she is to leave for the mainland with $50,000 of his money to give to a lawyer buddy of his back in LA to get him off.

Cut to a record store in LA. Donna Williams (Keyes) is sitting mesmerized listing to "Polynesian Rhapsody" at the end however, she is startled by the final line "you're my golden dream at the rainbows end". She buys the record and runs home, the final line is exactly the same as an inscription her dead sailor husband wrote to her on a framed picture she has on a table. It can't be a coincidence, and she is still holding the torch for Randy who was on the USS Arizona when it was bombed at Pearl Harbor. Could he be alive, She wants to talk to the composer. So she flies to Hawaii to check things out. So beings an interesting convoluted story of murder, shady characters, and the Hawaiian underworld.

The film has a very entertaining cast of supporting players Keyes is very cute in this masquerading as a taxi dancer at one point, waking up naked in a bed at another, Marie Windsor is also great and equally good looking as sort of a Femme Fatale, and Elsa Lanchester is a blousy woman cab driver. Jessi White plays Windsor's alcoholic husband and Ahn is Windsor's Chinese lover.

Don the Beachcomber was the technical adviser for the film the inventor of the Tiki Bar.

Wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised. Some nice noir-ish sequences, but not a lot of them. Available on DVD from Olive. 8/10

A noir in Hawaii as an interesting experiment

[clanciai · 8/10 · 18 February 2020]

The story is interesting. After a honeymoon of three days Wendell Corey has to break up to serve in the war and happens to Pearl Harbour, where he is almost killed but not quite, but he survives with his face damaged for life. He gets stuck on Hawaii and tries to make a life of his own there in a casbah-like nest of murky activitieds, where he gets mixed up with local rackets but also makes some local career as a singing poet. His wife back home has received news that he is reported missiing, supposed dead, in which assumed fact she lives on for years, until she hears a song of his and recognizes his words on a modern record. She goes to Hawaii to search for him while he gets deeper involved with murders and rackets and refuses to acknowledge her or his life before the war. Of course there are further complications.

Wendell Corey was never a favourite actor of mine, he was almost a disappointment to me in every film I saw him in for hisstiffness and lack of expression, but this film is saved by the story. The other actors are rather mediocre as well, but fortunately there is Elsa Lanchester as a helpful taxi driver, who actually contributes in saving the film. The local touch is also excellent, with sweet ukuleles singing and swinging all over the place and everywhere you go, and the environment is lovely and enchanting, of course. Only Wendell Corey is not, and he is only saved by the sad story of his fate.

What Tourist Brochures Don't Show

[dougdoepke · 13 August 2015]

As I recall this little slice of b&w exotica got quite a bit of buzz back then. No doubt, that was because of the naughty innuendo and unusual locale. 1954 was before Hawaii became a state or showed up on weekly TV, so the backgrounds and people were still foreign to American living rooms. Anyway, the plot's anything but tight, running two or three threads at the same time. There's no need to recap what others have already done in detail.

What carries the film are the Hawaiian 'mise-en-scene', colorful characters, and good acting. Honolulu's Half Acre amounts to a hellish maze of rickety stairs, balconies, and walkways, all used to good effect by director Auer. Couple that with a noir character like Chester (Corey), a bosomy slut like Rose (Windsor, of course), and a slimy yucko like Ippy (Strong), along with other shady types, and who cares about plot logic. As a result, the visuals and characters rivet even when the narrative doesn't. Still, what's with Tubby (White) who gets bloodlessly shot in the shoulder and seconds later pulls a Tarzan escape with perfect coordination. Even cowboy matinees are more realistic than that, and who knew matinees better than Republic. All in all, it looks like a feature length appeal was aimed at, including something of a 'name' cast and a spicy story. Still, I'd like to know how the results actually performed dollar-wise. Nonetheless, the movie's not without points of interest, along with an ending that is not predictable, plus a Hawaii that sure doesn't show up on tourist brochures.

Enchanted exotic film noir

[searchanddestroy-1 · 11 December 2022]

I am not surprised by this Republic Pictures film noir, this studios was famous for mixing up some genres, western musicals, modern western, so why not exotic adventure crime noir movie? This one is not uninteresting because of its charm and atmosphere, and this story of the wife seeking her husband trace, supposed killed in action at Pearl harbor, this scheme is rather unusual in a film noir. This is a cute little crime flick from this studios specialized in serials and westerns. Wendell Corey seems to get bored, not convinced by his character, maybe the studio executive Herbert Yates should have chosen Forrest Tucker or Rod Cameron, the "home" studio stars, instead of Corey. And I was expecting the bland but not that bad Vera Ralston, Yates's wife, as the female role.

Is her husband still alive?

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 27 September 2023]

Republic Pictures was known for its output of bread-and-butter B westerns. But the profits from those successful smaller pictures enabled studio boss Herbert Yates to finance some outstanding 'A' pictures in other genres. In this classic film noir from the mid-1950s, the production unit was sent to Honolulu to film an arresting crime tale set along the beach and in the more dangerous parts of an intercity area called Hell's Half Acre.

In some ways the picture feels like a precursor to TV's long running Hawaii Five O series starring Jack Lord. Here, the lead police officer is played by Hollywood veteran Keye Luke. He is friends with a man (Wendell Corey) who runs a beachside club and seems to have had a previous life. We don't find out all the details of Corey's old life until a woman (played by Evelyn Keyes) flies to the islands on a hunch that her deceased hubby may still be alive...and she's right.

The backstory is gradually fleshed out. The viewer learns that under a former identity Corey had been married to Keyes for three days back on the mainland, long enough for her to end up pregnant and carry a torch for him for over a decade. Corey was in the navy stationed at Pearl Harbor and was said to have died when the Japanese attacked in late 1941. The reality is that Corey didn't die, but had his face burned badly. He deserted his military post and recovered, creating a new alias and a new life for himself. His new life involved going into business with a crook (Philip Ahn) who has plenty of underworld connections in Hell's Half Acre and isn't afraid to take measures into his own hands.

Though performers like Luke and Ahn are not exactly Polynesian, it does help to see Asian actors in these important 'local' roles. In addition to their presence, considerable authenticity is achieved by shooting the story's exteriors on location in Honolulu, with many exciting action sequences occurring at night.

Adding to the overall success of the film, we have some excellent character actors like Jesse White as a dense thug with a treacherous wife (Marie Windsor). Plus there's a cabbie who drives Miss Keyes around the city and forms a strong friendship with her. The cabbie is not a male, but a middle-aged woman (Elsa Lanchester). Probably the most effective of these character players is Miss Lanchester whose lighter moments on screen give us some relief from the central plot's heavier moments.

Besides the swaying palm trees, the real star of the picture is Evelyn Keyes, previously seen in UA's suspenseful crime thriller 99 RIVER STREET. Miss Keyes is right at home in noir, as a beautiful breath of fresh air who senses danger but always keeps her wits about her.

In this case she's come to a tropical paradise to reclaim a marriage, only to realize that the man she once loved doesn't exist anymore. There is no happy ending for Keyes and Corey, since Corey is gunned down at the end. But we know Keyes will return to Los Angeles to marry another man who loves her, and she will give her son a proper upbringing away from all the violence.