WAC Double Features: Hell's Heroes /Three Godfathers (DVD)

Western fans have saddled up often with these desperados. At least 5 versions -- tales of grim men sacrificing their own well-being for the safety of an infant they find while on the lam from a bank heist -- have come to the screen. The gritty Hell's Heroes (with Charles Bickford, Raymond Hatton and Fred Kohler, directed by William Wyler), says Leonard Maltin's Classic Movie Guide, "is probably the most satisfying and certainly the least sentimental" of the versions. Three Godfathers (with Chester Morris, Walter Brennan and Lewis Stone, directed by Richard Boleslawski) adds touches of humor to the early pre-heist scenes before settling into the tale's profound power and is described by the Guide as "little-seen and underrated." See it. For this movie and for these six tough hombres, redemption is nigh.

• western