Vera Miles in "Hellfighters" with John Wayne(1968)

"Hellfighters" came out in 1968, the year of 2001, Planet of the Apes, and Bullitt. It starred John Wayne in one of his very rare roles(in his last two decades at least) in which he didn't play a cowboy. It was modern day and in a few scenes, he's in a solid suit and tie -- both of which, unfortunately, also reveal his girth in non-flattering ways.

When he's not in suit and tie, Wayne is in a red jumpsuit, because he's playing a "oil well fire fighter" based on the real Red Adair, and called something like "Chance Hickman" here.

Lucky for Wayne: he's only a few months away from "True Grit" here -- relevance, an Oscar and newfound fame await.

Because "Hellfighters" is rather a standard "Universal movie" of 1968, one that(like so many of those 60's Universal films), looks more like a TV movie than a real movie. The modern day sets are pretty flimsy and I was staggered by one unusual effect: the window outside of Wayne's Houston business office has cars passing by on a freeway -- but rather than a process shot(see: Phoenix outside the real estate office in Psycho), the "cars" are little cardboard models being pulled back and forth on a string on a fake freeway -- like toys. Its hilarious - and truly an insult to the audience.

Hitchcock had to fight this same kind of "Universal movie cheapness" with Marnie, Torn Curtain and Topaz, and only overcame it via his still-great cinematic technique and effects. Hitchcock weirdly brought quality to the "standard Universal format" that lesser filmmakers could not. He escaped to Pinewood Studios near London to make Frenzy(his best looking film of his final decade).

Still, some of the cheapness(in color) of "Hellfighters" reminds one of the cheapness of...Psycho...in black and white. The "room scenes" mainly. Somehow Hitchcock overcame "the Universal look" through much of Psycho(that great shot of Arbogast climbing the hill, for instance) but there are intimations of Psycho's look in "Hellfighters." And definitely some of the same "Universal sound effects"(doors closing, horns honking.)

I've known about "Hellfighters" for decades -- it made the rounds of the NBC Saturday Night Movie in the 70's -- but only this week did I decide to force myself to WATCH it. I mean, maybe it never gets shown again.

I turned my attention to a key element: Vera Miles. That intriguing actress who seemed to sacrifice herself on the altar of ordinariness after Vertigo didn't work out. In "Hellfighters," Miles is offscreen and only spoken of , for a long time. Its very much like how we are "waiting for Lila" in Psycho -- we hear about Lila in Marion's imagination("Her sister's as worried about her as we are") and she only finally shows up about an hour into the movie.

Before we meet Miles, we meet her estranged husband(Wayne), her daughter(Katherine Ross, who is nicely written as an adult daughter who loves both her parents and understands their reason for splitting), and her newly minted-son-law(Jim Hutton, the Jimmy Stewartesque father of Timothy Hutton). EVERYBODY's talking about the off-screen Miles, how she is department store heiress who couldn't take the danger of hubby Wayne's job so she left him. But she still loves him. Etc.