Hell's Four Hundred

Hell's Four Hundred, sometimes listed as Hell's 400, is a 1926 American silent drama film directed by John Griffith Wray and starring Margaret Livingston, Harrison Ford, and Henry Kolker.^[1] An allegorical dream sequence towards the end of the film where the Vance character visualizes her sins as monsters was shot using two-strip Technicolor.^[2][3]

Hell's Four Hundred
Directed by	John Griffith Wray
Written by	Bradley King
Based on	"The Just and the Unjust" by Vaughn Kester
Produced by	William Fox
Starring	Margaret Livingston Harrison Ford Henry Kolker
Cinematography	Karl Struss
Production company	Fox Film
Distributed by	Fox Film
Release date	March 14, 1926 (1926-03-14)
Running time	60 minutes
Country	United States
Language	Silent (English intertitles)

Plot

As described in a film magazine review,^[4] gold digging chorus girl Evelyn Vance seeks a rich daddy to take care of her. Evelyn marries the wealthy Marshall Langham thereby double-crossing her boss John Gilmore, who had schemed to use her to rope Marshall into a scandal because of the debts that he owed Gilmore. Gilmore is killed and district attorney John North, sworn enemy of Gilmore and his gambling empire, is held on circumstantial evidence. Evelyn could clear North of the crime, but in so doing she would expose her husband Marshall who is actually the guilty party. When Marshall is on his deathbed, he makes a final statement that clears North as he is engaged to his sister Barbara. At this point Evelyn has a vision in which each of her sins is materialized as a monster. Evelyn wakes and decides, at the final fade-out, to go to a picnic given by an iceman and not go after another rich daddy.

Cast

• Margaret Livingston as Evelyn Vance
• Harrison Ford as John North
• Henry Kolker as John Gilmore
• Marceline Day as Barbara Langham
• Wallace MacDonald as Marshall Langham
• Rodney Hildebrand as Bill Montgomery
• Amber Norman as Vivian

Preservation

With no prints of Hell's Four Hundred located in any film archives,^[5] it is a lost film.

References

1. Solomon p. 297
2. Progressive Silent Film List: Hell’s 400 at silentera.com
3. Soister, John T.; Nicolella, Henry; Joyce, Steve; Long, Harry H. (2014). American Silent Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Feature Films, 1913-1929. Vol. 1. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. pp. 710–711. ISBN 978-0-7864-3581-4.
4. "Hell's 400". The Film Daily. 36 (51). New York City: Wid's Films and Film Folks, Inc.: 39 May 30, 1926. Retrieved October 31, 2023. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
5. Library of Congress / FIAF American Silent Feature Film Survival Database: Hell's 400

Bibliography

• Solomon, Aubrey. The Fox Film Corporation, 1915-1935: A History and Filmography. McFarland, 2011. ISBN 978-0-7864-6286-5

External links

• Hell's Four Hundred at IMDb