Hellfire [1949] [DVD]

Zeb Smith is a gambler with a larcenous streak, but when an itinerant preacher takes a bullet meant for him, Zeb vows to fulfill the preacher's mission of building a church. Frustrated in his attempts to get donations, Zeb attempts to capture fugitive Doll Brown in order to obtain the reward. But he finds more to Doll than meets the eye. When his old friend Bucky McLean shows up gunning for Doll, Zeb sees a chance to redeem them all - one way or another. ~ imdb

Immaculately directed by R.G.Springsteen and atmospherically photographed by Jack Marta in Trucolor (like 'Johnny Guitar'), Dorrell & Stuart McGowan's tremendous script bears a passing resemblance to both 'Destry Rides Again' and to Ralph Nelson's 'Lilies of the Field' (1963), in which Sydney Poitier helped build a chapel for a group of nuns. Here the wonderfully laconic Wild Bill Elliott (billed as 'William') as former gambler Zeb Smith dedicates himself to honouring the dying wish of preacher H.B.Warner (who over twenty years earlier had played The Messiah himself in DeMille's 'The King of Kings') by raising the money to build a church in his memory.