Hang 'Em High (1968) Online

1968 Clint Eastwood Inger Stevens Pat Hingle Ted Post

Original Title :: Hang u0027Em High
Genre :: Movie / Western
Year :: 1968
Directror :: Ted Post
Cast :: Clint Eastwood,Inger Stevens,Pat Hingle
Writer :: Leonard Freeman,Mel Goldberg
Budget :: $1,600,000
Type :: Movie
Time :: 1h 54min
Rating :: 7.0/10

Hang 'Em High (1968) Online

A band of vigilantes catch Jed Cooper and, incorrectly believing him guilty of cattle rustling and murder, hang him and leave him for dead. But he doesn't die. He returns to his former profession of lawman to hunt down his lynchers and bring them to justice.

Cast overview, first billed only:
	Clint Eastwood	-	Marshal Jed Cooper
	Inger Stevens	-	Rachel Warren
	Ed Begley	-	Captain Wilson
	Pat Hingle	-	Judge Fenton
	Ben Johnson	-	Marshal Dave Bliss
	Charles McGraw	-	Sheriff Ray Calhoun
	Ruth White	-	Madame 'Peaches' Sophie
	Bruce Dern	-	Miller
	Alan Hale Jr.	-	Matt Stone
	Arlene Golonka	-	Jennifer
	James Westerfield	-	Prisoner
	Dennis Hopper	-	The Prophet
	L.Q. Jones	-	Loomis
	Michael O'Sullivan	-	Francis Elroy Duffy
	Joseph Sirola	-	Reno

Inger Stevens had never heard of Clint Eastwood before she was cast in the film. Once they met she began to like him very much and they ended up having an affair. When the film was finished, Stevens told director Ted Post, "Anytime you do a picture with Clint and there's a part in it, call me."

The first film produced by Clint Eastwood's Malpaso Company.

Reportedly, producer Leonard Freeman clashed with director Ted Post during production. One day Freeman showed up on the set, issuing orders and taking charge. Post wanted to confront him, but Clint Eastwood intervened. Eastwood spoke to Freeman, and Freeman left the set and didn't return. What he said was, "If you show up on this set again, there won't be a set ... won't be a cast, won't be a crew."

Mel Goldberg and Ted Post were brought back together in 2013 when they were coincidentally neighbors in rehab. They celebrated Ted's 95th birthday together.

United Artists executives suggested experienced action film directors like John Sturges and Robert Aldrich, but Clint Eastwood gave the director's reins to Ted Post, who had directed twenty-four episodes of Gli uomini della prateria (1959) and was very good at dialogue. Co-stars Charles McGraw, Ed Begley, Bruce Dern and Pat Hingle had all appeared in "Rawhide" episodes directed by Post.

Clint Eastwood turned down a part in the big budget film L'oro di Mackenna (1969) to make this film instead.

The character of Judge Adam Fenton was based in part on Judge Isaac Parker whose federal court in Fort Smith, Arkansas had jurisdiction over the Oklahoma and Indian Territories.

Writers Mel Goldberg and Leonard Freeman were first told that Clint Walker was cast in the lead but were severely disappointed when they were informed that it was actually Clint "Easterwood" (sic). The Dollars trilogy hadn't been released in the states yet and Eastwood was still largely unknown. Needless to say it worked out better than if it had been Clint Walker.

First of three cinematic films that actor Pat Hingle made with Clint Eastwood. The pictures are (in order): Impiccalo più in alto (1968), L'uomo nel mirino (1977) and Coraggio... fatti ammazzare (1983). Each picture was made in a different decade, one in the 60s, one in the 70s and one in the 80s. The pair also collaborated on the TV episode Gli uomini della prateria: The Book (1965). Both Impiccalo più in alto (1968) and Coraggio... fatti ammazzare (1983) feature Eastwood as a tough guy lawman who borderlines on vigilantism and Hingle as his superior who has a heavy disdain for the way he does things.

The exterior scenes of Fort Grant and the courthouse were shot on MGM's famed Western Street, on Lot #3; a popular location for both film and TV settings. Several Twilight Zone stories were shot on this set because it could pass for both a "cowboy" style town, as well as a turn-of-the-century urban street. Similar sets on the same lot were, Billy the Kid Street, and Ghost Town Street.

Sergio Leone was approached to direct this film, but he turned it down since he was working on C'era una volta il West (1968) at the time.

Here, famed character actor James Westerfield plays a lowlife prisoner waiting to be hung in Fort Grant. The following year he plays the federal judge in "True Grit".

Clint Eastwood's former longtime mistress Roxanne Tunis appears in the film as an extra.

CASTLE THUNDER: Heard several times during the rain after Jed and Rachel's picnic.

Clint Eastwood (as Marshal Jed Cooper) wears the same gun belt and holster that he (as "The Man with No Name") wears in the "Dollars Trilogy" (the three Spaghetti Western films directed by Sergio Leone), and that he also wears as Hogan in "Two Mules for Sister Sara."

The federal court with jurisdiction over the Indian Territory was in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The Oklahoma Territory was established from the western part of the Indian Territory in 1890, one year after the story is set. The real life hanging judge was Isaac Parker who wasn't a big fan of hanging, but the death sentence was mandatory. Judge Parker had a tall wooden fence erected around the gallows to prevent crowds of onlookers from watching. There is a museum of the court in Fort Smith, and they are building a Federal Marshall's museum nearby.

Clint Eastwood appears in this film with Bruce Dern. Eastwood would later work with his daughter Laura Dern in Un mondo perfetto (1993). Laura and Francesca Eastwood both appeared on Twin Peaks: il ritorno (2017).

Ed Begley and Inger Stevens died within 2 days of each other in April 1970 in Hollywood. Begley died at age 69 of a heart attack and Stevens at age 35 by suicide, the same way Begley's character died in this movie. Stevens was the first of three of Clint Eastwood's leading ladies to commit suicide, the others being Jean Seberg (La ballata della città senza nome (1969)) who took an overdose of barbiturates in 1979, and Elizabeth Hartman (La notte brava del soldato Jonathan (1971)) who jumped out of a fifth-story window in 1987.

User reviews

Ffan

"Hang 'Em High" is a fictionalized account of Hangin' Judge Parker's court at Fort Smith, Arkansas. Judge Parker had jurisdiction over a large chunk of Indian Territory (Oklahoma today). The house of ill repute in the film is a fictionalized version of Miss Laura's Social Club which still stands in Fort Smith and has the dubious distinction of being the only whore house on the National Register of Historic Places. In the movie, Fort Smith becomes Fort Grant but a few of the place names used are actual names of towns nearby, such as Alma, Arkansas, and Poteau, Oklahoma. The river in "Hang 'Em High" is too small (even before the locks and dams) to be the Arkansas River but could stand in for the Poteau River; the confluence of the two rivers occurs at Belle Point in Fort Smith. Most of the movie was shot in California and New Mexico (certainly not eastern Oklahoma) but the scenes of the gallows and the judge's court and office look very much like Judge Parker's Court in Fort Smith that is also on the National Register of Historic Places. If not actually filmed there, then the producer and director did an excellent job recreating it as a set. Even the dungeon jail is correct.

This was Clint Eastwood's first American western following his triumph in Sergio Leone's spaghetti western trilogy. Eastwood wanted Leone to direct this one but he was already committed to another project. From what I read neither Eastwood nor director Ted Post worked well with the producer/writer Leonard Freeman.

"Hang 'Em High" starts out with a bang, a lynching that backfires. To show the audience that Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) is a good guy, Cooper rescues a calf from drowning. This ploy was later used in "Tombstone" when Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell), on his first appearance on screen, aids a horse that is being mistreated. Wyatt gives the perpetrator a taste of his own medicine reprimanding him, "Hurts, don't it?" Veteran actor Ben Johnson, who was from Oklahoma, happens on the scene while Cooper is still dangling, cuts him free, then throws him into the "tumbleweed wagon" full of thieves and cut throats bound for Fort Grant and justice. After lingering in the dungeon jail awhile, the judge clears Cooper and makes him a federal Marshall, warning him to bring the nine men in who attempted to hang him, but bring them in alive. The rest of the film deals with Cooper rounding up the nine plus a few other killers along the way. There is also emphasis on the different interpretation of justice by Cooper, a former lawman, and the judge. This leads to several dramatic confrontations. There is a parallel story of a search for justice by Rachel Warren (Inger Stevens)who falls for Cooper and visa versa. They have a thirst for vengeance in common.

Much of the movie is fiction, but parts are based on history. The circus atmosphere that accompanied the public hangings in Fort Smith during Judge Parker's rule is shown basically as it has been reported. There were vendors present, hawking all types of goods and goodies. Children wandered around with or without their parents. The fathers would sometimes place their children on their shoulders so the tads could get a better view of the executions. And there were multiple hangings recorded, similar to the one in the film.

The viewer may enjoy seeing a lot of familiar faces in the cast. Veteran actor Bob Steele plays Old Man Jenkins, a member of the lynching party. Bruce Dern is as ornery as they come. He is not only a member of the lynching party but a cold-blooded killer as well. Alan Hale, Jr. (The Skipper to his Little Buddy), one of the lynching party, is a blacksmith who seems apathetic to the incident. Dennis Hopper has what could be labeled a billed cameo role. The viewer barely sees his face at all. L.Q. Jones is a member of the lynching party turning in his usual fine performance. Charles McGraw plays the sheriff of Red Creek (possibly Garrison Creek, which today is Roland, Oklahoma) who has a back problem--or is it a spine problem? James MacArthur makes a solemn preacher extracting final confessions from the condemned.

Pat Hingle portrays the hanging judge in fairly realistic terms. The real hanging judge never watched the condemned swing. Judge Adam Fenton not only watches but nods to the hangmen when to pull the lever. The masterful Ed Begley is the vicious leader of the lynching party who is determined to make amends for his botched hanging of Cooper by hanging him even higher next time. The lovely and sexy Inger Stevens turns in a winning performance as a supplement to Cooper's vengeance. And Clint Eastwood, well, he's Clint Eastwood. Need I say more?

Tejar

Clint Eastwood's most underrated film, Hang 'Em High is a throughly enjoyable movie. It has the feel of a John Wayne western, as opposed to the spaghetti western formula in which Eastwood with Sergio Leone combined so magnificently with each other in the Dollars trilogy.

Eastwood gives a very worthy performance as Marshall Jed Cooper. The central dilemma of having to operate within the law in conflict with his own personal view of justice is executed very well by Eastwood. On the whole, Eastwood's performance is certainly a strong point of the film and a great performance in its own right.

The storyline itself is relatively well structured with interesting elements relating to the law and the justice system. However, a rather pointless, rushed and half baked romantic subplot by Inger Stevens (who is sadly woefully out of her acting league alongside Eastwood) adds nothing to the story and becomes rather annoying on repeat viewings.

However, special mention must go to both Pat Hingle and Ed Begley who both give some excellent performances, perhaps even superior to Eastwood himself.

Hang 'Em High is a great Eastwood western, provided you don't expect something magical like The Good, The Bad And The Ugly or Unforgiven. Entertaining and more complex than you would expect but sadly, greatly underestimated. Every Eastwood fan should at least give it a chance.

Overall I give it a solid and well deserved 8/10. Be sure to get a copy of this hidden gem.

IGOT

I found this to be a pretty solid western, not one you hear a lot about but a fast- moving film which means it entertains. It doesn't dawdle on any one particular scene.

There is a good cast in this Clint Eastwood-starred movie. Pat Hingle did an outstanding job as the too gung-ho judge but isn't all bad and has an interesting explanation of the situation he was in near the end of the film.

Overall, this a gritty story with Eastwood in his customary revenge-minded role, although he mellows somewhat by the end of the film. I also appreciated all the good facial closeups in here. As with most westerns, the movie is nicely photographed.

This movie had a odd combination of being really raw in parts but yet thoughtful. I think it's a very underrated, under-appreciated western.

Galanjov

Big Clint's first film outside of Serigo Leone's sensational Dollars trilogy is none other than...a Western. Hang 'Em High is a rather overlooked entry in Clint's long and impressive film wagon, even though it is a serious, no-nonsense and modest look at crime and punishment and a subtle dig at the injustice system, which was somewhat forgotten by his critics who emphasized that he was a symbol of violence, especially in the Dollars trilogy and the Dirty Harry series.

Clint plays an ex-lawman who picks up a new badge after he is almost killed by a group of men who hang him and leave him for dead. He then embarks on a mission to hunt them down one-by-one and hand them over to the law.

Ted Post's watchable Western drama is definitely a refreshing break from most other 'revenge' movies. Instead of cold-blooded vengeance, the script decides to display Clint's character, though still as the cold, silent anti-hero, as a more peaceful person who would truly like to see men behind bars rather than shooting them down. The film also keeps it grip, rarely letting a boring moment crawl in even though this is more talk than action.

Its not a perfect, polished or particularly great film - the characterization always stays pretty low and the romance between Clint and the charming Inger Stevens isn't fully developed, for instance. However, it has its highlights - a memorable opening sequence and an effective musical score - along with its notable touch for seeing justice rather than violence and killing. A good effort that's worth watching and not ignoring.

Thiama

The film begins brilliantly and brutally with a lynch mob leaving Eastwood for dead at the end of a rope...

He is rescued, eventually cleared of suspicion, and appointed deputy with 'a license to hunt' by a famous hanging-Judge Parker (Pat Hingle) with a clear warning: All the criminals are to be taken alive for trial...

Eastwood proceeds to clean up the worst crimes in the state, but doubting his own motives, he always avoids capturing the gang of nine vigilantes who were responsible for his near-death...

Inexorably, the confrontation comes nearer. The leader of the gang, Captain Wilson (played by Ed Begley), returns to town and wounds Eastwood. This provides an encounter with another victim of the vigilantes, Rachel (Inger Stevens) who nurses Eastwood and reveals that the same gang raped her after murdering her husband...

Eastwood's character is unlike Gregory Peck's character as the blind seeker of justice in "The Bravados" (1958), and much different for the 'Stranger.' He has now more dialog, he has a romance of sorts, and although he is equally proficient with the gun he always waited for the court's justice rather than dispensing his own, as he readily did in the Italian Westerns. He also exhibits less of the dry humor that had characterized the Stranger, and most sacrilegious of all, he has a name, Jed Cooper.

"Hang 'em High" remains a study of differences between public and private forms of justice, but the motivations behind both are left confused and unsatisfying... The gripping mass execution on a big platform, is brilliantly directed by Ted Post, but the film has neither the magic or the mystique of a Leone film...

Barinirm

This was Clint Eastwood's American Western debut that I had never really seen all the way through until now. At first I thought it would be another ride 'em high, cowboys n' indians flick that was popular in America those days... before Sergio Leone shook the genre down to its raw and merciless possibilities.

The film was pretty good, and the moral undercurrent of justice "by a dirty rope on the plain, or a judge in a robe standing before the American flag" is rather striking. The Federal judge is by far one of the most interesting characters I have seen yet in a Western.

Indeed, the grittiest and most barbaric scene is not the lynching of an innocent man, but the public hanging on the eve of statehood... to prove that Oklahoma Territory executed the sort of justice required of a "civilized" state of the Union. It is made a public spectacle with beautiful hymns and cold beer. And just the way each of the condemned faces his execution is tongue in cheek.

Then there was the campfire scene where Captain Wilson confers with his employees regarding their options: irony, fear and desperation. They put a human face on their culpability, similiarly echoed decades later by Little Bill's "I don't deserve this, I was building house." And the few who chose not to run chose a desperate and violent option.

A dillemic "no one wins" justice spiralling into graphic violence... and ultimately an undiginified and graceless death. What was perfected into poignant brevity by Unforgiven was born in Hang Em High's exploration of two men's differing approaches to an unforgiving justice... a justice that led either to the end of a noose, or the end of a gun.

Not bad at all...

Shou

Eastwood, as Jed Cooper, sits on both sides of the fence in American criminal jurisprudence. First, he is hung (although they didn't get the job done) in a deputized mob lynching. After he recuperates (the first time), he returns to his career as lawman to help a "hangin' judge" grease the wheels of justice. Of course all that Cooper really wants is to see justice done to the mob that lynched him. He soon finds out that his transgressors were "men of the community" or leading town folk.

The irony is plentiful in this film. For example, the two young men who go peacefully in an impossible 3 day ride, submit completely to the new Marshall. How are they rewarded? Well, they are hung of course! This really sets the tone of the film. The audience quickly recognizes that the "hangin' judge" just might me a bit too effective in his role of "statemaker."

While the movie does get a bit tedious, the story is razor sharp, the soundtrack is good although a bit epic, and the acting is very well done.

One is left with a sympathy for the men Cooper is hunting. Of course, this is a deliberate result of the filmmakers who meant this to be a commentary on capital punishment. Well, I enjoyed the film despite the deeply woven propaganda.

Froststalker

Ex-lawman turned cattle rancher Jed Cooper is taken newly purchased cattle back home when he is caught by a posse who accuse him of murder and lynch him. They ride off to leave him to die, however he is cut down by a group of marshals who add him to their prisoners and take him to the judge. Having had his story cleared Cooper is offered a job as a marshal and agrees to do it. However when his first task is to arrest the men who hung him can he take the stand away from revenge and on the side of the law.

I watched this cause I do like a good western every now and again. The actual plot is quite simple on the surface man out for revenge, but it uses it quite well. It makes some interesting parallels between the hanging of men by the lynch parties and the hanging of men by a judge. It doesn't fully make it's point but it is good to have something to think about in a western. Outside of this the film has some good drama even if the end feels more like the conclusion of an episode in a TV series rather than the finale of a film.

Of course the reason for this may be Post's involvement as director. He used to direct Rawhide with Eastwood and was picked for this film to support Eastwood. This was his first American film after doing all those spaghetti westerns and I assume he wanted a familiar hand on the tiller. He does well here as he always did with his western characters, I read that he also directed some of it. The rest of the cast are made up of a few famous names (Bruce Dern, LQ Jones for example) but regardless everyone does well in their roles.

It's not a classic western but it rises above the average by having a good lead in the shape of Eastwood and some plot strands that go beyond the revenge storyline and encourage you to think of deeper issues.

Globus

It was in the mid-90s when I first saw Hang 'Em High. I was new to Eastwood's westerns, having just seen the Leone films for the first time. All I knew of this one was a scene that I had seen in television commercials, where Clint says the movie's most famous line "When you hang a man you better look at him." So needless to say I was excited. The movie starts off well enough as innocent Eastwood is lynched by a group of men for cattle rustling, only he survives. From here you have a plot that Anthony Mann or Sergio Leone would have made into a masterpiece.

Instead, what you get is a slow meandering film that fixates on and preaches about law & order, the dangers of vigilantism, etc. These kinds of plots were commonplace in virtually every western TV show from the 1950s and 60s. Hang 'Em High offers nothing new to a discussion that was already old by the time the film came out. Although I came into the movie predisposed to root for Clint, after awhile his character's lack of motivation at wanting revenge made me wish the lynch mob had done a better job and spared us an unfulfilling two hours.

Like I said I first saw it in the 90s and was disappointed. I just recently rewatched it for the first time since then, hoping to see it with fresh eyes and enjoy it more. But I found myself feeling the same sense of disappointment and boredom I did all those years ago. As a western drama it's watchable and competently put together. As a western action revenge movie it's weak and should be avoided.

White gold

A rather unusual western movie for its period, with interesting ideas on the practice of justice and death punishment, not consistent with the myth of the frontier as always portraited in such kind of cinema. Even though Eastwood only appears as an actor, a good preview of what was about to happen in his career as a director, with The outlaw Josey Wales and, above all, The unforgiven. Rated 7.

Urreur

Although Clint Eastwood is incredibly famous for his "spaghetti westerns", this film was made domestically just after his spaghetti phase and I think it's as good any of these movies (even "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"). His acting is about the same, maybe a little better, but it's nice to see his supporting cast is much more competent than what we'd been used to seeing. Pat Hingle, Charles McGraw, Bruce Dern and Eg Begley, Sr. all provide able support, as do lesser-known characters such as the "good man" about to be executed or the two young boys who assisted Dern in his cattle rustling.

So apart from an able cast, why did I like it? Well, the story was the key. Clint Eastwood was wrongfully hung by a lynch mob at the beginning of the movie. He miraculously survives and becomes a lawman bent on apprehending the men who almost killed him. Despite this, Eastwood's character has depth and the movie really has something to say about frontier justice. Unlike some westerns, the bad guys are not ALWAYS killed by the Marshall but are brought to justice--which almost always means a hanging. Over time, Eastwood's lust for vengeance diminishes, as it's tough and not always a fair way to exact justice. You see and ultimately believe Eastwood's internal struggle.

Uriel

A cowboy (Eastwood in his first American movie after Sergio period) ) is saved from lynching and vows vengeance and to hunt down the band that nearly murdered him . They left him with a scar on his neck and his seeks vendetta on the nine men (Ed Begley , LQ Jones , Bruce Dern, Alan Hale..) men who constituted the lynching gang . Now The Man With No Name is back! . As he is rescued by Marshal Dave Bliss (Ben Johnson) and brought to Fort Smith to the court of Judge Adam Fenton (Pat Hingle) . Appointed as a Deputy , Clint pursues his particular justice at whatever means , including his extreme obsession for revenge . The hanging was the best show in town. But they made two mistakes. They hung the wrong man and they didn't finish the job. As Eastwood is Judge, Jury and Executioner.

This is Clint first starring character in American Western dealing with a lawman/vigilante scenario, and following his sensational success in Italy with Leone Westerns : A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good the Bad and the Ugly . This is a good film , if uneven , with a lot of action , violence , shootouts and it contains a long as well as eerie hanging of six convicts . Being sometimes quite as violent as its Spaghetti counterparts . But it is more deserving of serious consideration than past times . The flick anticipates the thorny issue about the dichotomy between natural and legal justice . Clint Eastwood gives his ordinary acting as the tough cowboy saved by chance after being summarily strung up as a presumed rustler and left to die . This is a typical Eastwood vehicle and is said to have filmed some of it himself . The movie is more interesting as a way station in Clint career than for anything intrinsic to its Spaghetti style . Awesome , magnificent support cast , such as : Inger Stevens ,Ned Romero , L.Q. Jones , Alan Hale Jr , Ben Johnson , James MacArthur , Bob Steele ,James Westerfield , Mark Lenard , Bert Freed , Ruth White , among others . and Co-stars Charles McGraw, Ed Begley, Bruce Dern and Pat Hingle had all appeared in "Rawhide" episodes directed by Ted Post .

Colorful and burnished color cinematography from Leonard South and Richard H Kline . Special mention for musical score by Dominic Frontiere , it is a catching , moving soundtrack in Spaghetti style . Well made by his own production Company : Malpaso , with an old ¨Rawhide¨filmmaker on board , Ted Post . United Artists executives suggested experienced action film directors like John Sturges and Robert Aldrich, but Clint Eastwood gave the director's reins to Ted Post, who had directed twenty-four episodes of Rawhide (1959) and was very good at dialogue. In the mid- to late 1940s, Post made a name for himself in the theater and then moved into the adventurous arena of early television. He has since directed numerous segments of TV's top series : Gunsmoke (1955), Perry Mason (1957), Twilight zone (1959), Baretta (1975) , "Columbo," many more and feature films ranging from this one : Clint Eastwood's Hang'em high (1968) and Magnum Force (1973) to Retun to Planet of Apes (1970) .He's a Western expert , in fact his best movie is still a Western called ¨The legend of Tom Rooley¨ . Besides , he directed Clint Eastwood many times , starting working on Eastwood's television Western series, ¨Rawhide¨. When Eastwood returned to America after his successful Sergio Leone movies , he called for Post who directed him in Western ¨Hang'Em high¨ and the second entry Dirty Harry pictures : ¨Magnum Force¨. Ted Post also directed notable Sci Fi : Beneath of the planet of apes , Harrard experiment and horror movies : The Baby , Dr Cook's garden . And , finally , Ted Post returning to his theater roots .

Yayrel

This is a movie that has a cool concept, has some good scenes, but overall isn't the movie it should have been. I wanted a good revenge film, but it was muddled down with things that do nothing but slow it down.

The movie gets into the action right off the bat. We meet Eastwoods character and he is immediately accused of being a cattle rustler and hung. But he survives, and he wants revenge. Sadly, a lot of the revenge is sidetracked by scenes that just make the film boring. First off, we have a lot of scenes in the beginning involving this wagon of prisoners that just seems too long. Then we have a bunch of scenes involving a trial of two cattle rustlers that were accused of murder. We also have a romance thrown in later in the third act. None of these things feel necessary. I thought maybe the movie was going somewhere with the whole corrupt law kind of idea, but it brings it up and doesn't give us much more. The movie could have cut these scenes and it wouldn't have suffered.

Clint Eastwoods performance is very... Clint Eastwood-ish. Lot's of staring and furrowed brows. It's really nothing special here. It works, but it doesn't give us anything too memorable. The other actors get the job done, but also don't really give us a lot to remember or love.

Some people might enjoy this movie, and thats okay, but I personally wouldn't say it's an amazing western. Obviously fans of the genre would want to check it out, but other than that, it just doesn't leave you with a lasting impression aside from a few interesting scenes.

felt boot

When Clint is wrongly accused, judged, and lynched, only to survive and set out to even the score, this film seems to be one of the best westerns ever made. It quickly bogs down with a terrible romantic subplot and the main storyline takes too many detours that lead nowhere. Some big name talent (Ben Johnson, James MacArthur, Dennis Hopper) gets top billing and are on and off screen so fast that their brief appearances leave you wondering why they even made the movie. The film drags on for two hours and in the end nothing is resolved. The romantic subplot then seems forced, and the way the film actually ends may leave you wondering why you just spent two hours watching it. It wouldn't have been so disappointing had the first half of the film not been so well executed as though it was leading up to something instead of nothing. 5 of 10

showtime

Hang 'Em High: what a great premise for a movie! It's 1889 in the Indian Territory. An ex- lawman is wrongly lynched by a group of strangers for cattle rustling and murder. He survives the hanging and takes up his badge once more to get his revenge. In the meantime he encounters a bloodthirsty judge who sees it as his duty to bring law and order to a lawless territory by way of the rope, and a beautiful, mysterious woman seeking vengeance of her own.

Unfortunately, the film falls short. The pacing is tortuously slow in all the wrong places, none of the shootouts are impressive or exciting, and there's not a single character worth caring about. What should have been a legendary classic was instead a two-hour bore. Even the love story between Rachel and Cooper is tepid at best.

It should go without saying that Cooper gets his revenge, but the final scenes are completely anticlimactic and unsatisfying. His confrontation with the three surviving men who tried unsuccessfully to kill him not once, but twice, is a cakewalk and very short. There is no suspense and no real drama aside from a baffling conversation with one of his foes, whom he saves from suicide and then forgives for reasons that are never made clear.

Hang 'Em High should have been great. It's certainly better than a typical spaghetti Western, but overall this is a dully plodding film that never really pulls us in. If you're a die-hard Clint Eastwood fan or a Westerns aficionado, it's worth seeing once. Otherwise, you're better off with any of the dozens of superior films in the genre.

Ishnjurus

Starts well, and after Eastwood's success in the spaghetti westerns, you think your're in for a treat. But it tails off, somehow. Dialogue is sparse and for its time the film was novel. But seeing it again, the flaws are plain to see. No 'plot' to speak off, and what there is doesn't really add up. Tries to be profound ('slice of American history', 'how the country was built' etc.), but that is just veneer. At times it seems like a tale of revenge, then it doesn't, then it does again, and finally you don't care. Made more of an impact at the time because it was grittier than contemporary westerns (no rousing score), but has time has been less kind than it might have been.

MARK BEN FORD

One wonders why some people shoot films. In this case, I think that Ted Post getting bored to death, thought "why only me? Everybody has the right to get bored." And what better than shoot a boring film for the masses to do so. Well he succeeded.

From a weak script, with more or less strong actors, the film loses its plot after the first half. Everybody is just walking around with no aim. There are some characters that appear without helping the story move forward, even slowing it down. (Possibility of spoilers) Some scenes are very long (the hanging of the six) where two third of it should be cut (you also will notice the handheld camera work among the bystanders much like in documentaries, in a Western!); some scenes are too short (like the killing at the end, the most important revenge scene in the film) where one wonders why the director had to botch the way he tells his story. The only reason for this movie to exist is Clint Eastwood.

Maybe this is not the worst western ever, but this is one of the boring ones. When the director doesn't care, why should the rest of the cast and crew?

Purebinder

'Hang 'Em High' gets off to a great start, but after a set of fantastic opening titles, the movie quickly becomes 'Leone Lite.' Literal in its approach but rambling in structure, 'Hang 'Em High' begins with the premise that Clint Eastwood will go out and seek revenge on the men who nearly killed him. And, well, for the next hour and forty-five minutes or so, that's pretty exactly what you see him do. In between rounds of 'justice,' the film gets bogged down with preachy passages condemning the rigidity of capital punishment and a half-baked subplot/love interest that doesn't begin until the film is nearly over and then doesn't amount to much. It was cheaply made with obvious painted backdrops outside open doorways and noticeably redressed sets. Also, it was sloppily assembled look for the film equipment under the hangman's scaffold.

To compound things, the men Eastwood is out to get really aren't that bad. By and large, the posse that strung him up at the beginning did so only because they believed he was the man responsible for the killing of a well-respected rancher and his wife and a personal friend to most of the posse's members. With a few exceptions, the men were guilty of little more than overreacting and punishing the wrong person but doing so with honorable intentions. They should have been paid for this, but, frankly, I just never felt they deserved what they got.

Jake

This is one of the most lifeless westerns I've ever seen. There is not one character that I cared about in any way. The villains are not so bad or tough and Clints character does very little of anything in this movie. If you loved the Dollars trilogy like I did I suspect you'll be let down big time by this one......rent it or skip it.

Cemav

Let's make no mistake: this is a mediocre Eastwood's flick, one that even at times straddles turkey territory. And I blame for that his stubbornness at staying with the old, the proved, but also the discarded. After all, it's part of movie History that by the early 1960s the traditional Western was as good as dead and that it was Leone who single handedly brought it back to life. So, it is a perplexing irony that the man charged of creating the most iconic character of the genre, the one who after him was crucial in creating a new Western, may have been also the only one not noticing the breathtaking change. After all, other U.S. filmmakers were at the time breaking new ground, experiencing with such daring movies as Butch Cassidy & Sundance Kid, Wild Bunch, etc. But I don't think that in Eastwood's case it was lack of awareness, but that he was simply trying to redeem himself in front of his conservative U.S. TV audience, after his Italian escapade--during which his Manco had broken every Hollywood convention; to show them that nothing had changed after all. But as Mrs. Sheen, Duvall, realized after their own AN escapade, doing movies for forgiveness doesn't really work, the resulting product being usually some contrived clunker. HTH follows the same protocol and it pays dearly for that, because it ends up being overdone, unoriginal, lame. Judging by what we see here, it would seem that by 1968 Eastwood wanted nothing to do with the film revolution he had been instrumental in unleashing and with the lasting icon he had created, El Manco.

Basically HTH is just a throwback to older times when audiences were holding their breaths agonizing about the legality of what some generic sheriff was doing with his posse or about some cattle being properly branded; or wondering if the guys rotting in jail were really guilty...yawn. That's about this plot also. Cattle owner and former Marshall Cooper is mistakenly accused of murder & cattle rusting and hanged by a rogue posse. Miraculously, a traveling Marshall saves him. Then, as the truth comes out he's re--hired as a lawman and he'll spent the rest of the movie--when not chasing outlaws--arguing with people, from the judge above him to some other Marshall, to commoners, about the right way of enforcing the law. In that settings it's not surprising that, more than anything else, this movie feels like a pamphlet on good citizenry or at least as a simple remake of Ox Box Incident or some other classic--and not a very good one at that--rather than like an action & tension filled Western.

But the worse thing about it is that it's preachy and manipulative, specially during that onion juice sprinkled picnic scene and during the collective hanging bit. Both episodes fail to convey any deep feeling, to communicate the desired emotions, because they feel to much the contrived--my Suspension of Disbelief Meter stayed stubbornly stuck at 0--so they both fall flat, as most of the flick. What makes things even worse is CE's clear intent of making us forget his Manco roles, which leads him to exaggerate the cleanliness and poise of his character. Always well dressed when about town, wearing just washed & ironed shirts, impeccable pants, immaculate hats...can you believe I spent more time watching in awe that wondrous hairdo than following the plot, the action, paying attention to the acting? That says more about this movie than anything else, I guess.

Now, when a flick drags on the romance may come to save the day, but here even that doesn't work because that "love story" is simply BORING. I don't know about Stevens-maybe she was considered hot in the 60s--but here they both provide for what must be the lamest romantic couple in History, dethroning Cabaret's Minelli/York and Eternal Sunshine's Winslet/Carrey. And age got nothing to do with it: in a similar role in Open Range, Annette Benning sets the screen on fire but here we see nothing of the kind. Her character is overloaded with pathos yet she plays it casually; nowhere her eyes, attitude, match what should be the cold resolve of her persevering endeavor which makes her look like just searching for some lost relative or like a preacher searching for lost souls--as Joan Collins in that Star Trek episode--which I thought is was the case! Furthermore her subplot gets no denouement, which makes it rather superfluous. The true mystery is why Eastwood's Cooper falls for her after all--maybe it's just that she brings out his inner lame-o. In any case, his final decision about keeping after the bad guys rather than staying with her, instead of looking and feeling as heartbreak, makes all the sense in the world.

BTW, the only reason I saw and reviewed this one is because I found it in a 4-DVD set, with Leone's trilogy, under the description "4 Eastwood Classics". Uh, I don't think so. Just make that 3 Classics and a Lame-o. 5/10.

TheJonnyTest

This is a badly made revenge film by a director I assume was attempting to repeat the spaghetti westerns of Eastwood's Italian phase.They got the cartoon nature of those films, unfortunately lumbering the characters as either bad as in Dern's and also Begley's cases with sweaty close ups,or saintly as in Inger Stevens' barely believable rape victim.However it was hardly a nimble effort and was too long ,and dull as a result..The revenge aspect was muddled and why did they come to assassinate Jed? It made no sense.I am surprised it was based on fact.It seemed over encumbered by this.

Silver Globol

Hang 'Em High proves to be one Western too many for Clint Eastwood. After the success of the Dollars trilogy he jumps back into the genre with a movie which thoroughly disappoints. This is a slow, dull, quite tedious film. Not much interesting happens. Honestly not much of anything happens. Drama and excitement are in desperately short supply. The big action sequences you expect from such a film never arrive. The characters are not compelling, the story is paper-thin and the supposed climax is totally anticlimactic. Very hard to find anything good to say about this one.

In this film Eastwood's character actually has a name. He's Jed Cooper and soon after we meet him Jed finds himself swinging from a tree with a rope around his neck. A posse, thinking him to be a cattle rustler and a murderer, hangs him. They do a rather lousy job of it. A federal Marshal shows up, cuts down the still very much alive Cooper and brings him before a judge. This judge likes to hang pretty much anyone brought before him but he realizes Cooper's innocence and actually makes Cooper a Marshal. And from there things go about as you would expect, Cooper hunting down the men who lynched him, seeking vengeance. Sounds like it could be interesting but it doesn't turn out that way. The fact the bad guys are such bumbling, bungling idiots doesn't help. Given another chance to kill Cooper they fail even more miserably than the first time. They really are quite pathetic. If you can't take the bad guys seriously it's near impossible for this type of movie to succeed. And that's the case here. The film's central conflict is a letdown. And there's nothing else to prop the film up. A tepid love story falls completely flat. The hanging scenes (and with this judge in town there are plenty of opportunities for hanging scenes) are interminable. Eastwood is reasonably decent in his role but no other performer really makes a mark. Some, most notably Ed Begley as the lead bad guy, miss the mark entirely. Getting through this film is really a chore. There's no suspense, the drama drains away all too quickly. This is not a good film. In fact it's quite bad. You might even call it ugly.

Maucage

Ted Post's "Hang 'Em High" Of 1968 is a tough and atmospheric Western, and Clint Eastwood's first Western after Sergio Leone's ingenious Dollar-trilogy, which had made him famous, and although "Hang 'Em High" can in no way reach the brilliance of the Dollar-trilogy, it must be said that it is a great film which no Clint Eastwood fan should miss.

I personally am a big fan of Clint Eastwood, especially for the Dollar-trilogy, "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly" being my favorite movie of all-time. I'm a Western fan in general, and I usually prefer Spaghetti Westerns to the American ones. Quite a bunch the American Westerns of the late 60s and early 70s took their influence from the success of the Italian Western, and "Hang 'Em High" certainly has some Spaghetti Western elements too. It is still obvious, that this is an American Western, however, Clint Eastwood's character of Marshall Jed Cooper is not an antihero with a sense of black humor such as The Man With No Name from the Dollar-trilogy was, but a tough man driven by the desire for justice.

Jed Cooper (Eastwood) is lynched by a group of nine men for a murder he did not commit. Left hanging on a tree for dead, he is discovered by a Marshall, who cuts the noose and saves his life. The Marshall brings him to the town of Fort Grant, where the strict but idealistic Judge Adam Fenton (Pat Hingle) is to dispense justice for a huge area. After his innocence is proved, the former lawman Cooper is employed as a Marshall by judge Fenton, and he is now out to bring his own lynchers to justice. Lynchers who (as the tagline says) made two mistakes: They hung the wrong man and they didn't finish the job...

Clint Eastwood is great as always and he fits perfectly into his role of Marshall Jed Cooper. Pat Hingle delivers a great performance as Judge Adam Fenton (a role that is based on real life 'hanging-judge' Isaac Parker, as anyone who has read a bit about the American Old West will soon realize). Beautiful Inger Stevens is also very good, and lovable in the female lead. Ed Begley is great as the head lyncher. The cast furthermore contains Bruce Dern, Alan Hale Jr., LQ Jones and Dennis Hopper in a tiny, but good role. I also thought that Bert Freed did a great job as the hangman. Hwe probably didn't say a lot, but the way he looked and moved was just what his role demanded.

The movie's score is pretty good, and fits into the movie perfectly, although it is obvious from the beginning to the end that they just wanted it to resemble Ennio Moricone's ingenious Dollar-trilogy scores. One of the main themes was actually just taken out of "For A Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly", and modified a little bit. I guess it's okay to try and copy the best, however, and the score certainly compliments the movie. "Hang 'Em High" is also very well photographed and atmospheric from the beginning to the end. There was a big resemblance to Sergio Corbucci's Spaghetti Western Masterpiece "Il Grande Silenzio" aka. "The Great Silence" from the same year in one scene, which I won't give away, watch both movies and you'll know what I mean.

All said, "Hang 'Em High" is a great Western, which Clint Eastwood fans can't afford to miss. Highly recommended. 8/10

Mejora

Clint Eastwood excels as Marshal Jed Cooper in "Hang 'Em High", the justice and revenge tale from writers Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg and directed by Ted Post. He's surrounded by a stellar cast, though most of them are in the hanging party that almost does him in during the film's opening scene. Particularly seamy looking is Bruce Dern; it's a mark of a good actor when his performance makes you want to see him get what's coming to him.

For those who've seen it, the story is well known, so I won't concern myself with the basic plot. What I found rather fascinating was the subtext provided by Pat Hingle's character, territorial Federal Judge Fenton. Deputizing Cooper, we see a solid moral individual who fairly demands that Cooper bring back his attackers alive to face a judge and jury. But this hanging judge has his own agenda, and in his vision of statehood for the Oklahoma Territory, he's not above creating a bit of a spectacle in the name of civilized justice. When Cooper gets sidetracked from his original mission to bring in the killer of a cattle rancher, his path crosses with Dern's character Miller, along with two young boys along for the ride. Though admitting to rustling, Cooper knows the boys are innocent of murder, especially when they don't help Miller take down Cooper while being brought in to Fort Grant. On the witness stand, Cooper is continually shut down by the judge as he tries to defend the boys. Legally they're guilty of rustling, punishable by death and they'll hang.

Credit writers Freeman and Goldberg for an unusual and surreal scene in which six condemned men are about to hang. The camera glances on shadows of dangling feet that portend the actual hanging, as a crowd forms on a bright Sunday morning to witness death. They wear their Sunday best, as a vendor hawks cold beer as if it were a sporting event. As the judge nods his assent and the gallows claim their toll, three members of the Cooper hanging party attempt to gun him down before they themselves fall victim to the hunt - incredible timing and imagery as Eastwood's character falls in a hail of bullets.

Inger Stevens appears as a nominal love interest for Marshal Cooper, in a romance virtually doomed from the start, as each are battling their own personal demons. Though there's a hint of their settling down together near the end of the movie, it's pretty much left up to the imagination of the viewer if that would ever actually happen.

The actual ending is also an innovative piece of work. When Cooper was strung up and left for dead at the beginning of the movie, there were nine members of the hanging party. By story's end, seven had been accounted for, with six of them dead. Two members of the group, by name of Maddow and Charlie Blackfoot, decided to head out of town to avoid capture and trial. With his mission incomplete, Cooper picks up the badge once more and heads out on the trail to bring them in. Odds are he'll get his men, but we don't get to see it.

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