Hang 'Em High

Director: Ted Post Ted Post

Overview

"Hang 'Em High was Clint Eastwood's first American Western, and if perhaps only a middling film in its own right, it certainly has historical significance for students of the genre. Although not without merit, MGM's DVD does not really exploit Hang 'Em High's potential. The picture quality is excellent, particularly for a film made in the '60s, with the anamorphic widescreen transfer illustrating exactly how good Westerns can look for home viewing. Unfortunately the sound quality is very poor for DVD, and even the best home audio equipment available will be unlikely to make it any better. The extra features are minimal, extending only to the original theatrical trailer. This DVD does at least come with an eight-page booklet detailing the film's production, but it is a mystery as to why more material could not have been put on the disc itself. Given Clint Eastwood's enormous following, any kind of background on Hang 'Em High would have been valuable. Though this disc will probably be satisfactory to fans of Eastwood and of Westerns generally, it really could and should have been somewhat better."

Product Details

Release Date:	11/19/1997
UPC:	0027616673022
Original Release:	1968
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Mgm (Video & Dvd)
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Full Frame, Wide Screen]
Sound:	[monaural]
Language:	English
Time:	1:55:00
Sales rank:	17,334

Special Features

Full-length feature in both standard and widescreen version; English and French tracks; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; English captioning; Scene selections; Original theatrical trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Clint Eastwood	Jed Cooper
Inger Stevens	Rachel
Ed Begley	Capt. Wilson
Ruth White	Madam Peaches Sophie
Pat Hingle	Judge Adam Fenton
Arlene Golonka	Jennifer
James MacArthur	Preacher
Bruce Dern	Miller
Alan Hale Jr.	Stone
James Westerfield	Prisoner
Dennis Hopper	the Prophet
Ben Johnson	Sheriff Dave Bliss
Bob Steele	Jenkins
Jack Ging	Marshall Hayes
L.Q. Jones	Loomis,Actor,Actor
Bert Freed	Schmidt the Hangman
Michael O'Sullivan	Francis Duffy
Herb Ellis	Swede
Russell Thorson	Mr. Maddow
Tod Andrews	Defense Attorney
Rick Gates	Ben,Ben
Bruce Scott	Billy Joe
Paul Sorenson	Reno
Roy E. Glenn	Guard,Guard
Jonathan Lippe	Actor
Barry Cahill	Actor
Tony Di Milo	Actor
Joseph Sirola	Actor
Ned Romero	Actor
Richard Guizon	Actor
Mark Lenard	Actor
Richard Angarola	Actor
Larry Blake	Actor,Prisoner in Compound
Ted Thorpe	Actor
John Wesley Rodgers	Actor
Dennis Dengate	Actor
William Zuckert	Actor,Sheriff
Hal England	Actor
Robert B. Williams	Actor,Elwood the Gravedigger
Charles McGraw	szeryf Ray Calhoun, Red Creek
Paul Sorensen	Prisoner on Scaffold
John Cochran	Jailer
Jimmie Booth	Stage Driver
Ed Begley Jr.	Actor
Roy Glenn Sr.	Guard
Alan Hale	Stone
John Wesley	Actor
Dominic Frontiere	Composer

Technical Credits

Leonard Freeman

Mel Goldberg

Robert Stambler

Ted Post	Director
Leonard Freeman	Screenwriter,Producer
Mel Goldberg	Screenwriter
George Swartz	Special Effects
Robert Stambler	Producer,Screenwriter
Franklin Milton	Sound Effects
Al Strasser	Sound Effects
Gene Grigg	Special Effects
Stephen Burnette	Stunts

Editorial Reviews

When Hang 'em High first appeared, it was dismissed by many critics as a pale shadow of the Italian-made Westerns that Clint Eastwood had made with director Sergio Leone during the mid-'60s. In fact, the movie offered far more than was perceived by most reviewers, and a range of virtues that set it apart from the Leone films. Eastwood's portrayal of Jed Cooper, for a start, was a surprisingly subtle and complex performance, displaying a range of varied and conflicted emotions just below the surface that made his character far more fully developed than any of his prior portrayals. Pat Hingle was equally important to the movie's success, bringing a deep and serious interpretive talent to the part of Judge Adam Fenton. He was based on the real-life figure of Isaac Charles Parker (1838-1896), the judge in charge of the U.S. Court for the Western District of Arkansas, based in Fort Smith. In his 21 years on that bench, Parker issued 160 death sentences, resulting in 79 executions. His first week at Fort Smith resulted in rulings leading to a six-man hanging, very much like the one depicted in Hang 'em High, complete with a huge crowd of on-lookers, hymn-singing, and prayers, as well as massive press coverage. Eastwood and Hingle's scenes together are so good that one just wants to replay them, though Hingle's greater experience does show his performance coming from a much deeper place inside of himself than Eastwood's. They get extraordinary support by a uniformly good cast: Dennis Hopper, barely recognizable as a lunatic called "The Prophet", who dies in the opening minutes of the film; James Westerfield in a wryly ironic portrayal of a doomed prisoner; Bob Steele as the conscience-stricken Jenkins; Bruce Dern as the manipulative and bloodthirsty Miller; James MacArthur as the preacher, leading the prayers and hymns at the mass-hanging; Bert Freed as Schmidt, the taciturn hangman; Ben Johnson as Bliss, Fenton's best deputy marshal; and Michael O'Sullivan as the hapless murderer Francis Duffy, leaving this earth after giving a mournful speech, in the kind of scene that could make a career. Director Ted Post pulls all of these elements together into a graceful, compelling, spellbinding whole that's as much a serious drama as a Western, and as much an epic about the settling of the west. Very much in the manner of The Wild Bunch and William S. Hart's Tumbleweeds, among other classics of the genre, it is a personal, character-driven tale of revenge. Eastwood would make more artful and ambitious Westerns in the '70s and beyond, but Hang 'em High -- which was co-produced by his fledgling company, Malpaso -- was an exceptional beginning and his best work in the genre up to that time.