The Hanging Tree

Director: Delmer Daves, Karl Malden, Vincent Sherman Delmer Daves

Overview

Doc Frail (Gary Cooper) is a silent drifter who rides into a lawless Montana town afflicted with gold fever. In very little time, he quickly proves himself to be equally as adept with a deck of cards and a gun as he is with his medicine. He saves Rune (Ben Piazza) from a lynching, and Elizabeth (Maria Schell) , nearly dead from exposure to the elements. Both are indebted to him for his interventions on their behalf. The villain Frenchie (Karl Malden) is an evil prospector who tries to take Rune's life and Elizabeth's virtue. When gold is discovered, an angry drunken mob threatens to set fire to the town and hang Doc in the process, apparently just for fun. George C. Scott makes an appearance in the film as the religious fanatic, Grubb.

Product Details

Release Date:	07/17/2012
UPC:	0883316604342
Original Release:	1959
Source:	Warner Archives
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[monaural]
Language:	English
Time:	1:47:00
Sales rank:	3,064

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Gary Cooper	Dr. Joseph 'Doc' Frail
Maria Schell	Elizabeth Mahler
Karl Malden	Frenchy Plante
George C. Scott	George Grubb
Karl Swenson	Tom Flaunce
Virginia Gregg	Edna Flaunce
John Dierkes	Society Red
Ben Piazza	Rune
Jerry Livingston	Composer

Technical Credits

Delmer Daves	Director
Karl Malden	Director
Vincent Sherman	Director
Martin Jurow	Producer
Richard Shepherd	Producer

Editorial Reviews

The Hanging Tree is one of three outstanding Westerns adapted from the stories of Dorothy Johnson. As in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and A Man Called Horse, Johnson is more interested in reexamining the clichés of the West than in telling a conventional story. Not fully appreciated by critics at the time of its release, Hanging Tree features excellent, sure-handed direction from Delmer Daves, solid performances from stars Gary Cooper and Maria Schell, and a strong screenplay by Wendell Mayes and Halsted Welles. A surprise success at the box office, its brisk ticket sales benefited from the hit title song by Mack David and Jerry Livingston, a success story mirroring that of Cooper's 1952 Western High Noon. Though the plot has the structure of a traditional Western, the character interplay and psychological motivations are uncommon for a 1950s studio production.