HANG EM HIGH (DVD/ST&WS/FR&SP-SUB/ACCESS/TRAILER/DOLBY D) DVD

Hang 'em High
Ex-lawman turned rancher Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) is moving a small herd of cattle when a group of nine men on horseback, led by Captain Wilson (Ed Begley Sr.), ride up and accuse him of having stolen the cattle and killed their owner. Refusing to believe his account, they string him up by the neck and leave him for dead, but they don't do the job right. Cooper is dangling there, barely alive, a few minutes later when Deputy U.S. Marshal Bliss (Ben Johnson) spots him and cuts him down. He survives the next few days in Bliss' tumbleweed wagon with the other prisoners, and is later cleared of any wrongdoing and released by Judge Fenton (Pat Hingle), just in time to witness the hanging of the man who really murdered the owner of the cattle and took Cooper's money. Cooper still wants revenge on the nine men who tried to hang him, but Fenton insists that he leave the bringing of them to justice to his deputy marshals. As it happens, Fenton is in desperate need of deputy marshals for the territory that he oversees, and he also knows that Cooper was a good lawman. Cooper, in turn, is now broke and in need of a job, and does want to see justice done. They strike an uneasy bargain, Cooper agreeing to wear a badge and bring in the men he's looking for -- alive -- for trial. The latter proves easier said than done, however, when the first of them that he spots tries to draw on him when he makes the arrest. One of the hanging party, Jenkins (Bob Steele), soon turns himself in and provides the names of the others. Cooper takes Stone (Alan Hale Jr.) alive, but the hapless blacksmith is later shot by the local sheriff (Charles McGraw) while trying to escape. The other men, led by Wilson, have no intention of dying, or even being brought to trial, without a fight. Two of them go on the run out of the territory, while Wilson and two of the others decide to take the law into their own hands once again. Meanwhile, Cooper becomes a hero when he single-handedly brings back a trio of rustlers who are also guilty of murder. This leads to Cooper's first confrontation with Judge Fenton, who, in a gripping scene, explains why it is essential that he be as seemingly quick to hang a man as he is. Unless the people are convinced that the law will do its job -- including hanging men who deserve it -- they will keep taking the law into their own hands and there will be more lynch mobs like the one that tried to kill Cooper. In the course of his quest for justice, Cooper also makes the acquaintance of Rachel (Inger Stevens), a young woman with her own search for justice, haunted by her own ghosts, and the two of them are drawn together, no more so than when Wilson and two of the others try to gun Cooper down in cold blood. The final confrontation between Cooper and Wilson escalates in violence to its savage, irony-laced conclusion. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Cast Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper Inger Stevens as Rachel Ed Begley Sr. as Capt. Wilson Pat Hingle as Judge Adam Fenton Arlene Golonka as Jennifer Ben Johnson as Sheriff Dave Bliss

Crew John B. Goodman - Art Director Glen Wright - Costume Designer Gene Murray - Costume Designer Ted Post - Director Bill Brame - Editor Gene Fowler, Jr. - Editor Dominic Frontiere - Composer (Music Score) John Capter, Jr. - Musical Direction/Supervision Richard H. Kline - Cinematographer Leonard J. South - Cinematographer Leonard Sough - Cinematographer Leonard Freeman - Producer Arthur Krams - Set Designer George Swartz - Special Effects Mel Goldberg - Screenwriter Leonard Freeman - Screenwriter

Hang 'em High
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. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
 

(no awards)

General Specifications: Language Options: English, French Subtitle Options: English, French, Spanish Sound Processing: 1: PCM mono Additional 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 DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1: Theatre Wide-Screen 1.33:1: Pre-1954 Standard MPAA Rating: PG13 DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 2 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 115 min   DVD Chapters: Scene Selections 0. Scene Selections 1. Logos/Opening [2:16] 2. "Hang Him!" [6:33] 3. Main Titles/Saved? [6:01] 4. "He's Plum Loco!" [4:31] 5. The Tumbleweed Wagon [3:34] 6. Home Not Sweet Home [2:18] 7. Free To Go/Dead Gone [3:49] 8. Badge For Hire [2:19] 9. Picking Up The Swede [1:40] 10. Reno Takes A Fall [5:05] 11. The Stool Pigeon [1:25] 12. Bagging A Blacksmith [3:01] 13. Sidetracked Lawman [2:30] 14. Leave It To The Law [2:27] 15. "We Guilty As Hell!" [2:53] 16. Foiled Rope Trick [6:32] 17. "The Best There Is!" [1:10] 18. Breakfast In Bed [5:30] 19. Looking 'Em Over [1:03] 20. Courtroom Justice? [2:53] 21. Payoff Ploy [2:37] 22. Turncoats [3:32] 23. The Hanging Circus [2:18] 24. Hanging Hymnals [4:50] 25. Frustrated Friends [1:06] 26. Last Rites/ Speeches [5:03] 27. "Holey" Lawman [3:46] 28. Rachel Tells All [5:05] 29. Storm & Shelter [3:31] 30. So Long, Sweetheart [1:47] 31. Treed, Trapped, Hanged [7:49] 32. Quitting & Rejoining [5:34] Side #2 -- STANDARD 0. Scene Selections 1. Logos/ Opening [2:16] 2. "Hang Him!" [6:33] 3. Main Titles/ Saved? [6:01] 4. "He's Plum Loco!" [4:31] 5. The Tumbleweed Wagon [3:34] 6. Home Not Sweet Home [2:18] 7. Free To Go/ Dead Gone [3:49] 8. Badge For Hire [2:19] 9. Picking Up The Swede [1:40] 10. Reno Takes A Fall [5:05] 11. The Stool Pigeon [1:25] 12. Bagging A Blacksmith [3:01] 13. Sidetracked Lawman [2:30] 14. Leave It To The Law [2:27] 15. "We Guilty As Hell!" [2:53] 16. Foiled Rope Trick [6:32] 17. "The Best There Is!" [1:10] 18. Breakfast In Bed [5:30] 19. Looking 'Em Over [1:03] 20. Courtroom Justice? [2:53] 21. Payoff Ploy [2:37] 22. Turncoats [3:32] 23. The Hanging Circus [2:18] 24. Hanging Hymnals [4:50] 25. Frustratee Friends [1:06] 26. Last Rites/ Speeches [5:03] 27. "Holey" Lawman [3:46] 28. Rachel Tells All [5:05] 29. Storm & Shelter [3:31] 30. So Long, Sweetheart [1:47] 31. Treed, Trapped, Hanged [7:49] 32. Quitting & Rejoining [5:34]