| Hang 'Em High | |
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Film poster by Sandy Kossin |
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| Directed by | Ted Post |
| Produced by | Leonard Freeman |
| Written by | Leonard Freeman Mel Goldberg |
| Starring | Clint Eastwood Inger Stevens Ed Begley Pat Hingle |
| Music by | Dominic Frontiere |
| Cinematography | Richard H. Kline Leonard J. South |
| Editing by | Gene Fowler Jr. |
| Studio | The Malpaso Company |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | August 3, 1968 |
| Running time | 114 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.6 million[1][2] |
Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American Western film directed by Ted Post and produced and co-written by Leonard Freeman. It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching, Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him, Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched him, and Pat Hingle as the judge who hires Jed as a US Marshal.
Hang 'Em High was the first production of The Malpaso Company, Clint Eastwood's own production company. In the film, actor Pat Hingle portrays a fictional judge who mirrors the true life Judge Isaac Parker, who was labeled "The Hanging Judge" due to the large number of men he had executed during his service as District Judge. The film also depicts the dangers of serving as a US Marshal or Deputy US Marshal during that period, as large numbers of Marshals were killed while serving under Parker. In the film, the fictional Fort Grant, the base for operations for that District Judge seat, is also a mirror of the factual Fort Smith, Arkansas, where Judge Parker's court was located.
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The story is set in Oklahoma Territory in 1889. It describes the efforts of Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) to bring the men who tried to lynch him to justice. The men are Capt. Wilson (Ed Begley), Reno (Joseph Sirola), Miller (Bruce Dern), Jenkins (Bob Steele), Stone (Alan Hale Jr.), Charlie Blackfoot (Ned Romero), Maddow (Russell Thorson), Tommy (Jonathan Lippe), and Loomis (L.Q. Jones).
Cooper drives a small herd of cattle across a stream. When the men in a posse surround him, he shows them a receipt for the cattle, but the man he bought them from was a rustler who killed the herd's owner. Cooper explains that he knew nothing about the murder, but only Jenkins expresses doubts about his guilt. After Reno takes Cooper's saddle and Miller takes his wallet, the men hang him from a tree and ride away, leaving him for dead.
Federal Marshal Dave Bliss (Ben Johnson) sees Cooper and cuts him down while he is still alive, then takes him to Fort Grant, where the territorial judge, Adam Fenton (Pat Hingle), determines that Cooper is innocent, sets him free, and warns him not to become a vigilante. As an alternative, Fenton offers Cooper a job as a marshal. Cooper accepts, and Fenton warns him not to kill the men who lynched him.
One day, Cooper sees his saddle on a horse in front of a small-town saloon. He finds Reno inside and tries to arrest him, but Reno reaches for his gun, forcing Cooper to shoot him dead. When word of this becomes public, Jenkins turns himself in and provides the names of the rest of the posse. Cooper finds Stone in another town, arrests him, and has the local sheriff, Ray Calhoun (Charles McGraw), put him in jail. Most of the men Cooper seeks are respected members of the community, but Calhoun honors Cooper's warrants for their arrest.
On their way to arresting the men, Cooper and Calhoun encounter the survivors of a new rustling/murder. Cooper and a posse catch the rustlers, who turn out to be Miller and two teenage brothers, Ben (Richard Gates) and Billy Joe (Bruce Scott). Cooper takes them to Fort Grant single-handedly after refusing to let the posse lynch them. On the way, Ben and Billy Joe insist that Miller was the murderer. Miller catches Cooper off guard and attacks him, but Cooper overpowers and subdues him while the brothers watch.
Fenton sentences all three rustlers to be hanged, despite Cooper's defense of the teenagers. Fenton insists that the public will resort to lynching if they see rustlers going unpunished, threatening Oklahoma's bid for statehood. Some time later, Calhoun arrives at Fort Grant and pays Cooper for his cattle. He is trying to bribe Cooper into leaving the rest of the men who lynched him alone, but Cooper makes it clear that he still intends to arrest them. With the bribe rejected, Blackfoot and Maddow flee, while Tommy and Loomis remain loyal to Wilson, who has decided to kill Cooper.
At Fort Grant, Wilson, Loomis, and Tommy shoot Cooper up while most of the town watches the hanging of Miller, Ben, Billy Joe, and three other men. Cooper survives and is slowly nursed back to health by Rachel Warren (Inger Stevens). At Wilson's ranch, he kills Tommy and Loomis, and Wilson hangs himself. At Fort Grant again, Cooper threatens to quit unless Fenton releases Jenkins, who is both contrite and seriously ill. Fenton again insists that justice must be served, but he agrees to pardon Jenkins. Cooper agrees to continue as a marshal, and Fenton gives him warrants for Blackfoot and Maddow.
Eastwood spent much of late 1966 and 1967 dubbing for the English-language version of the Dollars Trilogy and being interviewed, something which left him feeling angry and frustrated.[3] Stardom brought more roles in the "tough guy" mold and Irving Leornard gave him a script to a new film, the American revisionist western Hang 'Em High, a cross between Rawhide and Leone's westerns, written by Mel Goldberg and produced by Leonard Freeman.[3] However, the William Morris Agency had wanted him to star in a bigger picture, Mackenna's Gold with a cast of notable actors such as Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif and Telly Savalas. Eastwood, however, did not approve and preferred the script for Hang 'Em High but had one complaint which he voiced to the producers; the scene before the first hanging, where the hero is attacked by the enemies. Eastwood believed that the scene would not be suitable in a saloon and they eventually agreed to introduce a whore scene in which the attack takes place afterwards as Eastwood enters the bar.[4] Eastwood signed for the film with a salary of $400,000 and 25% of the net earnings to the film, playing the character of Cooper, a man accused by vigilantes of a cow baron's murder and lynched and left for dead and later seeks revenge.[1][2][4]
With the wealth generated by the Dollars trilogy, Leonard helped set up a new production company for Eastwood, Malpaso Productions, something he had long yearned for and was named after a river on Eastwood's property in Monterey County.[5] Leonard became the company's president and arranged for Hang 'Em High to be a joint production with United Artists.[5] Directors Robert Aldrich and John Sturges were considered for the director's helm, but on the request of Eastwood, old friend Ted Post was brought in to direct, against the wishes of producer Leonard Freeman, who Eastwood had urged away.[6] Post was important in casting for the film and arranged for Inger Stevens of The Farmer's Daughter fame to play the role of Rachel Warren and had not heard of Eastwood or Sergio Leone at the time but instantly took a liking to Clint and accepted.[6] Pat Hingle, Dennis Hopper, Ed Begley, Bruce Dern and James MacArthur were also cast.
Filming began in June 1967 in the Las Cruces area of New Mexico.[6] Additional scenes were shot at White Sands and in the interiors were shot in MGM studios.[1][7] The opening lynching scene was filmed next to the Rio Grande River.[1] Eastwood had considerable leeway in the production, especially in the script which was altered in parts such as the dialogue and setting of the bar room scene to his liking.[8] The film marked the later and final movie appearances of both Ed Begley and Inger Stevens, who did movies and TV: in April 1970, two years after this film's release, Ed Begley died of heart failure. Inger Stevens joined him when the month ended, after a drug overdose.
The film became a major success after release in July 1968 and with an opening day revenue of $5,241 in Baltimore alone, it became the biggest United Artists opening in history, exceeding all of the James Bond films at that time.[9] It debuted at number five on Variety's weekly survey of top films and had made its money back within two weeks of screening.[9] It eventually grossed $11 million in the U.S.[10] It was widely praised by critics including Arthur Winsten of the New York Post who described Hang 'Em High as "A Western of quality, courage, danger and excitement".[8] Variety gave the film a negative review, calling it "a poor American-made imitation of a poor Italian-made imitation of an American-made western."[11]
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