Hangman's Knot (1952)

Simply A Masterpiece

Powerful

Excellent but underrated film

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Robert.E.Lee only surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia so in Nevada which was in the far West robbing a Union gold train a month later would still have been a legal military operation.Also using dynamite was an anachronism as it wasn't patented till 1867.And where did Scott and his men get their spanking new Henry rifles from? In reality if the South had had such weapons the outcome of the war may have been vastly different.However when did Hollywood let the truth get in the way of a cracking good story and this certainly is one.Scott was one of the great westerners,tall and rugged always seemed to be about forty five years old.Rarely a take your shirt off merchant one of the exceptions being Carson City which showed what a fine physique he had.His quiet good natured characters were a pleasant contrast to John Wayne's extroverts.Lee Marvin has a typical role as a loose cannon obviously suffering from the traumas of war.His fist fight with Scott (or his double) was very well staged.Marvin played a similar character in "The Raid" in which his commanding officer solves the problem by shooting him out of hand.The plot concerns Scott and his men robbing a Union gold shipment not realising that the war is over.They hide out in a staging post surrounded by some drifters who are after the gold for themselves.Among the passengers is the lovely Donna Reed and yes Scott gets the girl,who worries about a twenty four year age gap? The action sequences directed by the great Yakima Canutt are far superior to the average western of the time.It is the only western directed by Roy Huggins,why he never continued to make main stream films is a mystery to me,he was lost to television.Scott made some outstanding westerns directed by Andre De Toth and Budd Botticher,this film is by far the best of the rest,a thoroughly entertaining western.

Hangmans Knot is only slightly better than the average western of its time. However there is one huge difference between this film & film of today.Randolph Scott was a top rated STAR of his time,he was able to carry a movie all by himself, BUT the powers that be back then always surrounded there star with major featured players who were well known at the time. In todays film, you are lucky if you even recognize any one else but the star.The supporting cast of Hangmans Knot is a who's who of players, some were well known, some just starting out & some old timers who seemed to be in many films.The cast here includes. Donna Reed,Lee Marvin,Claude Jarmen Jr, Clem Bevans, Jeanette Nolan, Frank Faylen, Richard Denning among others.The payroll was not inflated either, as nearly every one of them were on contract to the studio.Roy Huggins of TV fame both wrote & directed this film & it is quite violent for its time.Do not expect a great film, it is just a slightly better than average routine western of its time.In fact the only annoying note is the overly romantic kiss between Randolph Scott & Donna Reed at next to last scene . Back then it was required to have either or both a comic bit or a clinch.The running time is only 81 minutes BUT there is more action than in todays 2 hour films.They thankfully did not have endless song scores to stop the action..It was filmed in Technicolor in an area just north of Los Angeles that was wide open space back then. Today its all homes & shopping centers.Ratings: *** (out of 4) 82 points (out of 100) IMDb 7 (out of 10)

1952 saw the Columbia release of one of Scott's best - Hangman's Knot.They don't come much more taut than this, and its success only brings into question as to why director Roy Huggins never made another film as director. This one really begins to approach the later Boetticher films, being set in an isolated way station, as several of Budd's films happened to be, with Randy as a Confederate officer, who has stolen Union gold, not knowing the war is over.Outlaws, learning of the loot, besiege the soldiers at the way station, but just as much danger comes from within - the menacing soldier played by Lee Marvin. The cast is better than those in the then most recent Scott vehicles, including Donna Reed, Claude Jarman, Jr., Richard Denning and Guinn "Big Boy Williams. Randy's son C.H. Scott, in the book "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott" speaks fondly of Donna Reed, as if she was a second mother, and says that she and his father never lost touch over the years, and were devoted to each other.Omitting the Boetticher films, this one is clearly the strongest Scott offering of the 1950s. That Huggins never directed a feature film again (he did direct a 1970 TV movie) is more our loss than his. Huggins did quite well in the long run, with items like Maverick, Rockford Files and The Fugitive in his future.With much of the film set within the way station, Huggins manages to keep the tension high as Scott has to deal with the group of bounty hunters outside (led by Ray Teal in a rousing performance) and the wayward loose cannon Ralph, the Lee Marvin character. Lee must have impressed producer Scott as he got a much showier role in the first Scott-Boetticher classic SEVEN MEN FROM NOW. Meanwhile, Scott must serve as surrogate big brother of Claude Jarman Jr, no longer the little boy of THE YEARLING and in fact nearly as tall as the film's lead star.Richard Denning also impresses in his part as Donna Reed's fiancée, a character as weak-willed as the fiancée in the later Boetticher film THE TALL T. At first willing to call attention to an attempted escape by Scott and company (despite giving his word otherwise), he later bargains to give them an alternate plan of escape - in exchange for two bars of the captured gold.My favorite of Scott's 50's westerns prior to his Boetticher films and dollar for dollar, the equal of many much bigger budgeted items from the likes of Wayne and Cooper.

Harry Joe Brown and Randy Scott produced some of the best westerns Hollywood ever made. This is one of them, one of only two films directed by the brilliant writer-producer Roy Huggins, who ended up devoting much of his time to some fine TV series, including "Maverick" and "The Rockford Files." A person can only spread himself so thin yet it's unfortunate that Huggins didn't direct more movies. There is so much highly creative work here, both on and off the screen.The story written by Huggins concerns the final days of the tumultuous Civil War that not only split the nation asunder, but families and friends as well. Major Matt (Scott) is in command of a small band of rebel soldiers whose assignment is to hijack a union gold shipment in far off Nevada and take no prisoners. They succeed only to learn that Lee surrendered to Grant several weeks earlier. What to do? The major and his rebels decide to keep the gold and determine what to do with it later. The only rascal amongst the rebels is Ralph, an early role for Lee Marvin, who as usual steals the show. It seems his meanness has only grown as a result of all the violence he has experienced during the war. His killer proclivities have come to dominate his psyche. Though old pals in the saddle, Ralph and the Major are continually at each other's throats. Also a member of the rebels is a youngster who has not yet tasted blood, Jamie (Claude Jarman Jr. who first scored big as a twelve-year-old in "The Yearling").As the rebels make their getaway, knowing that they will be hunted down as murderers and traitors by the Yankees, they are set upon by a gang of outlaws who claim to be seeking justice but who really want the gold. The rebels are chased to an outpost via stagecoach where they hold up in what turns out to be a standoff. The leader of the outlaw gang is Quincey, portrayed by veteran actor Ray Teal in one of his best roles. He was always a reliable actor who could be counted on to give a good performance. But this time he goes beyond the expected and turns in one of the best acting jobs ever. Today he is most famous for playing Sheriff Roy Coffee in the ever popular "Bonanza" TV series. Another surprise is to see Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams, who usually played good old boy types, half-comic, half tough guy, as one of the meanest hombres around, Smitty. He is more sadistic and cruel than Lee Marvin in this film, which is saying a lot. Sweet Donna Reed is, well, sweet, but handles the part of a nurse, Molly, engaged to a slime ball, Lee Kemper (Richard Denning of TV's Mr. North fame), beautifully. Jeanette Nolan and Clem Bevans are effective as daughter and father of a young man who died in battle after his father had been killed in the war. The lead role is filled admirably by Randolph Scott. He captures all the nuances and contradictions of Major Matt while remaining charming enough to capture the heart of Nurse Molly. The rest of the cast including the redoubtable Frank Faylen provides the necessary support for this excellent western.The title "Hangman's Knot" is metaphoric. Literally, the knot is tied to hang Cass (Faylen), but the knot also stands for the symbolic noose around the neck of each character for various reasons explored by the interaction of a great cast.