The Hangman (1959)

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Blistering performances.

Robert Taylor plays a cynical lawman in director Michael Curtiz's offbeat but interesting western "The Hangman" who has a habit of getting his man and bringing him to face justice. Taylor doesn't look like the usual U.S. Deputy Marshal this time around. He dresses business-like in a jacket with his six-gun holstered on his pants' belt well out of sight so he looks like he isn't packing a revolver. Believe it or not, this gruff character in dark apparel starts out as one kind of hombre and ends up as a different one by fadeout. This 1959 black & white western reminded me a little of the Charles Bronson bounty hunter western "Showdown at Boot Hill." Bronson gunned down his quarry, but nobody wanted to pay him off for his work. Similarly, after he delivers one outlaw to be hanged to his immediate superior, Marshal Clum Cummings (soon to be "Bonanza" star Lorne Greene), our hero, Marshal Mackenzie Bovard sets out to track down the last renegade named Jim Butterfield. The only problem that confronts Bovard is that nobody knows what Butterfield looks like except the man who is destined to swing in a week's time for the murder of another deputy. Bovard knows that Butterfield served in the calvary so he rides out to the nearest fort where the outlaw served. Unfortunately, the only man who can identify Butterfield is an orderly (Regis Toomey) but the fort commandant cannot release him to ride with Bovard for at least a month. The orderly recommends that Bovard look up a woman, Selah Jennison (Tina Louise of "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys") because she can recognize him. Bovard offers her $500 in gold if she will follow him to a nearby town and identify Butterfield. Bovard sets out on a stage to that town where he meets up with the town lawman, Sheriff Buck Weston (Fess Parker of "Davy Crockett") and asks around about Butterfield. The most obvious candidate is a well-liked teamster who works for a freighting firm, but he Jim Butterfield (Jack Lord of "Hawaii 5-o") has changed his name to Jim Bishop and nobody knows about his notorious past. Initially, Selah doesn't show up when she is supposed to and Bovard begins to have doubts about his cynical outlook on people. He assures Sheriff Weston that everybody has a price. Meantime, Curtiz and scenarist Dudley Nichols of "Stagecoach" fame struggle to work in some uneven humor. During the stage ride, a mature woman older than Bovard, Amy Hopkins (Mabel Albertson of "The Cobweb") struggles to attract Bovard's attention, but he ignores her. Just as Bovard is about to give up hope that Selah will show up, Selah shows up and Amy is surprised and affronted by her presence. Selah doesn't want to identify Butterfield and sneaks off to warn him. Not even Bovard can convince one of Butterfield's enemies at the teamster firm to testify against him. A harmless Mexican Pedro Alonso (Jose Gonzales-Gonzales of "Rio Bravo") who works alongside Butterfield tries to kill Bovard twice but fails to succeed each time. Eventually, even Bovard relents, turns in his badge, and decides to head for California to live the life that he has always dreamed up. Surprisingly, Selah turns down Sheriff Weston's offer of marriage and accompanies Bovard to California. This is not a terrain western with horsemen charging back and forth across the landscape. Most of the action occurs in a western town. Ironically, Bovard brandishes his revolver, but he doesn't kill anybody. Similarly, director Michael Curtiz doesn't display his usual flair in this Paramount Pictures release.

The Hangman was Robert Taylor's first independent film after leaving MGM. In later years, he would describe it as one of his failures. Like many Taylor movies, it's an unusual twist on a familiar subject. Mackenzie Bovard, a Deputy Marshal, is famous for his ability to catch criminals who are later hanged. Bovard is cynical and world weary with a poor opinion of his fellow humans. Pursuing a robbery suspect, he meets the young and lovely Tina Louise. Through his relationship with her Bovard gradually regains his faith in humanity and becomes a much warmer and more likable person. This is far from a typical western--no fight scenes, no gorgeous scenery, no evil villains. As another reviewer noted, it's a drama set in the old West. It's about responsibility, right and wrong and personal development and growth. Taylor is excellent, as always, in his understated way. Tina Louise is good as a young woman who changes from a drab loser to a confident woman. Mabel Albertson is wonderful as a middle-aged woman who has the hots for Taylor (who can blame her?). Fess Parker, post Davy Crockett is effective as a town Sheriff and his laid back persona makes a good contrast to the driven, more intense Taylor. Perhaps not a classic but definitely worth watching and owning.

This isn't your typical Western, but it isn't exactly "atypical" either.This is actually more of a drama that just happens to be set in the West.In other words, you could put this on a stage in front of a live audience, and probably get the same production.And that's generally pretty good.We have a story line that really isn't the story line.The surface plot is Robert Taylor as a cynic who is trying to identify the fourth man in a robbery, a man we know early on played a very minor role, if any. The man is sentenced to be hanged.He finds that people don't want to identify the man, Jack Lord with blond hair. It's much like "The Spy Who Loved Me" in that it is a quest to have a man killed who probably doesn't deserve it.That's just the surface plot. In essence, Lord becomes the fourth character. The real plot is the romantic subplot that lays beneath the surface.The woman in the triangle finds herself in emotional turmoil over betraying Jack Lord's character to the law, which is represented by Taylor and Fess Parker.Parker is the younger, striking man who immediately sets out to make her his wife. Taylor is the older man who sets out to understand her and have a relationship.In this, we have a switch. The younger man becomes the solid, steady force, and strangely devoid of romance. He is a tall, handsome, affable fellow. What women call "a catch" in public, but in practice, they just can't find what the all "chemistry" with.Taylor's character, meanwhile, is full of charged emotion. While Fess is a "Earth", Robert is "fire".The story becomes the story of female romanticism. It is a very credible depiction, whether we like it or not.It isn't what I call a "great Western", but perhaps I judge it on the standards of usual action. It is actually a drama, one of those stage dramas that focus on a subject. It isn't dull, and the characters are three dimensional, like most golden age Westerns. It's very watchable.

I like this movie for a number of reasons. The first being it is a Robert Taylor western, which you can always count on to be a good movie.Taylor plays MacKenzie Bovard a feared marshall nicknamed the Hangman because he catches the bad guys and then "the law hangs them". He is after the last of a hold up gang, and this he says is his last job. He has missed out on life and wants to move to California to start again. He persuades Selah Jennison (Tina Louise) to come to town to identify Johnny Butterfield (Jack Lord). She is miserable and alone and eventually goes to town for the money. Bovard is disappointed that she arrives because when she did not show up immediately, he felt he had finally found someone who could not be bought. He treats her badly, but still feels something there. She is much younger in years but is loyal to Butterfield. When she goes to Johnny to warn him, Bovard follows her and a friend of Johnny's ambushes him, shooting him. Selah goes back to her room and is confronted by an angry Bovard, wounded and unhappy that he could have ever thought she was something different. She tries to make him believe that she is concerned only for him, but he rejects her. The next morning she awakes to find Bovard in her bed, and handcuffed to him. He tracks down Johnny with Selah still handcuffed to him, a good comic twist to a serious story. In the end Bovard shoots above Johnny's head and lets him escape. The sheriff, Fess Parker is in love with Selah and has asked her to marry him, but she rejects the proposal and goes to California with Bovard to start a new life. Taylor is great as the cynical lawman, who in the end finds that a young woman knows more of loyalty and love than he could have ever imagined. Tina Louise is good as the girl, and has some good scenes with Taylor, quite touching one minute and argumentative the next. Good western, and the first independent film Taylor made outside the MGM studio system.