The Hanging Tree

[rohanaka]

The Hanging Tree, in a word: Wow.

I have to say I really enjoyed this film a lot. I have wanted to see it for like... FOREVER. And thanks to a friend of mine, I was finally able to catch it.

What a great story. Heartbreakingly tragic in some respects. Very dramatic in others. With just a bit of adventure and suspense thrown in from time to time for good measure. And the romance factor in this one is handled so well that it is ALMOST subtle.... and yet it just about knocks you off your feet all at the same time. (I know... that doesn't make sense.... but it was a "less is more" sort of thing)

There were some TERRIFIC characters in this story and some really good performances too. Gary Cooper (as always) did a TERRIFIC job as Doc Frail... and I thought the parts of Elizabeth (Maria Schell) and Rune (Ben Piazza) were especially well played as well.

And OH!! that Karl Malden...Yo! FRENCHIE! You are POND SCUM, buddy!! (Ha). UGH... He got SO MUCH LESS than he deserved. (ha)

Boy, it was a LOVELY movie too in terms of the scenery and the way the landscape was incorporated into the story. Great shots of the high and jagged cliffs and the tall trees surrounding the mining town. Just breathtaking.

And the music.... well... I have to tell you. When I was a kid (late 60's- 70's) my dad used to play his old country western albums and I thought I was being TORTURED!! (ha) But he did have ONE favorite that I always LOVED (though you could NOT have gotten me to admit it then) and that was Marty Robbins. And I had heard the theme song to this movie a gazillion times.... but never really realized it was from a MOVIE until much later in life... long after I had "embraced what I once despised" and came to truly LOVE some of the older style country music (and bluegrass especially) that my dad used to play for us kids. (DON'T let him know I said that ...ha)

But I digress.... At any rate... The song The Hanging Tree is terrific and it is a NICE addition to the entire package of this film.

Terrific story, great charcters, beautiful scenery... and a cool theme song!! Not a bad little package at all.

PS... I have not done this yet on here... but I will try to post the youtube of the opening credits and SONG from this film.... Technophobe that I am.... I hope it works.

[youtube][/youtube]

check out that scenery.... (gasp) and again.... a really good theme song too.

[movieman1957]

Did they have this on a DVD? (I suspect more likely a tape.) I have wanted to see this again for a long time and haven't been able to find it. It often comes up in a discussion but we don't get too far.

Thanks for the comments.

[rohanaka]

Chris.. I will PM you... it is a "yes and no" kind of answer.. ha.

[JackFavell]

That youtube intro was just enough to get me real interested.... Ha! Your a heartbreaker, you are....

I am curious, because I thought I saw maria Schell's name in the credits. She seems to turn up in the oddest places.... westerns, British films.... I always like her, but she only recently caught my attention enough to wonder about her. How was she in this one?

[rohanaka]

Hiya Jackie.... she was an interesting mix in this one.... innocent and fragile at one moment... and strong and determined to stand on her own two feet the next. And I LOVE her voice... very melodic. I am not too familiar w/ some of her other work, but I thought she did a very nice job in this one.

[MissGoddess]

The Hanging Tree....The Hanging Tree..... (that's me trying to sound like Marty Robbins, ha!)


"Doc" Frail is my favorite Gary Cooper western character, followed by Will Kane and Link from Man of the West.

I love that he is so mysterious at the start and shows a fiercely forbidding side. You don't want to cross old
"Doc". But his name is a clue because like any self-respecting westerner worth watching, he has a secret past
he's trying to put behind him.

The movie is based on a story by Dorothy Johnson, who also wrote "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" and
"A Man Called Horse". I've never seen the latter movie made from her story, but of the other two The Hanging Tree
is the most faithful to the story as written (though not as superior a film, in my opinion). Delmer Daves directs
it with sensitivity, showing again how well he can externalize inner emotional conflicts. It's not really a very action
oriented film to me---rather like Daves' 3:10 to Yuma, he focuses on character (though with a much less loquacious
central character in the person of Coop).

Gary Cooper may be playing a healer, but he's considered a strange and almost sinister character to some
in the little mining "village" and who seems to be a magnet for castaway types. First is "Rune", the fugitive
from whom he exacts a very strong price, or so it would seem, for tending his wounds (I don't want to
give away too much), then a young woman who is the victim of a raid on the stagecoach she and her
Pappa were taking to make a new life in America, as well as a rather haunted and shady "preacher"
in the person of a young George C. Scott who singles Frail out for his imprecations---and finally
there is "Frenchy", who as Rohanaka vividly explained, needs a real good talking to about how
decent folks behave. All of these disparate characters bring out an ENTIRELY distinct and
different character trait from "Doc" Frail and put all together, make for an interestingly complex
portrayal.

Maria Schell does well enough, although I tend to find her a bit on the annoying side as a actress.
She strikes me as being singularly lacking a sense of humor and too earnest in her performance style, but that's me.

[rohanaka]

Hellooooo Miss Goddess!!!!

It's not really a very action
oriented film to me---rather like Daves' 3:10 to Yuma, he focuses on character (though with a much less loquacious
central character in the person of Coop).

I think that is a GREAT way to describe this one... not very "action oriented" but more focused on character.... and re: Doc Frail (and probably Coop too.ha) ... he was not a chatty sorta guy. He spoke so little sometimes... you could almost COUNT the words... but I think that was because he was a guy who just knew how to make his words count.

and finally
there is "Frenchy", who as Rohanaka vividly explained, needs a real good talking to about how
decent folks behave.

Now that was a far more eloquent way of saying it... ha. I kept thinking (or at least hoping) ... he was GOING to prove to be a good guy in the end (or at least prove to NOT be so UNlikeable anyway) ... but then he would turn around and do something SLIMY... and I'd hate him all over again. BLECH!! He just did NOT have any "people skills" ha. As a former coworker of mine was fond of saying... "His Mama didn't raise him right". ha.

I am glad you brought up the author of the book that this movie was made from... Dorothy M. Johnson.

A while back (I think last fall) you posted a link on the TCM site to an article about Ms Johson, and I have to tell you after reading about her... I think HER Life would have made an interesting movie. She seemed like such an UNLIKELY western writer... just from the little I know about her... but I think in her case it is a PERFECT example of "don't judge a book by it's cover" Ha.

I googled around to find that article again, and I am NOT 100% positive... but I THINK the one below is the same one (or at least similar) to the one you posted at TCM way back when... At any rate... it is an intersting read about a really intersting "character".... and all the time I was watching The Hanging Tree it just made it that more enjoyable for me to think of the source of the story and imagine all the little thoughts and details that must have bounced around in this little lady's brain as she was writing. Ha!

So... "(without further eloquence" ha)Here is the link that I THINK is the same as the one you posted over yonder (again.... I will try my hand at posting.... cross your fingers, folks)

http://www.distinctlymontana.com/index. ... sh_Montana

[JackFavell]

What a great lady! I LOVED that article, I have to go to the library again now.....

[MissGoddess]

Hi Kathy! Yes, that's the article. Wendy---there is a book (probably more than one) that has all her most famous stories in one volume. They are most of them short and make a good read. She was an excellent writer.

[jdb1]

Maria Schell does well enough, although I tend to find her a bit on the annoying side as a actress.
She strikes me as being singularly lacking a sense of humor and too earnest in her performance style, but that's me.[/color]

I feel the same about Schell, April -- she always seemed like something of a zombie onscreen to me. However, after having seen her quite good performance recently in the French film Gervaise on TCM (based on the Zola novel "L'Assommoir"), I have to wonder if there might be a language problem with Schell, and perhaps she just wasn't as comfortable with English dialogue as she was with dialogue in other languages.

[MissGoddess]

Maria Schell does well enough, although I tend to find her a bit on the annoying side as a actress.
She strikes me as being singularly lacking a sense of humor and too earnest in her performance style, but that's me.[/color]

I feel the same about Schell, April -- she always seemed like something of a zombie onscreen to me. However, after having seen her quite good performance recently in the French film Gervaise on TCM (based on the Zola novel "L'Assommoir"), I have to wonder if there might be a language problem with Schell, and perhaps she just wasn't as comfortable with English dialogue as she was with dialogue in other languages.

Hello, Judith,

I don't believe it's a language problem in my case, because a sense of humor is something that transcends language since it's
expressed through the eyes even more than words. My own Mother spoke little English when I was growing up so I'm used to being around people whose second language is English, and learned to read through the words and into the person.

There are many other actresses who made movies here before they were fluent in English who made a hit with me (Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Marlene Dietrich) so I think it must just be "chemistry". Maria strikes me as a Serious Actress and sometimes Serious Actresses just tire me. She reminds me of Luise Rainer in that. I've never been able to click with her, either.

I'm sure she was lovely, it's her screen style I don't care for.

[rohanaka]

Well... I know you folks have your reasons to think otherwise, but I still thought she did a good job. I thought the scenes where she was still weak and blind were really well played.... but I also enjoyed the rest of her performance too. Was it a stand out performance? No... But I still thought she did alright.

I admit she seemed a bit serious ( and maybe even a bit "wooden" or "out of her element" at times) but I think that if those traits were not part of her "character" per se, they could at least be a part of the "characterisitcs" of the sort of person she was playing. I guess what I am saying is that I think Eliazabeth came from a more "formal" sort of life. I thought it seemed like a natrural way for someone with her sort of background (who was suddenly cast into that circumstance) to behave. The only scene where I found her a bit "off" was (Mini-SPOILER) when she first regains her eyesight and is meandering around.... and then gets all scared... that was a bit.... "overdone" for my taste. But otherwise... I thought she did ok.

It may be that I just haven't watched this one w/ a critical enough eye yet and I am still enamored w/ the whole thing too much. At any rate, I do see how you might have taken her the way you did... but the stuff that bothered you about her just did not seem to bother me as much. I don't know... I am likely off in my thoughts on this... but it wouldn't be the first time, so don't go throwing anything at me. (unless it is one of those gold nuggets they were digging up in that story..ha)

[jdb1]

You certainly have a point there, MissG -- there are a great many actors and actresses (I find it's mostly actresses) who take themselves far too seriously, and treat acting as some sort of religious calling. You can just hear them saying to themselves "Hah-Hah!! ACTING!!!!!", like Jon Lovitz's over-the-top character, Master Thespian. To my mind, the worst offender in that category is Vanessa Redgrave, but I find that quality among many of the Classic Hollywood players, such as Susan Hayward, Greer Garson, de Havilland and Fontaine.

I was just remembering that my mother used to comment that Maria Schell always had a strange little smile playing about her lips, like a not too sane person, no matter what part she played. That could have been the result of plastic surgery of some kind I suppose, or maybe a lack of comfort in front of the camera.

[MissGoddess]

Howdy, Ro!

Oh don't misunderstand---I think she played the part well and it's not her character itself that I don't warm to, it's just something about Maria Schell, her personal make-up as it comes through as a performer that slightly irritates me. It's not her I'm sure, it's just something in me. It's like Ann Harding in Peter Ibbetson---they both inhabit their respective characters just fine and very convincingly, but the actresses themselves are not to my taste.

Judith---that comment by your Mother was so funny! I love it! Miss Schell does kind of stare really hard sometimes at her scene partners that I wonder they didn't find it somewhat disconcerting, ha!

[rohanaka]

Miss Schell does kind of stare really hard sometimes at her scene partners that I wonder they didn't find it somewhat disconcerting, ha!

Maybe that is why I liked the "still weak and blind" part of her performance so much... her eyes were still covered by the bandages....HA.