Hang 'em High

We all have our ghosts, Marshal.

Hang 'Em High is directed by ted Post and written by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg. It stars Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, Pat Hingle, Ed Begley, Ben Johnson, Charles McGraw, Ruth White and Bruce Dern. Music is by Dominic Frontiere and cinematography is shared by Richard H. Kline and Leonard J. South.

An innocent man survives a lynching and returns as a lawman and sets about bringing the vigilantes to justice.

After making a name in Leone's Dollars Trilogy, Eastwood returned to America and began cementing his name in the genre of film that would come to define him. Though very much an American Western, this does have Spaghetti Western tonal splinters. Story is derivative and safe, however the ch...

'Hang em High' is entertaining stuff.

I personally think the first half is much stronger than the second half, which loses its way a tad and ends up concluding in a perfectly good but not as great way as what I had wanted - based on the impressive opening hour or so.

Clint Eastwood, though, is excellent from start-to-finish. I undoubtedly enjoyed his performance, which is great to see follow on from the major highs of the Dollars trilogy. Pat Hingle is also a positive performer, he and Eastwood share one terrific scene in particular.

When "Cooper" (Clint Eastwood) gets caught up in a case of mistaken identity, he is all but lynched by a group of citizens convinced he has committed murder. Luckily for him, he is snatched from the jaws of death by deputy "Bliss" (Ben Johnson) who takes him in for a more legitimate hanging. Fortune continues to shine on "Cooper" though, when local judge "Fenton" (Pat Hingle) finds his story checks out and offers him a job with a badge of his own. This isn't to take the law into his own hands - he is expected to bring the men who tried to kill him in for due process. He might be willing enough, but are they? Meantime, he finds that his rekindled law-man occupation sees him involved in other dangerous business, and after one especially close...