Hang ’em High **** (1968, Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, James MacArthur, Ed Begley, Pat Hingle, Charles McGraw, Ben Johnson, L Q Jones, Bruce Dern, Alan Hale Jr, Dennis Hopper) – Classic Movie Review 3,174

Clint Eastwood becomes a US Marshal to track down and kill the nine vigilantes who lynched him and left him to die. in the moody, exciting and cynical 1968 Western movie Hang ’em High.

When Clint Eastwood returned to the US from Europe, after starring in three Sergio Leone Spaghetti Westerns, he was directed in Hang ’em High by Ted Post, who was a vital factor in making Eastwood a Hollywood superstar. Post provides America’s answer to the Spaghetti Western in this moody, exciting and cynical 1968 movie with Eastwood playing Jed Cooper, an innocent supposed rustler and killer who barely survives a lynching but becomes a US Marshal to track down and kill the nine vigilantes who lynched him and left him to die.

In 1959 Eastwood, after bit parts in 11 films, moved to CBS TV for his first leading role, as the amiable, fresh-faced sidekick Rowdy Yates, in the TV Western series Rawhide, where he first worked with Post, who crafts Hang ’em High tautly and excitingly, giving it the authentic-looking touch of Dollars trilogy director Sergio Leone.

Produced by Eastwood’s Malpaso company, it is also a key film in creating his legend. Eastwood’s Man With No Name persona from the Spaghetti Westerns is here refined into a more obviously heroic character without any loss of fascination, developing and consolidating Eastwood’s screen persona as the impassive, laconic, gun-for-hire loner.

Hang ’em High is a most satisfying Western, whose power and enjoyment are much enhanced by the great turns from a commendable bunch of the venerable character players of the era, among them Ed Begley as Captain Wilson, Pat Hingle as Judge Fenton, Charles McGraw as Sheriff Ray Calhoun, Ben Johnson as Marshal Dave Bliss, L Q Jones as Loomis, Bruce Dern as Miller, Alan Hale Jr as Matt Stone, Dennis Hopper as The Prophet, Bob Steele as Jenkins, and Bert Freed as Schmidt the Hangman.

It co-stars Inger Stevens as Rachel Warren, James MacArthur as as The Preacher, Arlene Golonka as Jennifer, and Ruth White as Madame ‘Peaches’ Sophie.

The screenplay is by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg, the cinematography is by Leonard South and Richard Kline and the score is by Dominic Frontiere.

Dominic Frontiere was asked to compose an Ennio Morricone-type score and given eight days to deliver it. His popular theme has been often recorded, for example by Hugo Montenegro and Booker T and the MGs.

Filming began on 27 June 1967, in the area of Las Cruces, New Mexico, with other scenes shot at White Sands, while the interiors were shot at MGM studios.

It was released by United Artists on 31 July 1968 and became a big hit, grossing $6.8 million in the US and $4 million elsewhere, against a $1.6 million budget. Eastwood had signed on for the film with a salary of $400,000 and 25 per cent of the net earnings of the film, so that must have gone quite well for him.

Eastwood’s business manager Irving Leonard gave him the script for Hang ‘Em High and helped him set up his production company, The Malpaso Company, named after Malpaso Creek that flows through Eastwood’s then property in Monterey County, California. Leonard became the company’s president and arranged Hang ‘Em High as a joint production with United Artists. Eastwood brought in his old friend Ted Post to direct, with Eastwood also influencing the production and making changes to the script. Post influenced the casting, and brought in Inger Stevens as Rachel Warren.

Ted Post’s next film is Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970).

Post directed Eastwood again in Magnum Force (1973), the first Dirty Harry sequel, which outdid Don Siegel’s original film commercially.

Ted Post died on August 20 2013, aged 95. Eastwood has said that Post, Leone and Siegel were the three most influential directors in his career.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3,174

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