The Hanging Tree (film)

Last updated

The Hanging Tree
Poster of the movie The Hanging Tree.jpg
Directed by Delmer Daves
Screenplay by Wendell Mayes
Halsted Welles
Based onThe Hanging Tree
1957 novelette
by Dorothy M. Johnson
Produced by Martin Jurow
Richard Shepherd
Starring Gary Cooper
Maria Schell
Karl Malden
Cinematography Ted D. McCord
Edited by Owen Marks
Music by Jerry Livingston (title song)
Max Steiner
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Baroda Productions
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date
  • February 11, 1959 (1959-02-11)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$2.2 million (est. US/ Canada rentals) [1]

The Hanging Tree is a 1959 American Western film directed by Delmer Daves, based on the novelette The Hanging Tree, written by Dorothy M. Johnson in 1957. The film stars Gary Cooper, Maria Schell, Karl Malden and George C. Scott, and it is set in the gold fields of Montana during the gold rush of the 1860s and 1870s. The story follows a doctor who saves a criminal from a lynch mob, then earns the enmity of several prospectors while trying to protect a young woman whom he has nursed back to health after she was injured in a coach robbery. Karl Malden assumed directing duties for several days when Daves fell ill, and the film represented the first cinematic appearance for George C. Scott.

Contents

Plot

Joseph Frail (Gary Cooper)—doctor, gambler, gunslinger—rides into the small town of Skull Creek, Montana, with miners in a gold rush, looking to set up a doctor's office. He passes by the "hanging tree," an old oak with a thick branch over which has been slung a rope with a frayed end, presumably a former noose.

He rescues and treats Rune (Ben Piazza), a young man who was shot by Frenchy (Karl Malden) while trying to steal gold from a sluice. As Rune has no money to pay for his care, Frail forces Rune into temporary servitude with the threat of revealing he is the thief.

A stagecoach is robbed and overturned, killing the driver and a male passenger. A search party is formed, and Frenchy finds the sole survivor, Swiss immigrant Elizabeth Mahler (Maria Schell), daughter of the male passenger.

Crippled by burns, blindness and dehydration, Elizabeth is moved into a house next to the doctor's house to recover. The placement causes much chagrin among the town's righteous women, who believe that Elizabeth may be paying for her medical care through illicit behavior.

Frenchy sneaks in under the guise of trying to strike a business deal with Elizabeth, but instead tries to kiss her. Frail witnesses the aggression and chases Frenchy back to town. Frail beats him up and threatens to kill him. Meanwhile, a faith healer named Dr. Grubb (George C. Scott) sees Frail's medical practice as a threat.

Elizabeth eventually regains her sight and makes romantic overtures toward Frail. He rejects her. She leaves in a huff, determined to strike it rich as a prospector so that she can pay off Frail and get out from under his control.

She teams with Rune and Frenchy, who plan to buy a claim and set up a sluice. To get money, she pawns a family heirloom necklace. It is worthless, but Frail secretly tells the storekeeper to loan her however much money she needs.

She finds out and asks Frail why he did not respond to her affection. He reveals that his wife had an affair with his own brother. He found them together, both dead, an apparent murder-suicide. In a rage, he burned down his house with their bodies in it. He tells Elizabeth he is "not allowed to forget."

Elizabeth, Frenchy and Rune strike it rich on their claim, finding a "glory hole" of gold under a large tree stump. They ride into town, tossing a few pieces of gold to the townsfolk. Frenchy, overwhelmed by his sudden importance in the town, uses some of the gold to buy whiskey for everyone. The gaiety quickly turns into a riot of the lawless town members led by Dr. Grubb. While the lawful citizens of the town are engaged in fighting fires set by Grubb, Frenchy takes advantage of the commotion to make advances on Elizabeth. Her lack of interest sparks a brutal physical assault as he attempts to rape her. Frail again catches Frenchy just in time. Frenchy pulls his pistol and shoots, but misses. Frail kills Frenchy.

Seeing his opportunity to remove his "competition", Grubb incites the mob to lynch Frail. They carry him to the hanging tree, tie his hands, and stand him up in a wagon bed, the rope around his neck. Rune and Elizabeth rush in carrying their gold and the deed to their claim. Elizabeth offers everything to the townsfolk if they will let Frail live. As the mob turns on itself in the struggle to grab the gold and the deed, the lynch party disperses.

Elizabeth now feels she has repaid Frail in full. Rune slips the noose off, and Elizabeth turns to walk away. Frail calls out her name. She turns back, and steps to the end of the wagon. He kneels down, cups her chin with both hands, and they touch their heads together acknowledging their love.

Cast

Production

The film was the first one for Cooper's Baroda Productions company. It was the first film produced by former talent agents Martin Jurow and Richard Shepherd. [2]

Principal photography was shot on location in the Oak Creek Wildlife Area in the mountains west of Yakima, Washington. The scenes during the opening credits and title, where Gary Cooper rides alongside the river on horseback with a pack horse in tow, were filmed about mid-June in 1958, just northeast of Goose Prairie, Washington, along the north bank of the Bumping River. The fictional small gold mining town of Skull Creek was a temporary film set constructed along the south side of Little Rattlesnake Creek by its confluence with Rattlesnake Creek, just southwest of Nile, Washington. [3]

The cinematography by Ted McCord made use of full-aperture photography and reduction printing to improve the grain quality of the film. This process involves widening the aperture of the camera to capture a larger image, then reducing the image back to standard size in post-production. While this achieves the greatest effect jumping from larger formats like 65mm film, McCord used 35mm film and extended to aperture to the sprocket holes on the film. When shooting a subject from 100 feet, this extended the width of the shot from 42 feet to 48 feet. [4]

Soundtrack

Marty Robbins performed the title song that was nominated for best song at the 32nd Annual Academy Awards and the 1960 Golden Laurel Award for Best Song. [5] The lyrics contain a short reference to the film's story. It was released on the reissue of the album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (1959) by Robbins. A known cover-version is by Frankie Laine who performed this song at the 32nd Academy Awards.

The film's score was composed by Max Steiner.

Reception

The film was received well by audiences and critics at its 1959 debut. Film Bulletin drew a parallel between the "glory hole" of gold Elizabeth and Rune discover and the profits of the film. [6]

In The New York Times , critic Bosley Crowther wrote:

Delmer Daves has directed the gold camp action for a great deal of clatter and bang, and it all looks rambunctious and authentic on the vividly colored screen. Indeed, what with one thing and another, the story is absorbing to the end. It keeps you wondering and wishing—finally wishing it were a little better, that's all. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Destry Rides Again</i> 1939 film

Destry Rides Again is a 1939 American Western comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Marlene Dietrich and James Stewart. The supporting cast includes Mischa Auer, Charles Winninger, Brian Donlevy, Allen Jenkins, Irene Hervey, Billy Gilbert, Bill Cody Jr., Lillian Yarbo, and Una Merkel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Neal</span> American stage and film actress (1926–2010)

Patricia Neal was an American actress of stage and screen. She is well known for, among other roles, playing World War II widow Helen Benson in The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), radio journalist Marcia Jeffries in A Face in the Crowd (1957), wealthy matron Emily Eustace Failenson in Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and the worn-out housekeeper Alma Brown in Hud (1963). She also featured as the matriarch in the television film The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971); her role as Olivia Walton was re-cast for the series it inspired, The Waltons. A major star of the 1950s and 1960s, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and two British Academy Film Awards, and was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Malden</span> American actor (1912–2009)

Karl Malden was an American stage, movie and television actor who first achieved acclaim in the original Broadway productions of Arthur Miller's All My Sons and Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire in 1946 and 1947. Recreating the role of Mitch in the 1951 film of Streetcar, he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

<i>One-Eyed Jacks</i> 1961 film

One-Eyed Jacks is a 1961 American Western film directed by and starring Marlon Brando, his only directorial credit. Brando portrays the lead character Rio, and Karl Malden plays his partner, "Dad" Longworth. The supporting cast features Pina Pellicer, Katy Jurado, Ben Johnson and Slim Pickens. In 2018, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maria Schell</span> Austrian-Swiss actress

Maria Margarethe Anna Schell was an Austrian-Swiss actress. She was one of the leading stars of German cinema in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1954, she was awarded the Cannes Best Actress Award for her performance in Helmut Käutner's war drama The Last Bridge, and in 1956, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for Gervaise.

<i>The Dark Is Rising Sequence</i> Series of fantasy novels for children by Susan Cooper

The Dark Is Rising Sequence is a series of five contemporary fantasy novels for older children and young adults that were written by the British author Susan Cooper and published from 1965 to 1977. The first book in the series, Over Sea, Under Stone, was originally conceived as a stand-alone novel, and the sequence gets its name from the second novel in the series, The Dark Is Rising. The Dark Is Rising Sequence is used as an overarching title in several omnibus, boxed-set, and coordinated editions; but the title of The Dark Is Rising is also used for the whole series.

<i>Nevada Smith</i> 1966 film by Henry Hathaway

Nevada Smith is a 1966 American Western film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Steve McQueen, Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Arthur Kennedy and Suzanne Pleshette. The film was made by Solar Productions in association with and released by Paramount Pictures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beatrice Straight</span> American actress (1914–2001)

Beatrice Whitney Straight was an American theatre, film and television actress and a member of the prominent Whitney family. She was an Academy Award and Tony Award winner as well as an Emmy Award nominee.

<i>Hang Em High</i> 1968 film

Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American revisionist Western film directed by Ted Post and written by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg. It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper, an innocent man who survives a lynching; Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him; Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched Cooper; and Pat Hingle as the federal judge who hires him as a Deputy U.S. Marshal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Delmer Daves</span> American film director, producer, and screenwriter (1904–1977)

Delmer Lawrence Daves was an American screenwriter, film director and film producer. He worked in many genres, including film noir and warfare, but he is best known for his Western movies, especially Broken Arrow (1950), The Last Wagon (1956), 3:10 to Yuma (1957) and The Hanging Tree (1959). He was required to work exclusively on studio-based films after heart trouble in 1959, one of which, A Summer Place, was a huge commercial success.

<i>Come Fly with Me</i> (film) 1963 British comedy film by Henry Levin

Come Fly with Me is a 1963 British Jet Age romantic comedy film directed by Henry Levin and released by MGM. Featuring an ensemble cast of Dolores Hart, Hugh O'Brian, Karlheinz Böhm, Pamela Tiffin, Karl Malden, and Lois Nettleton, it is based on Bernard Glemser's 1960 chick-lit novel Girl on a Wing, which was published again in 1969 under the title The Fly Girls. It follows three young international air hostesses looking for romance and excitement, weaving abundant soap opera elements into its tale of opportunity for glamorous travel and adventures with men that came with being an airline hostess.

<i>Destry Rides Again</i> (musical) 1959 musical comedy

Destry Rides Again is a 1959 musical comedy with music and lyrics by Harold Rome and a book by Leonard Gershe. The play is based on the 1939 film of the same name.

<i>Time Limit</i> (film) 1957 film directed by Karl Malden

Time Limit is a 1957 American legal drama film directed by Karl Malden, based on the 1956 Broadway play of the same name by Henry Denker and Ralph Berkey. The film is Malden's only directing credit; in his autobiography, Malden stated that he "preferred being a good actor to being a fairly good director."

The Hanging Tree is a western ballad from the 1959 movie The Hanging Tree. It was scored by Max Steiner and written by Mack David and Jerry Livingston, who received nominations for the Laurel Awards and the Academy Awards in 1960. The text is a short reference to the film's story.

<i>Pollyanna</i> (1960 film) 1960 film by David Swift

Pollyanna is a 1960 American comedy-drama film starring child actress Hayley Mills, Jane Wyman, Karl Malden, and Richard Egan in a story about a cheerful orphan changing the outlook of a small town. The film was written and directed by David Swift, based on the 1913 novel Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter. The film won Hayley Mills an Academy Juvenile Award. It was the last film of actor Adolphe Menjou.

<i>Fatal Vision</i> (miniseries) 1984 American television miniseries

Fatal Vision is a 1984 American true crime drama television miniseries directed by David Greene from a teleplay by John Gay, based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Joe McGinniss. The miniseries stars Karl Malden, Eva Marie Saint, Barry Newman, Gary Cole, and Andy Griffith. It recounts the celebrated case of Jeffrey R. MacDonald, the former Green Beret physician who was convicted of murdering his pregnant wife and their two small children.

Richard Shepherd was an American film producer.

Martin Jurow was a Hollywood agent, executive assistant and film producer.

<i>Scorched Earth</i> (2018 film) 2018 science-fiction action film

Scorched Earth is a 2018 Canadian-American post-apocalyptic science fiction/action film directed by Peter Howitt starring Gina Carano.

<i>The Hanging Tree</i> (Johnson novel) Novelette

The Hanging Tree is a 1957 novelette written by Dorothy M. Johnson. It follows the arrival of Doctor Joseph Frail to a small gold rush town in Montana, 1873. Elizabeth, the sole survivor of a carriage robbery falls under his care. When the town strikes big on gold, a mob forms and seeks to lynch Frail. Elizabeth leverages her gold in exchange for his life.

References

  1. "1959: Probable Domestic Take", Variety, January 6, 1960 p 34
  2. "Alumni of William Morris and MCA Shops, Jurow-Shepherd See Properties Magic That Baits Elusive Stars". Variety . February 11, 1959. p. 3. Retrieved July 6, 2019 via Archive.org.
  3. Gene Triplett (August 11, 2012). "Gary Cooper's daughter revisits 'The Hanging Tree'". NewsOK blog.
  4. American Cinematographer (1959). Media History Digital Library. Los Angeles, The A.S.C. Agency, Inc. 1959.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. "The Hanging Tree" . Retrieved January 7, 2018 via www.imdb.com.
  6. Film Bulletin Company; Film Bulletin Company (1959). Film Bulletin (1959). New York The Museum of Modern Art Library. New York, Film Bulletin Company.
  7. Crowther, Bosley (February 12, 1959). "A Gold Camp in the Montana Country; 'Hanging Tree' Has Premiere at Roxy". NYTimes.com. The New York Times.