Hangman's Knot (1952)

Director:

Roy Huggins

Writer:

Roy Huggins (written by)

Release Date:

15 November 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Western

Tagline:

The West's Most Spectacular Star--in His Most Spectacular Story!

Plot:

It's 1865 in Nevada and a unit of Reb soldiers attack a Union troop carrying gold. They kill the soldiers...

Plot Keywords:

Gold | Soldier | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Randolph Scott	...	Major Matt Stewart
Donna Reed	...	Molly Hull
Claude Jarman Jr.	...	Jamie Groves
Frank Faylen	...	Cass Browne
Glenn Langan	...	Capt. Petersen
Richard Denning	...	Lee Kemper
Lee Marvin	...	Rolph Bainter
Jeanette Nolan	...	Mrs. Margaret Harris
Clem Bevans	...	Plunkett, the Station agent
Ray Teal	...	Quincey
Guinn 'Big Boy' Williams	...	Smitty
Monte Blue	...	Maxwell
John Call	...	Egan Walsh

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1953) | Finland:K-15 (2006) | UK:PG | Norway:(Banned) (1953) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Sweden:(Banned) | USA:Approved (PCA #15964)

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Producers-Actors Corporation

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When the Confederates ambush the Union gold shipment, they use dynamite. The film is set in 1865, but dynamite was not patented by its inventor, Alfred Nobel, until 1867. Dynamite was not in use during the American Civil War by either side.

Conflict within Conflict

Randolph Scott leads a group of Confederate raiders who rob a gold shipment and kill the Union Cavalry escort. Before one of them dies though, he informs the group that the Civil War's been over for a few weeks. They're outlaws now.

That fact is brought home when a group of "deputies" lead by Ray Teal and Guinn Williams go out hunting the Confederates. They're not law officers in fact, but raiders looking to steal the gold and kill Scott and his crew. Scott and his crew take shelter in a stagecoach station and the fun begins.

Everybody's in conflict here. Randolph Scott has eyes for stage passenger Donna Reed and her fiancée Richard Denning doesn't like it. Lee Marvin, who's one of Scott's men, also has eyes for Reed and willing to take a direct approach. The folks who run the station, Clem Bevans and Jeanette Nolan, don't like being caught up in the shooting at their station, but don't like the Confederates in particular as their Union sympathizers and Nolan's husband and son have both been killed in the war. Even the bad guys are arguing over just what approach to take in dealing with the Confederates and none of them trust the others. All this with the two groups shooting at each other.

For 81 minutes a lot of plot is packed in and it's nicely done. Very tight editing, not a word or action wasted. Randolph Scott stands rigidly as the moral centerpiece of the film. Donna Reed, a year away from her Academy Award in From Here To Eternity, does well as a former Union Army nurse going west with her fiancée Richard Denning whom she learns is not all he seems. Lee Marvin gives a harbinger of things to come with his portrayal of a man quite ready and eager to become an outlaw.

One of Randolph Scott's best westerns.