The Night of the Hangman 

Jim and Arte go undercover to overturn a hanging verdict unjustly given to an innocent man.

Director:

James B. Clark

Writers:

Michael Garrison (creator), Peter G. Robinson

Stars:

Robert Conrad, Ross Martin, Martin E. Brooks

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Robert Conrad	...	Jim West
Ross Martin	...	Artemus Gordon
Martin E. Brooks	...	Franklin Poore (as Martin Brooks)
Sarah Marshall	...	Eugenia Rawlins
Paul Fix	...	Judge Blake
Harry Dean Stanton	...	Lucius Brand (as Dean Stanton)
Charles Lane	...	Roger Creed
Carol Ann Daniels	...	Mrs. Brand (as Carolan Daniels)
Jesslyn Fax	...	Mrs. Peacock
John Pickard	...	Amos Rawlins
Gregg Palmer	...	Sheriff Jonas Bolt
Ahna Capri	...	Abigail Moss (as Anna Capri)

Storyline

When West and Gordon are present when a town's philanthropist is shot and West chases the shooter and finds him just sitting clutching the gun as if nothing happened. At his trial, a witness claims that he's the shooter. And the banker who denied a loan he asked for, who appears to have been the actual target, testifies that the man threatened him. The defendant claims to have no memory from the night before till West found him. He's found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging withing two days. When Gordon raises some anomalies, they decide to look into it deeper. They start by talking to the defendant who tells them of why he woke up just as West found him. They check it out and find a device that was used but someone burns the place and they have no evidence to give to the judge and the prosecutor convinces the judge not to delay the execution so they have to rush to prove the man's innocence.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller | Western

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 October 1967 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Sierra Railroad, Jamestown, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

CBS Television Network

Technical Specs

Runtime:

60 min 51 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The speech Artie gives to guide Jim to the source of the sounds is the opening sentence of Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence.

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Goofs

Near the beginning, a street vendor scoops popcorn from an 1893 street cart into a modern (1967) red and white striped container.

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Quotes

James T. West: How did you get into the Secret Service with hayfever?
Artemus Gordon: Kept it a secret.

User Reviews

As Wild-Wild as ever!

"The Wild Wild West" is one of those shows that's so "out there", it's really rather amazing that CBS, (at the time the show was produced, still known as "The Tiffany Network"), actually bought the show! But I, for one, was thankful they did. The "WWW" was a rather strange amalgam of a standard TV Western and a VERY imaginative Science-Fiction show - not exactly the sort of thing one would think of coming from the network that brought you Gunsmoke. In this outing, "The Night Of The Hangman", a man is shot in front of dozens of witnesses. The man accused of the murder swears he didn't do it. At first glance, it looks like he's a liar. But the combined brain power of West and Gordon of the Secret Service end up proving what he ("Dean" Stanton) says is true. Sure, there are a few things in this show that are a bit out of their actual time (check the other review for the years the Daguerreotype was actually in use, for example). Be that as it may, the script was clever, and just take a look at this cast! A young Harry Dean Stanton (before he used the "Harry"), The Rifleman's Paul Fix as The Judge, just to name two, work together with West and Gordon to make this show a great one!