Two years after "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" and the same year as "Where Eagles Dare", Clint Eastwood got back in the saddle for 1968's HANG 'EM HIGH.
An American attempt at creating the same magic as the Leone trilogy, it falls flat by that measure, but delivers some solid western excitement for most of its running time.
A former lawman, Jed Cooper (Eastwood) is mistaken for a cattle rustler and hung by a group of men more concerned with a quick hanging than the truth.
Saved by Marshall Bliss (the reliably grizzled Ben Johnson) from the rope shortly after the men leave, Cooper is brought into town in shackles, but freed by Judge Fenton when he's proven innocent.
Fenton (Pat Hingle of "The Gauntlet" and "Sudden Impact") is a by the book judge that runs a hell-like jail cell and a standing-room-only hanging platform in the town square.
The film never really gets moving until Hingle shows up. Once he gives Eastwood a badge and makes him a Marshall, Clint begins tracking down all the men that hung him and the movie doubles in pace and interest almost immediately.
Dominic Frontiere's music score is a heavy handed attempt at some weird mix of Morricone and Elmer Bernstein. His action theme isn't bad but the love theme for Cooper and the gorgeous local widow Rachel (Inger Stevens) is a ripped off version of "Younger Than Springtime" from "South Pacific".
Director Ted Post does a serviceable job with what appears to be a fairly low budget, his next film with Clint, "Magnum Force" is a much better pairing.
The band that hangs Jed is loaded with good actors, including Bruce Dern as the most crazy of the bunch (four years before he killed John Wayne in "The Cowboys"), Ed Begley (12 Angry Men), Alan Hale Jr (The Skipper!) and Dennis Hopper as The Prophet. Wait, he might be crazier than Dern. Hopper V. Dern, there's a movie unto itself.
Watch for James MacArthur as the preacher, who producer Leonard Freeman hired on the spot to play the sidekick on a little TV show he started filming at the time called "Hawaii Five-O"! MacArthur played Danno for many years on the series.
Eastwood makes it all look easy and carries the entire film on horseback effortlessly. There are themes touched on about justice that he would explore much more deeply in "Unforgiven" decades later. Some of the dialogue is surprisingly good.
As for this 1968 mega hit, grossing more than ten times it's budget, there's a great 90 minute western in here somewhere, but at 114 minutes, it needs a little dust blown off its hide. I'll shoot it a C+.
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