The Hanging Tree (1959)

Load of rubbish!!

Good movie but grossly overrated

Absolutely brilliant

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Good setup but poor ending.A doctor, Dr Frail (played by the legendary Gary Cooper), moves into a gold rush town in Montana in the 1870s. He's a no-nonsense, tough-as-nails type with a few skeletons in his past. Then a stagecoach is robbed nearby and its female occupant becomes a patient...Interesting and intriguing from the word go. Gary Cooper is obviously the hero, but for once he is less than perfect. Good action and a hint of romance.Decent, but not great. The story is often uneven, going on tangents, and the plot not always consistent. The ending is so random and silly it almost ruins the movie.Solid performance from Gary Cooper in the lead role. Good support from Maria Schell, Karl Malden and Ben Piazza. George C Scott appears in his first cinematic role (though he had appeared in TV series and a TV movie before this).Only really worth watching if you're a Gary Cooper fan.

Doc Frail helps Rune, who is a thief, escape from those he stole from, but since Frail is played by Gary Cooper, who is tall and good looking, we figure that makes what he is doing all right. He then blackmails Rune, forcing him into slavery, but since it's Gary Cooper, what he is doing must be for the best somehow.When Elizabeth is discovered suffering from exposure and dehydration, Frail refuses to leave the bedside of a woman who he knows is going to die in a couple of hours anyway. It is a standard principle of triage that a doctor should help those who can be helped and not waste time on those who cannot, but since it's Gary Cooper, we figure he must be doing the right thing somehow. Besides, the person who thinks he should leave the dying woman and help Elizabeth is Frenchy, played by Karl Malden in an unsavory role, so he must be wrong somehow.When Frail finally arrives at the house where the men who found Elizabeth had taken her, Frail expresses his disgust with the fact that the house is dirty, asking the old man who lives there why he doesn't clean the place up. But that can't be rude, because it's Gary Cooper, so we figure the old man deserved to be insulted.Frail keeps Elizabeth in a cabin, allowing no one else in except himself and Rune. When ladies from town come to check on her after she has been there for a while, Frail refuses to let them talk to her. And Elizabeth, after finding out that he made the women leave, asks if she is a prisoner. Normally, it would be perfectly reasonable for concerned citizens to be allowed to ask Elizabeth if she is being kept there against her will, if she would like to leave. After all, if it were Frenchy keeping her in a cabin and not letting others talk to her, we would suspect that he was keeping her as a sex slave. But it is not Frenchy, played by Karl Malden; it is Frail, played by Gary Cooper. And besides, the women are really just a bunch of busybodies. And if Elizabeth thinks she is being kept there as a prisoner, that is just too bad, because it's Gary Cooper who is doing it, and so he must be right to disregard her wishes.And then, when Elizabeth finally gets her sight back, she goes to a lot of trouble to prepare a special dinner for Rune and Frail, but Frail would rather play poker instead. But we have to overlook this, in part because it's Gary Cooper, and in part because of some dark secret from his past. As best we can figure from rumor and from what Frail says, he caught his brother and his wife having sex. When he killed his brother, his wife was so horrified that she shot herself and died, after which Frail burned the house down. If it had been Frenchy who did something like that, we would hate him for it, but since it was Frail who did it, we are expected to be understanding.This is not to say that Frail does not do good things. Even if he were not played Gary Cooper, we would still approve of much of his behavior: letting Rune go free after a while; curing Elizabeth; letting some poor folks borrow his cow so their daughter can have milk; secretly funding Elizabeth in her determination to make her own way; and saving her from being raped by Frenchy. But it is still remarkable how much latitude we allow a character in a movie if he is played by an actor with an established persona of moral rectitude, especially if he is tall and good looking.

The song (The Hanging Tree) is the introduction as Doctor Joe Frail (Gary Cooper) rides into town. The song really takes you on a journey as this tale begins to unfold right before your eye's. As the story unfolds a young woman Elizabeth Mahler (Maria Schell) is rescued from the desert. Badly burned and blind from the exposure of the desert, Doc Frail treats her until she is well. While in Doc Frail's care,she begins to have feelings for the doctor that she's never seen. But, because of a haunted past, he can not return her affection.When her sight returns, she strikes-out on her own to look for gold and to lead her own life. She partner's up with Frency Plante (Karl Malden) and Rune (Ben Piazza) as they look for gold. As time goes on, Doc Frail begins to have feelings for Elizabeth but, she soon finds out that he has been doing something behind her back and now she finds it hard to forgive him. The ending to this wonderful tale is a true treat that all of you will enjoy. I know, I sure did. Believe me, you'll enjoy...The Hanging Tree.

A magisterial Western. Everything about this film is of the highest quality. Let's start with Gary Cooper: he is at his taciturn best, full of deep-seated anger and resentment in the best tradition of Randolph Scott and Jimmy Stewart. Yet, when he is fully engaged in doctoring, he is able to forget himself in his work, and his kind, gentle side comes out.In fact, it is the numerous contradictions and tensions that make this movie rise so far above the norm. We never know how Cooper will react to a given situation. With the exception of Maria Schell, all the main characters are always on the razor's edge, in determining whether to do the right thing or not. But even Schell does not do the expected. We would expect her to harbor some bitterness, or at least some wariness, when interacting with the men of the town, but her complete faith in the inherent goodness of men is astounding, yet attractive and pleasing. She is so polite to everyone! Karl Malden is outstanding as the obnoxious Frenchie, a miner who also sometimes does the moral thing, sometimes not. In an amazing turn, Maria Schell becomes a partner of Malden, despite the fact that she has good reason to avoid him; now it is not unusual for antagonists to put aside their differences for the sake of a common goal. But when one of the characters is a woman, and she has such obvious reasons to avoid, rather than join a business venture with, a lech like Frenchie - well, the tension is unique, and thoroughly enjoyable. You never know what the characters will do.The only detraction from the movie is that damnable red hat with the flaps that Karl Malden refuses to ever remove, at least until the end of the film.The cinematography is spectacular too. Though the film is largely confined to a small town, the endless variety of the shots and creativity of the cameramen leave a Western-lover like me with an ache of appreciation for the beauty of the land.For an unusually unpredictable and beautiful film, with top-notch acting, I highly recommend this fabulous, slightly unknown Western.