Hang ‘Em High (1968)
Hang ‘Em High (1968)
A terrific Clint Eastwood Western his first after a successful string of Sergio Leone spaghetti Westerns he did overseas. He plays Jed Cooper a former lawman who’s wrongly hung for a crime by a vigilante lynch mob led by Ed Begley’s character which includes Alan Hale Jr.’s character. Of course he doesn’t die. Actually he’s cut down by Marshal Bliss played by Ben Johnson. Bliss takes Cooper to town where a hanging judge named Fenton (Pat Hingle) presides. Cooper is exonerated looked over by Inger Stevens’s character who’d been raped and wants to go after those that strung him up. The Judge reluctantly makes Cooper a Marshal too but insists that he brings in the perpetrators for a fair trial so that he can “hang ‘em high”. Charles McGraw plays a sheriff who knows by association the men Cooper seeks. Though Cooper kills the first he finds the vigilante drew first on the Marshal a couple of others give themselves up enabling Cooper to round them up one-by-one. The Judge has gallows prepared for a mass public execution. Meanwhile Cooper has a difficult time bringing in Bruce Dern’s character Miller. In fact if it weren’t for two young brothers (Rick Gates & Bruce Scott) Cooper would have been killed and Miller would have escaped. Despite Cooper’s testimony to this effect the brothers are sentenced to die in the Judge’s grand hanging party. Dennis Hopper plays The Prophet James MacArthur plays The Preacher. Directed by Ted Post written by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg.
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