Hangman's Knot

Good Movie

This Randoph Scott produced western was all shot in the Alabama Hills of Lone Pine, CA beneath Mt. Whitney, where so many Hollywood westerns were filmed before it. Here, you get the interesting landscape in color. I watched the movie after paying a visit to Lone Pine and recognized a number of the locations I had seen with my own eyes looking just the same. Besides the surrounding area, most of the film is secluded to a ranch house where the good guys hold up inside, keeping the bad guys on the outside at bay. Claude Jarman Jr., the boy from THE YEARLING, is a grown up teenager in this and proves to be a solid actor, though he stopped making movies not long after this one. Donna Reid is very good as the only female in the story. A lot of suspense and tension is managed in a single setting and the story held my interest throughout. I was impressed with how effective such an economical film western could be.

I've always been a fan of Randolph Scott's westerns. Great timbered voice, lean as wet rawhide after it's baked under the Arizona sun. (Which always seems incongruous with the fact that he and Mr. Suave himself -- Cary Grant -- were housemates for years. More importantly, they each were GREAT screen personas.) However, this is NOT one of his better cowboy efforts. (For that, check out the one that co-stars Richard "Have Gone, Will Travel" Boone, or, especially, the one with a young James Coburn.) This video's barely a "C-"

Good family movie, Great price.

Used this product for home entertainment. Movies, popcorn and my love by my side. Beats reruns anytime!

This film must have had a touch of de ja vu for Randolph Scott. As in his 1940 "Virginia City", he is in charge of a stolen Yankee gold shipment in Nevada, meant to help the Confederacy prolong the War. In both cases, this operation occurred just before or just after the War was over. Thus, the question is:What should be done with the gold? They couldn't just give it back to Federal authorities, as they had killed 7 soldiers in stealing it, even if they believed they were acting on behalf of their government. Most of the film involves fending off bandits who know for sure what to do with the gold. In the end, it's not clear(to me) the eventual fate of the gold. Perhaps a fate basically similar to that of the gold in "Virginia City"? More likely, the remaining hostages(now their declared friends!), returned it to Federal authorities, explaining that the theives had all been killed in a shootout with another bandit gang or by themselves(not true)... A good action western. The plot is not complicated, but the basic situation is, especially for the ex-Confederates and their hostages.

Once again Randolph Scott shows his profesionalizm. He has a quiet voice when required regardless how quiet his actions are they say I mean what I say. The story line seems to be the same but it doesn't matter to me. Because I like the classics and this another classic from the by gone era of the Silver Screen. So if you like Randolph Scott or have never heard of him, get this movie he grows on you. You Won't be sorry.

Average.Did anyone make more westerns than Randolph Scott? He was a decent actor but in the westerns at least but did not display much versatility.This movie is a little different than most in the genre. It did lack charm and humor with Lee Marvin at his snarling best as a (once again) heavy. Donna Reed was largely wasted in this typical female western role. .What I liked best were the extended scenes shot in the Alabama Hills, a special place for me.I "streamed" the HD version and the quality was great.

thoroughly enjoy of R. Scott's best enjoyable from beginning to end.Amazon it arrived a week early.

Super western, bon scénario, bonne interprétationCela rappelle que le western n'est pas un genre mineurje ne sais pas que rajouer

This beautifully shot western gets off to a good start pitting the 28 year old Lee Marvin against the 54 year old Randolph Scott. This tension engages you throughout the film until they fight it out with each other. Before that point we see a beautiful Donna Reed in blue costume and lipstick, as well as a well-groomed Jeanette Nolan looking very Victorian. It is a masterclass in colour grading, costume design and hair and make-up.

Enjoyable Randolph Scott western with good performance by the entire cast.

This is a film that deserves to be better known, particularly by those fans of Randolph Scott's later work with director Budd Boetticher (The Tall T, Commanche Station, Ride Lonesome etc). A fascinating transitional work, it's also a one-off vehicle for director Huggins, who went on to direct the Rockford Files for TV.As Scott grew older in his acting career, he made predominately Westerns. At the same time his face grew harder, more sinewy and austere. Something of his matinee idol looks and southern accent remained, but age brought something else - a moral gravitas that added immeasurably to his on-screen presence. Finally the 'Scott character' achieved a magisterial quality - a characteristic that added immeasurably to the ironic resonance of his last film Ride The High Country.In Hangman's Knot, Scott plays a Confederate officer who only learns that the Civil War is over after a successful action in which his group take a gold shipment from Union soldiers. He and his men agree to return home, each with their share of the booty, but run across some outlaws who corner them in a way station, laying siege to them.It's a situation familiar to those who know those later Scott-Boetticher masterpieces, and the familiar hallmarks are already in evidence. Even the same locations are utilised. Like the later films with a different director, this is a morality play, almost a chamber drama, where Scott makes a dignified stand of principle. In Hangman's Knot, those with the dark hearts are both outside the way station's walls waiting to pounce, as well as inside (a characteristic performance by Lee Marvin, reminiscent of that he gives in The Big Heat). These are the men that Scott's character, Stewart, cannot relate to: those without honour or moral courage, greedy, cruel men. For Scott, as he says in one of those later films, 'there are some things a man can't ride around' and these are the choices that have to be made. A man needs to face up to his options in life and live with himself on or off the trail. When he tells Marvin here that he 'never really knew (him) at all', we know the moral battlelines have been drawn, just as distinctly those that existed between the warring states.At first the gold is merely the spoils of war. Then it becomes a short cut to happiness, an unexpected reward for the men's trouble, and a compensation for the loss of the War. Finally it is just a moral encumbrance, both to body and mind. By the end of the film, as Scott and the boy let the heavy saddle bags slip off their shoulders, the sense of relief is tangible - one which isn't just physical.A film well worth investigating, full of artistic resonance and anticipations. And if you haven't seen the later Scott-Boetticher vehicles, some of the greatest B-Westerns ever made, see this as a taster.