Hang 'em High

(1968)

PLOT | AUDIO | TRIVIA | CAST | CREDITS | PURCHASE

"They made two mistakes... they hanged the wrong man, and they didn't finish the job!"

Eastwood stars in his first major American role in this exciting and intelligent western directed by the underrated Ted Post (whom Eastwood had worked with and liked in his "Rawhide" television days). Eastwood plays an innocent rancher hanged by an angry lynch-mob that mistakes him for a rustler and murderer. Saved from death at the last minute by a passing marshal, Eastwood is taken to the notorious "hanging judge" Hingle, who deputizes him and encourages him to track down the men who had tried to hang him, provided that he brings them back to town for trial. Eastwood, of course, ignores Hingle's ground rules and kills the men one by one until their leader, Begley, catches Eastwood off guard and shoots him. Once again he survives and goes after Begley, who has retreated to his ranch. After a lengthy gun battle in which all of the rancher's henchmen are killed, Eastwood corners Begley only to find that he has hanged himself.

Listen as Clint Eastwood talks candidly about his thoughts on this film and why he ultimately decided to take on this film.

• It was Eastwood's influence that got former Rawhide director Ted Post onto the film, although he hadn't directed a feature film for ten years.
• By now Clint's price had gone up to $400,000 plus 25 percent of the gross.
• The film marked the start of Clint's practice of doing as much of his own stuntwork as possible - here he was dragged across the Rio Grande with a rope around his neck.
• Judge Fenton was based on a real-life hanging judge called Parker, from Fort Smith, Arkansas (which becomes Fort Grant in the film).

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