Product: Hangman's Knot (1952)
Rating: 5.0
A top-notch Randolph Scott western with an explosive start
Between 1951 and 1954 the prolific Randolph Scott completed six westerns for Hungarian director Andre de Toth in between times he still found time to make a couple more westerns most notable of which was the highly rated and commercially successful HANGMAN'S KNOT (1952) A Scott-Brown Production for Columbia Pictures. Written and Directed by Roy Huggins. This was Huggins only film as director. Later he moved into television and had such series as MAVERICK and THE ROCKFORD FILES to his credit.The story is of a small band of Confederate soldiers led by Major Matt Stewart (Randolph Scott) who following an attack a Union gold shipment discover from a Union soldier survivor that the war has been over a month. Lee Marvin plays one of the soldiers in his first of several films with Scott; another of the soldiers is young Claude Jarman Jr. Most of the action takes place in the Sierra Stage Line Way Station, where the soldiers are pinned down along with the stagecoach passengers and station keepers by a renegade band posing as the lawmen led by Quincy (Ray Teal) who were after the gold. Among the passengers are former Union army nurse (Donna Reed) and her no-good fiancée (Richard Denning). The tension rises as the advantage shifts from one side to the other before the leading up the eventual final showdown. A credit to all concerned with high production values throughout.Hopefully Columbia will digitally re-master other fifty-odd year-old Randolph Scott Westerns like the wonderful RIDE LONESOME (1959) and his penultimate film COMANCHE STATION (1960) they deserve the best of treatment and care for future generations to enjoy.