Claim: Clint Eastwood performs.

Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American DeLuxe Color revisionist Western film directed by Ted Post and produced and co-written by Leonard Freeman . It stars Clint Eastwood as Jed Cooper , an innocent man who survives a lynching ; Inger Stevens as a widow who helps him ; Ed Begley as the leader of the gang that lynched Cooper ; and Pat Hingle as the judge who hires him as a U.S. Marshal .   Hang 'Em High was the first production of the Malpaso Company , Eastwood 's production company .   Hingle portrays a fictional judge who mirrors Judge Isaac Parker , who was labeled the `` Hanging Judge '' due to the large number of men he sentenced to be executed during his service as District Judge of the Western District of Arkansas .   The film also depicts the dangers of serving as a U.S. marshal during that period , as many federal marshals were killed while serving under Parker . The fictional Fort Grant , base for operations for that district judge seat , is also a mirror of the factual Fort Smith , Arkansas , where Judge Parker 's court was located .