This could have been a pretty good Western. It had a solid cast with Robert Taylor, Fess Parker, a young Tina Louise (Ginger on Gilligan's Island) and Jack Lord (Hawaii 5-0). The plot was good about a lawman sent to arrest a wanted fugitive for his part in a holdup that ended in murder.And 3/4 of the movie is very enjoyable, solid 7/10 stars. But...Your reaction to this movie is likely to depend upon your answer to three questions:1. Should lawmen ever allow personal feelings affect how they perform their duties? 2. Should lawmen treat suspects differently because they like or dislike them? 3. Is it right for ordinary people to take the law into their own hands if they like or dislike a suspect?If you answered yes to all these questions, you will probably like it. If you answered no to any of them, you will probably not.

Just watched this western on YouTube. It stars Robert Taylor as a deputy marshal who's looking for a Johnny Butterfield because he was believed to be involved in a stage coach robbery. The town Taylor comes to where he believes Butterfield now resides don't seem to want him to find him, not even the sheriff (Fess Parker), as he's quite helpful to the townspeople. And the woman (Tina Louise) he believes knows this Johnny won't betray her friend to him, not even with the reward money though initially she had thought of doing so...For the most part, I had thought this was a well-made drama that happened to take place in a western town thanks to both characterizations and the sure-footed direction of pro Michael Curtiz. But near the end, when Ms. Louise suddenly changes from a proud, angry woman to one crying at the drop of a hat and Taylor suddenly goes soft after being cynical most of the time, I thought the narrative was weakened and didn't recover enough for me. Like I said, though, I did like the performances which included that of Jack Lord as the one Taylor's after-oh, and what a nice reunion with Ms. Louise a year after both previously appeared in God's Little Acre. Also among them that I liked seeing besides those I mentioned were Mabel Anderson who's quite amusing as one elderly lady who takes a shine to Taylor when he checks into a hotel, Lorne Greene as Taylor's superior, and Betty Lynn-later Thelma Lou on "The Andy Griffith Show"-as the waitress Molly who also likes Taylor whenever she serves him. In summary, The Hangman was mostly excellent to me until the unbelievably happy ending.

This isn't your typical Western, but it isn't exactly "atypical" either.This is actually more of a drama that just happens to be set in the West.In other words, you could put this on a stage in front of a live audience, and probably get the same production.And that's generally pretty good.We have a story line that really isn't the story line.The surface plot is Robert Taylor as a cynic who is trying to identify the fourth man in a robbery, a man we know early on played a very minor role, if any. The man is sentenced to be hanged.He finds that people don't want to identify the man, Jack Lord with blond hair. It's much like "The Spy Who Loved Me" in that it is a quest to have a man killed who probably doesn't deserve it.That's just the surface plot. In essence, Lord becomes the fourth character. The real plot is the romantic subplot that lays beneath the surface.The woman in the triangle finds herself in emotional turmoil over betraying Jack Lord's character to the law, which is represented by Taylor and Fess Parker.Parker is the younger, striking man who immediately sets out to make her his wife. Taylor is the older man who sets out to understand her and have a relationship.In this, we have a switch. The younger man becomes the solid, steady force, and strangely devoid of romance. He is a tall, handsome, affable fellow. What women call "a catch" in public, but in practice, they just can't find what the all "chemistry" with.Taylor's character, meanwhile, is full of charged emotion. While Fess is a "Earth", Robert is "fire".The story becomes the story of female romanticism. It is a very credible depiction, whether we like it or not.It isn't what I call a "great Western", but perhaps I judge it on the standards of usual action. It is actually a drama, one of those stage dramas that focus on a subject. It isn't dull, and the characters are three dimensional, like most golden age Westerns. It's very watchable.

I like this movie for a number of reasons. The first being it is a Robert Taylor western, which you can always count on to be a good movie.Taylor plays MacKenzie Bovard a feared marshall nicknamed the Hangman because he catches the bad guys and then "the law hangs them". He is after the last of a hold up gang, and this he says is his last job. He has missed out on life and wants to move to California to start again. He persuades Selah Jennison (Tina Louise) to come to town to identify Johnny Butterfield (Jack Lord). She is miserable and alone and eventually goes to town for the money. Bovard is disappointed that she arrives because when she did not show up immediately, he felt he had finally found someone who could not be bought. He treats her badly, but still feels something there. She is much younger in years but is loyal to Butterfield. When she goes to Johnny to warn him, Bovard follows her and a friend of Johnny's ambushes him, shooting him. Selah goes back to her room and is confronted by an angry Bovard, wounded and unhappy that he could have ever thought she was something different. She tries to make him believe that she is concerned only for him, but he rejects her. The next morning she awakes to find Bovard in her bed, and handcuffed to him. He tracks down Johnny with Selah still handcuffed to him, a good comic twist to a serious story. In the end Bovard shoots above Johnny's head and lets him escape. The sheriff, Fess Parker is in love with Selah and has asked her to marry him, but she rejects the proposal and goes to California with Bovard to start a new life. Taylor is great as the cynical lawman, who in the end finds that a young woman knows more of loyalty and love than he could have ever imagined. Tina Louise is good as the girl, and has some good scenes with Taylor, quite touching one minute and argumentative the next. Good western, and the first independent film Taylor made outside the MGM studio system.