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Gag Gifts, Occasion Gifts - Hanging Tree
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List Price: $19.98
Our Price: $67.95
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Starring: Annette Claudier, Gary Cooper, John Dierkes, King Donovan, Virginia Gregg
Directed By: Karl Malden
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786302751130
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 6302751136
Label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: 1994-07-22
Running Time: 107
Studio: Warner Home Video
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Too High A Price For VHS
Comment: This movie has a following, but as a Gary Cooper fan I don't think it's one of his best though good. I also have noticed the very high prices asked. In my experience on Amazon,if you don't purchase those very high priced ones they will come down. Cannery Row is an example. Not long ago I purchased a copy in poor shape for $25.71, now you can get a good one for around $16.00. When this gets down to a reasonable amount ,I will consider purchasing a copy. Maybe with luck it will be shown on TCM.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Will someone PLEASE release this on DVD???
Comment: For the love of all that is holy, will someone please release this film on DVD? This was one of Gary Cooper's last films (his last Western), and one in which the viewer can see all those years of experience coming to the fore. This film is a masterpiece, and yet it has been neglected, while many of Cooper's lesser films have made the transition to DVD (admittedly, I'm grateful for "The Real Glory" and "Springfield Rifle," but I need "The Hanging Tree").
Customer Rating:
Summary: great movie
Comment: this picture needs to be remastered and put on dvd..the landscape and
senery are awesome...GARY COOPER at his best........
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Powerful, Complex Western
Comment: A tall stranger rides alone into a sprawling, chaotic, lively mining camp, somewhere in Montana. His first act is to do some hard bargaining to buy a cabin atop a hill overlooking the camp. A young man soon gets shot, as he tries to rob a gold-mining sluice, and ends up being saved from falling off a cliff, by the stranger, who is Joseph "Doc" Frail. The doctor saves the young man's life again, by removing the bullet, which the doctor keeps. The young man will give his name only as "Rune" and is unable to pay the doctor for his services, as he was robbing sluices because he is penniless. Rune is not happy when Doc Frail makes it clear that Rune can either earn his keep and pay off the doctor's bill, by being the doctor's bond servant, or face the justice of the hanging tree. As Doc Frail has the evidence against Rune, namely the bullet, Rune has no choice but to agree to the doctor's offer.
Thus, we get our first look at a powerful, larger-than-life character, who steps into the small town, and ends up changing everything. Gary Cooper is brooding, menacing, helpful, kind, and clearly dangerous as Doc Frail, and the story of how Doc Frail might end up swinging from the hanging tree himself, or be saved by those he has controlled and cared for and intimidated, is the movie version of a page-turner. What makes it that good? I think there are numerous ingredients that make this Western stew this good.
Characters. Our first sight of Rune is seeing him stealing from a gold-miner's sluice, but he is one of the most moral people in the story, and one of the only ones who will stand up to Doc Frail. Doc Frail cares for everyone in town, including providing treatment to the woman who runs the brothel tent, but he also has a very dark past, and is quite a shot with his pistol. He can cure you of what ails you, and you'll end up dead if you cross him. Frenchy Plante is a crude, loud, lecherous miner, who knows what he is doing when it comes to mining, and is like a little kid when he finds the "lost lady". Elizabeth Mahler, the "lost lady," is naïve, genteel, and vulnerable, but has a core of toughness that gives her a chance to survive this tough town, after almost being temporarily blinded, and almost killed, in a stagecoach robbery. No one is this story is simple or two-dimensional, and they show us their tremendous strength, and their flaws. They are real people.
Acting. Gary Cooper is not right for every role, but he fits this one perfectly, and he won a Golden Laurel Award for the role. As Doc Frail, he is enigmatic, stoic, ominous, and complex. He shows enough of the man behind the façade to believe that he is capable of love and goodness, as well as he can be a deadly enemy. Maria Schell also fit her role perfectly, and ably portrayed the complex mix of toughness and vulnerability required for the Elizabeth Mahler "Lost Lady" role. Karl Malden makes Frenchy Plante come alive, and you want to like him, even as you hate him at times. Malden took third place in the 1959 Golden Laurel Awards for Best Supporting Actor for this performance. George C. Scott has a small part, in his film debut, as a drunken, faith-healing preacher who rants against Doc Frail, and already hints at the presence and charisma he showed as he grew into a star.
Scenery and cinematography. This 1959 film was shot in Yakima, Washington, and the scenery is lush and rolling, with the colors jumping realistically off the film. I would not mind having a cabin where this was filmed!
Realism. The mining camp is not a main street with nice wooden stores lined up on both sides. There are a few buildings, the lay-out of the town is a jumble, and most of the people are living in tents. Even the town brothel is in a big, red-striped tent. This is not a town, but something that might become a town, or might blow away in the next big storm. Are the people organized into a community? There are efforts at that, but this is mainly a bunch of strangers scrabbling for a living, trying to make a fortune, and always in a state of being one step from giving up and moving on. I believed I was watching a old-time mining camp.
Music. While the theme song of "The Hanging Tree" is not quite as rousing as that of True Grit (Special Collector's Edition) or not quite as memorable as that of High Noon (Collector's Edition), it is a striking ballad that accompanies the movie perfectly. The music never overwhelms the film, but it is always there as an enhancement. The ballad is called "The Hanging Tree" with lyrics by Mack David, music by Jerry Livingston, and vocals by Marty Robbins. The song was nominated for an Oscar in 1960.
Story. With no obscenity or nudity in the film, this is still a very complex, dark, adult drama, with themes of controlling, dark pasts, braving the rough frontier, and seeking redemption. It is a more complex tale than that of High Noon (Collector's Edition) and has an interesting mix of complex characters. After Doc Frail saves Rune, the story grows markedly after a stagecoach robbery leads to a woman becoming lost in the wilderness, and then found alive, but blind and almost dead. As Doc Frail takes care of Elizabeth Mahler, we see his complexity, her blend of toughness and vulnerability, and the potential for an interesting relationship between them, that later plays out with several unexpected twists.
Overall: For its complexity of characters and story, the realism of the setting, the scenery, the music, and the acting, I think this may be my favorite Western, ranking above better-known ones like High Noon (Collector's Edition), True Grit (Special Collector's Edition), and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.
Gary Cooper ... Dr. Joseph 'Doc' Frail
Maria Schell ... Elizabeth Mahler
Karl Malden ... Frenchy Plante
George C. Scott ... Dr. George Grubb
Karl Swenson ... Tom Flaunce
Virginia Gregg ... Edna Flaunce
Ben Piazza ... Rune, Frail's Bond Servant
Customer Rating:
Summary: Still waiting for DVD
Comment: Every once in a while I look at the list of movies being put on DVD. Most of them are not nearly as good a movie as The Hanging Tree with Gary Cooper. I just don't understand it.
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