User Reviews

I feel that "A Good Day for a Hanging," (1959) is an above average western. I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by this movie, overall. For about the first 2/3s of this movie, I thought it was leaning in the direction of the liberal left. Towards the end, however, I was thinking, "Maybe not." As it turned out, it showed how law abiding citizens can be easily duped by the wrong type of people. The killer, (Robert VAUGHN) who went to trial for murdering the marshal (Emile MEYER), wasn't very interested in his girlfriend (the new marshal's (Fred MacMURRAY) daughter) while he was holding the getaway horses while the bank was being robbed. But, when he was in jail awaiting execution, he acted very blubbery towards her, obviously, because he wanted her to smuggle in a gun to him to aid in his escape. When he hit her at the jailbreak, this may have knocked some sense into her. This killer's girlfriend then turned herself around by warning the marshal (MacMURRAY), thereby saving his life. The doctor, (James DRURY) seemed a little hard nosed for a doctor, but more in my line of thinking.

One point that wasn't stressed that , perhaps, should have been, even if Robert VAUGHN didn't actually kill the marshal, he could have been held as an accessory to murder, which would have made him equally guilty. I'm not sure how the law read back in those days.

As a kid I saw Fred MacMurray in a bunch of films like "The Absent Minded Professor", "The Shaggy Dog" and of course his TV series "My Three Sons". So when I catch him in a Western every now and then it just seems hard to picture him as some rugged plainsman shooting it out with villains in the Old West. Yet he generally acquits himself reasonably well as he does here, a testament to his range as an actor in a role obviously against stereotype. Speaking of which, MacMurray offers up one of the better barroom brawls you'll see in a Fifties Western, going up against Edmon Ryan portraying defense attorney Selby. Slick move by the lawyer with the quick sucker punch, just as I expected.

The story however, is another story. I'm not thoroughly convinced (especially after having seen a few hundred Westerns), that the good people of Springdale would have been so fickle as to turn on their newly appointed Marshal Cutler (MacMurray) for actually doing his job. Reasonable doubt never held much sway in films involving pioneer justice, and the idea that a slick lawyer might have changed a few opinions wasn't enough to save Eddie Campbell's (Robert Vaughn) hide here either. The added element of the marshal's daughter (Joan Blackman) having a thing for the bad guy was an interesting concept here as well, but it's not like it hadn't been done before.

There was a puzzling element in the script for me, considering how the writers were seemingly making the liberal case against capital punishment. The idea of a fence around the gallows was deemed necessary to prevent gawkers, as public execution was coming to be seen as cruel and unusual punishment. Yet nothing prevented Campbell from watching the carpenters build the scaffold that he was going to die on - how cruel was that? I just didn't get it.

Before this was over, you just knew that somehow, Cutler and his daughter would have to arrive at some reconciliation over her relationship with the young outlaw. That's done with Eddie's jailbreak setting up the finale, and I just knew I would groan if Eddie wound up accidentally hanging himself as he climbed up the gallows during the shootout between his gang and the town folk. That actually happened in some B Western I can't remember the title of right now, but when I do I'll get back to you on it. You have to wonder sometimes how far a picture will go to stretch credibility. Here they only stretched it a little bit.

Addendum***9-22-2016*** OK, I found the title I was referencing in the last paragraph in which an outlaw inadvertently falls into a noose and hangs himself. It was the 1968 spaghetti Western "This Man Can't Die' starring Guy Madison. You can look it up on IMDb as "Long Days of Hate" or by it's Italian title, "I lunghi giorni dell'odio".

Some reviewers have pointed out the similarities between High Noon and Good day for a Hanging. Both films' protagonists play the part of a reluctant lawman, who faces opposition by the women they're involved with. Here Fred MacMurray is Ben Cutler, who accepts a temporary job as marshal following the murder of the long-term town marshal Hiram Cain (Emile Meyer) who was part of a posse chasing bank robbers, who had just robbed a local bank and murdered one of the employees.

Ben is one of the witnesses to Cain's murder; he fingers Eddie Campbell (Robert Vaughn), a 20s-ish local boy who went bad. After locking Eddie up in the local jail, Ben is suddenly getting push back from his daughter Laurie (Joan Blackman) who apparently was childhood friends with Eddie. In Laurie's eyes, Campbell is simply "misunderstood," and is not as bad as her father says he is. What's more Laurie may or may not be involved with the town doctor Paul Ridgely (James Drury). Thus it's a little hard to believe why she's so vehemently supportive of Eddie.

As a symbol of misguided liberalism, Laurie is soon joined by Cutler's fiancée, Maggie Hayes, who eventually calls off her engagement to Ben because she comes to believe that he's bloodthirsty in his determination to see Eddie hang. Inexplicably most of the townspeople adopt the mantle of bleeding heart liberals and perceive Eddie's all but guaranteed death sentence as a great injustice.

Eddie ends up with an attorney, William Selby (Edmon Ryan), who incurs Ben's wrath while interviewing townspeople who could (in Ben's eyes) be prospective jurors. After Selby implies that Laurie had a more than platonic relationship with Eddie in the past, Ben rather unrealistically gets into a fistfight with Selby-presumably designed for we viewers-to ensure that Ben is perceived as a no-nonsense tough guy.

Despite the fact that almost everyone in the town now doesn't want Eddie to hang and the five other posse members, called as witnesses during the trial, suddenly "aren't sure" whether Eddie pulled the trigger, it's up to Ben to convince the jury that he had no doubt that Eddie was guilty. So it doesn't make a lot of sense-given the bias in town in favor of Eddie-that the jury would come back with a guilty verdict. What's also unrealistic is that Eddie was never charged with lesser counts (such as for the bank robbery), which could have given the judge an option of an alternative sentence of long-term imprisonment.

The previously alluded to "misguided liberalism" reaches its apotheosis when Laurie tries to sneak a loaded gun into Eddie's jail cell to give him a chance to escape. Fortunately Ben is there and has the deputies search the picnic basket Laurie is carrying. The incident leads to the father uncharacteristically slapping his daughter for egregious actions that could have led to everyone being murdered in one fell swoop. Fortunately, in a neat twist, Ben discovers that Laurie was not totally insane: the gun was not loaded!

The gun incident brings Maggie to her senses and she reconciles with Ben. The rest is a neat climax where Laurie finally sees the error of her ways in high relief when Eddie, while escaping from the jail aided by two confederates, slugs Laurie in the mouth. So much for bleeding heart liberalism!

Eddie meets his end after Ben shoots him and he expires right on the recently constructed gallows. MacMurray is solid as the stalwart lawman. Vaughn however is miscast as he doesn't have enough of a menacing presence, to convince as a psychopathic bad boy. The rest of the cast acquit themselves well, along with the director who stages a few successful action sequences.

The film's premise, which involves the presence of a populace mesmerized by liberal self-delusion, is clearly anachronistic. Back in the 19th century, sympathy for a stone-cold killer would never have been countenanced. But Good Day for a Hanging is a prescient allegory that points to short-sightedness in our own time. Thus, despite the plot contrivances and clear anachronistic content, "Day for a Hanging," proves successful in making a cogent, modern-day critique.

Basic flaw of the townsfolk: that "just a boy" is incapable of being a hardened criminal. Since when? There are a lot of hardened young criminals. Maybe the producers were trying to distort the Billy the Kid legend?

And if you listen carefully you will hear this "just a boy" repeated over and over. As late as minute number 59 on the DVD it is said again by the Marshal's fiancé. Even later almost at the end a group of citizens take up a petition to the governor for clemency (based ultimately back to the "he's just a boy so he..." idea). This simple theme dominates the movie. Was the scriptwriter on a hard focused crusade or something?

Nevertheless, MacMurray is great and demonstrates why he kept coming back decade after decade in excellent dramatic roles. Joan Blackman had beauty, charisma, fine acting, was in some quality movies; why did she have such a short starring career? Young method actor Robert Vaughn demonstrates a lot of technique and you can tell how serious he was in those days.

The paint of the trim INSIDE the courtroom is literally black, obviously a clumsy attempt to convey injustice. Once again, we are hit with a sledgehammer to drive home the single-minded crusade theme of this movie.

But overall the very good acting by all participants keeps this movie interesting and overcomes the deeply flawed concept.

I found Good Day to be a really entertaining B movie for weekend afternoon viewing. Like many B movies, it has a fairly simple plot (pretty similar to an episode of Bonanza or Big Valley but that's good enough for me). No major spoilers in this review but hit a few plot points.

The plot involves a group of bank robbers that hold up the local bank and kill the sheriff as they escape. Fred MacMurray reluctantly assumes the role of sheriff and captures a young former resident who was a friend of his daughter and arranges for him to be hanged.

The cast is a solid one. Besides MacMurray, there is Robert Vaughan in a pre- Man from UNCLE role. Others notable costars include popular western star James Drury,Denver Pyle, Bing Russell and Howard McNair (Floyd from Andy Griffith). Like many B movies, this strong cast overcomes any drawbacks from a fairly routine Western plot.

The mood of the townspeople plays a protagonist against MacMurray. They want blood at first, but then sour on the idea of hanging a former resident.

I always liked Fred MacMurray's more serious roles form 40s and 50s before his Absent Minded Prof roles and My 3 Sons. He is excellent in this movie.

It's not as complex as a John Ford, Mann or Sturges "A Western", but it is a B Western that most Western fans should enjoy.

I got a kick out of this movie because of the daughter. She goes all in for the bad boy and rejects the doctor but in the end after the bad boy was killed she all of a sudden turned her interest to the doctor. Modern women would be proud of her. LOL

"A Good Day for a Hanging" (GDH) shows us once again that there is a finite number of original plots that can be turned into a film story.

The similarities of GDH to the classic "High Noon" are substantial. Gary Cooper's name is Marshall Will Kane in "High Noon" while Emile Meyer's name in GDH is Marshall Hiram Cain. Coincidence? I think not! The Fred MacMurray character (Ben Cutler) is about to be married (as was the Cooper character); upon the death of Marshall Cain in GDH, Cutler reluctantly becomes the new Marshall; the MacMurray/Cooper characters find out just how lonely and isolated it is to be an honorable law enforcer in a small Western town; both prospective wives want to break off the impending marriage because they perceive a conflict between the lawman's doing his duty and the peace and stability of married life; both present the unwanted intrusion of outlaws into the life of the quiet town; both involve the eventual rejection of the lawman and his efforts to uphold the law by the town-folks who put him into his position in the first place; both have the requisite climactic shootout with the outlaws which our hero survives; both end up in reconciliation between the MacMurray/Cooper characters and the town-folks as well as the prospective wives; and both validate the need for law and order to maintain civilization in the Old West.

MacMurray seems to have fashioned his lawman character as though he IS Cooper---only in color this time and with a less well-known cast of supporting players. And instead of the ticking down time feature of "High Noon", we are given the slow construction of a gallows for the jailed killer as GDH's plot hook----a structure that we know will never be used-----except in the telegraphed ironic ending.

"High Noon" is good enough in its own right to deserve a respectable knock off-----which GDH is. If imitation is the greatest form of flattery, the creators of "High Noon" should have been mighty pleased with GDH.

But there are differences between the two films. MacMurray was never in the same acting league as Cooper, and Margaret Hayes could never be mistaken for Grace Kelly. Ian MacDonald (Frank Miller) is a far more menacing villain in "High Noon" than the rather young Robert Vaughn is in GDH.

For those of you who enjoy the Western genre and are fans of "High Noon", GDH is well worth seeing just to become familiar with an obscure copycat version of a true classic.

The western "Good Day for a Hanging" isn't one of the better westerns to come out of the 1950s, but western fans should find it an okay viewing provided they are prepared for some flaws, particularly some familiar elements. The biggest problem with the movie is that the story for the most part feels straight out of a episode of a western television show from the same period. Yes, there's color and better production values, and it runs longer than an hour, but until near the end this story has echoes of TV westerns.

I will admit that towards the end of the movie, there are some interesting and unpredictable elements that make the story end on an unexpected note. And while the movie up to that point may be predictable at times, it all the same remains buoyant. The plot thread of the townspeople slowly losing their taste for the upcoming hanging is interesting. Fred MacMurray does make a good lead, possessing a likability even when events start to turn against his character... and change his character. And Robert Vaughn does well as the accused prisoner, showing a sympathetic side while simultaneously suggesting he might be hiding something... or is he? Not a perfect western, as I earlier pointed out, but it is serviceable.

In the same year that he won a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for "The Young Philadelphians," Robert Vaughn was in top form again as a robber of a bank with others, but who is accused of killing the town marshal.

Fred MacMurray, the new marshal, witnessed the killing and his testimony convicted the Vaughn character. Vaughn gives a convincing performance as he bursts out in tears admitting what he did was wrong, but that he is no killer. This persuades the town to sign a petition for a commutation of sentence.

To add to the situation, MacMurray's daughter is in love with Vaughn and argues with her father over the situation.

We also see the idea of circumstances, poverty and a bad environment used as excuses for what has occurred.

In his departure as a gunslinger, James Drury plays the town doctor who also has his eyes on MacMurray's daughter.

Of course, we see the real truth come out in the end. We also see veteran character actress Kathryn Card give an interesting performance as the widow of the dead marshal, an understanding woman.