User Reviews

The Hangman was Robert Taylor's first independent film after leaving MGM. In later years, he would describe it as one of his failures. Like many Taylor movies, it's an unusual twist on a familiar subject. Mackenzie Bovard, a Deputy Marshal, is famous for his ability to catch criminals who are later hanged. Bovard is cynical and world weary with a poor opinion of his fellow humans. Pursuing a robbery suspect, he meets the young and lovely Tina Louise. Through his relationship with her Bovard gradually regains his faith in humanity and becomes a much warmer and more likable person. This is far from a typical western--no fight scenes, no gorgeous scenery, no evil villains. As another reviewer noted, it's a drama set in the old West. It's about responsibility, right and wrong and personal development and growth. Taylor is excellent, as always, in his understated way. Tina Louise is good as a young woman who changes from a drab loser to a confident woman. Mabel Albertson is wonderful as a middle-aged woman who has the hots for Taylor (who can blame her?). Fess Parker, post Davy Crockett is effective as a town Sheriff and his laid back persona makes a good contrast to the driven, more intense Taylor. Perhaps not a classic but definitely worth watching and owning.

The struggle between duty and compassion is the subject of this 1959 Western. Robert Taylor plays marshal Kinzie Beauvard who is known as the Hangman for his ability to arrest murderers. "I don't hang them", he says. "The judge does that."

The marshal enlists the help of a witness named Celia(played by Tina Louise) to arrest hold up suspect Johnny Bishop (played by Jack Lord). The marshal is embittered after 20 years of apprehending "rats". "Everyone has a price", he says. He begins to mellow as his reluctant witness makes him wait and later tries to confuse him. She knows the suspect but warns him that Beauvard is in town to arrest him. The suspect actually participated in the hold up, but he was an unwitting dupe. "I was a fool", he tells Celia. "I should have asked more questions" (before taking fresh horses to a rendezvous point for the real hold up men). As the movie progresses Beauvard becomes increasingly certain that Johnny Bishop is his man, but everyone in town rallies behind the suspect. He finally finds someone else who can identify Bishop as the man he wants. Big Murph (played by Gene Evans) agrees to finger him for a share of the reward but double crosses Beauvard and tries to help Bishop escape instead. "Why does everyone in town try to help him?", Beauvard asks the town marshal (played by Fess Parker). "Because Johnny has done so much for them", the town marshal replies. Ultimately, Beauvard gets his man but lets him escape at the end. "You see", the town marshal says, "Johnny did something for you, too". "No, Celia did it", Beauvard replies. He and Celia board the stagecoach for a new life in California.

On a technical level this black and white film offers little. It is not your typical Western. Outdoor sequences are few and there is little of the beautiful scenery we have come to expect from this genre. There is little action, but the good script and performances more than make up for it. There is a good blend of humor and serious dialogue. There is more than the usual depth to Marshal Beauvard's character. Beauvard is cynical and tough. He wanted to become a lawyer, he says, "but there was always one more rat to catch". This movie is about conscience. The struggle between duty and humanity is well told.

I have watched this minor Western many times and have enjoyed it each time.

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.

As an user pointed out,DR Kimble ,the fugitive ,might have been inspired by "the hangman"".As for me, I 'd rather think that Dudley Nichols -who took some of his inspiration for "stagecoach" from Maupassant's "Boule De Suif "- had thought of Javert and Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables"

Bovard (the name sounds a bit French)appears first a rather unsympathetic character;he places duty over everything (we learn the reason why later in the movie),and understanding and compassion are words unknown to him :isn't he called "the hangman"?Curtiz's movie is first a psychological western -not an action-packed movie full of shoot-outs -in which a man learns humanity.

Johnny unintentionally took part in a hold-up (in Hugo's novel,Valjean stole a loaf and was sent to the chain gang),he had to flee to another town where he was known as a good fellow,always ready to lend a helping man ."He made me a better man" says the sheriff Like in "it's a wonderful life" ,a man who's got friends is never lost.(Valjean became the mayor of another town and was considered a known and respected man,who helped the sick and the poor;but Javert was always on his heels)

A true friend does not betray :even if she is told that at 24,she looks like she 's 30!The thirty pieces of silver (here represented by 500 dollars)trick does not always work.

This is a very suspenseful film (notably the scenes with Tina Louise on the street),often moving,without a single real villain .With a nod to Alfred Hitchcock 's "the thirty-nine steps" (the handcuffs) at that.

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.

Robert Taylor plays a cynical lawman in director Michael Curtiz's offbeat but interesting western "The Hangman" who has a habit of getting his man and bringing him to face justice. Taylor doesn't look like the usual U.S. Deputy Marshal this time around. He dresses business-like in a jacket with his six-gun holstered on his pants' belt well out of sight so he looks like he isn't packing a revolver. Believe it or not, this gruff character in dark apparel starts out as one kind of hombre and ends up as a different one by fadeout. This 1959 black & white western reminded me a little of the Charles Bronson bounty hunter western "Showdown at Boot Hill." Bronson gunned down his quarry, but nobody wanted to pay him off for his work. Similarly, after he delivers one outlaw to be hanged to his immediate superior, Marshal Clum Cummings (soon to be "Bonanza" star Lorne Greene), our hero, Marshal Mackenzie Bovard sets out to track down the last renegade named Jim Butterfield. The only problem that confronts Bovard is that nobody knows what Butterfield looks like except the man who is destined to swing in a week's time for the murder of another deputy. Bovard knows that Butterfield served in the calvary so he rides out to the nearest fort where the outlaw served. Unfortunately, the only man who can identify Butterfield is an orderly (Regis Toomey) but the fort commandant cannot release him to ride with Bovard for at least a month. The orderly recommends that Bovard look up a woman, Selah Jennison (Tina Louise of "The Good Guys and the Bad Guys") because she can recognize him. Bovard offers her $500 in gold if she will follow him to a nearby town and identify Butterfield. Bovard sets out on a stage to that town where he meets up with the town lawman, Sheriff Buck Weston (Fess Parker of "Davy Crockett") and asks around about Butterfield. The most obvious candidate is a well-liked teamster who works for a freighting firm, but he Jim Butterfield (Jack Lord of "Hawaii 5-o") has changed his name to Jim Bishop and nobody knows about his notorious past. Initially, Selah doesn't show up when she is supposed to and Bovard begins to have doubts about his cynical outlook on people. He assures Sheriff Weston that everybody has a price. Meantime, Curtiz and scenarist Dudley Nichols of "Stagecoach" fame struggle to work in some uneven humor. During the stage ride, a mature woman older than Bovard, Amy Hopkins (Mabel Albertson of "The Cobweb") struggles to attract Bovard's attention, but he ignores her. Just as Bovard is about to give up hope that Selah will show up, Selah shows up and Amy is surprised and affronted by her presence. Selah doesn't want to identify Butterfield and sneaks off to warn him. Not even Bovard can convince one of Butterfield's enemies at the teamster firm to testify against him. A harmless Mexican Pedro Alonso (Jose Gonzales-Gonzales of "Rio Bravo") who works alongside Butterfield tries to kill Bovard twice but fails to succeed each time. Eventually, even Bovard relents, turns in his badge, and decides to head for California to live the life that he has always dreamed up. Surprisingly, Selah turns down Sheriff Weston's offer of marriage and accompanies Bovard to California. This is not a terrain western with horsemen charging back and forth across the landscape. Most of the action occurs in a western town. Ironically, Bovard brandishes his revolver, but he doesn't kill anybody. Similarly, director Michael Curtiz doesn't display his usual flair in this Paramount Pictures release.

By virtually every measure, the name of the film is a misnomer, as the title character repeatedly explains that he doesn't hang anyone, he just captures outlaws and brings them to justice. Figuratively speaking though, Mack Bovard (Robert Taylor) is in the law and order business, and once he's got his sights set on a target, they're as good as done.

The film is quite the interesting character study of Bovard, who cynically decries human nature with the admonition that 'everyone has his price'. The deputy U.S. Marshal is about to test that theory once again when he tries to convince the widowed Selah Jennison (Tina Louise) to identify a murder and robbery suspect involved in a Wells Fargo heist. Failure to secure the capture of Johnny Butterfield will mean that he's liable to go scot-free, since the last remaining outlaw involved in the Wells Fargo job is about to hang; he's the only other person who knows what Johnny looks like.

The picture makes a pretty good guessing game out of the identity of Johnny Butterfield/Bishop (Jack Lord), possibly the only cowboy in Western movie history who doesn't have an enemy in the world in his settled, unnamed town. Bovard makes an immediate assumption that Bishop is his target, the one stretch that eventually bears out correctly, but it takes some maneuvering to get there. The film briefly detours into comic territory somewhat when Selah Jennison, who knows Bishop's true identity, handcuffs herself to Bovard to waylay the inevitable.

There's also a humorous gimmick running throughout the early part of the picture as Miss Amy Hopkins (Mabel Albertson) attempts to catch the deputy marshal's eye, but finally gives up, upset that she couldn't attract his attention to her matured charm and appreciation. Personally, I thought she was a busybody. The other character who caught my eye was the pretty waitress Molly (Betty Lynn) who just a few years later would have the unenviable task of being the girlfriend of hapless Barney Fife on "The Andy Griffith Show".

As almost all the other reviewers on this board have mentioned, the ending of the story comes almost out of left field, although attentive viewers might have seen it coming. Making it even more incredible was the way Sheriff Buck Weston (Fess Parker) handled it, he just stood there waving good-bye with no remorse. Maybe he was just too stunned.

Man, a lot of future TV stars in this film: Lorne Greene ("Bonanza" 1959-1973); Jack Lord ("Hawaii Five-O" 1968-1980); Tina Louise ("Gilligan's Island" 1964-1967); and Fess Parker ("Daniel Boone" 1964-1970); Robert Taylor could be considered for "The Detectives" (1959-1962) but he's mainly known for his films.

The Hangman is about a Marshall known as "The Hangman" who comes to a town looking for a man named John Butterfield, but he doesn't know what he looks like, and no one in town helps him. Jack Lord plays Johnny Bishop, the man the Marshall thinks is Butterfield. He knows that Salah Jennison (Tina Louise) knows what Butterfield looks like but refuses to identify him, even for $500 (in today's dollar that's around $3,000.)

Everyone basically loves Johnny Bishop; why give up a guy you like? Salah is beholden to Johnny because after her husband died he was there for her in her grief. The Marshall has grief, too, he was on the way to California with his brother when they were held up and his brother died and he became a lawman to bring his killers to justice and just never stopped.

Overall it's a pretty good film. There is some overdramatized scenes mainly by the supporting cast but even by Taylor such as when Louise gets off the stage; he stares at her dramatically as if he couldn't believe she was in town even though he knew she was coming (even if a bit late.) Maybe it was anger and surprise that she finally showed up, I don't know. Even though it has a bit of a cliché happy ending of Johnny riding off and the Marshall pretending to shoot at him and the girl following the Marshall to California (yes, all those things were cliché in 1959), I still enjoyed it.

Robert Taylor made this picture at Paramount in the late 1950s. He was older, but still in good shape and still every inch the star. Like most aging leading men, he had turned to westerns, and the genre suits him just fine.

The film is directed by Michael Curtiz, nearing the end of his Hollywood career. And the screenplay is one of Dudley Nichols' last efforts (he died six months after THE HANGMAN was released). Costars include Fess Parker whose amiable charms are a nice contrast to no-nonsense Taylor; as well as Tina Louise and Jack Lord who had worked together in GOD'S LITTLE ACRE a year earlier. Lord is particularly good; he's given the villain role but manages to be quite likable on screen.

Taylor plays a marshal named Mac Bovard who doesn't care for the nickname people have given him. It was earned because of his ability to track down fugitives and bring them to justice- usually the men he rounds up are found guilty and hanged soon afterward. The situation is something Mac wants to put in the past, and after catching a guy named Butterfield (Lord's character), he intends to head west and start a new career as a lawyer. The problem is that Butterfield is using an alias and the only one who can positively identify him is a former girlfriend known as Selah Jennison (Tina Louise).

It's obvious Mac and Selah will fall in love, when Selah accompanies the lawman on his journey to apprehend Butterfield. But it's hardly a conventional romance because she decides to betray him and help Butterfield escape custody. Complicating matters is Buck Weston, the friendly sheriff played by Parker.

Buck has also taken a shine to Selah, and he wants to marry her. After she's forgiven for betraying Mac, she must choose between the two men. The characters don't really hold grudges very long in this story. Mac has a change of heart after he recaptures Butterfield and ends up letting him go. Something that impresses Selah and makes her choose Mac over Buck.

We have learned along the way that Butterfield's crime involved the death of Mac Bovard's brother. So for much of the picture's running time there is a personal need for Mac to make sure Butterfield gets what's coming to him. But by the end of the story, he realizes a hanging would probably be too harsh, since Butterfield did not actually cause the death and was mostly an innocent bystander. Maybe Mac also lets him go, so that in addition to getting the girl he will no longer be known as The Hangman.

Paramount did not allocate a huge budget for this programmer. In some ways it looks like they've borrowed sets that were probably in use for western TV shows of the day, so there is a bit of ordinariness in how the town and the hotel rooms look. They were mainly just trying to tell a good story, and I'd say they succeeded.

Probably the best part of the film, aside from the main cast, is character actress Mabel Albertson. She plays a society woman who appears in a comic relief subplot during the first half. Widow Hopkins comes to town on the same stage as Mac Bovard, and she assumes she might charm him into having dinner with her and spending time together.

Mac snubs her, because she's rather pushy, and he has an important job to do. Mrs. Hopkins then finds out Mac brought Selah Jennison to the hotel on another stage, without benefit of marriage, and she gets a bit spiteful. But as much as her heart's been broken, I don't think she'd want to see anyone hanged for it.