Hang 'Em High
| Hang 'Em High | |
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Film poster by Sandy Kossin
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| Directed by | Ted Post |
| Produced by | Leonard Freeman |
| Written by | Leonard Freeman Mel Goldberg |
| Starring |
Clint Eastwood Inger Stevens Ed Begley Pat Hingle |
| Music by | Dominic Frontiere |
| Cinematography |
Richard H. Kline Leonard J. South |
| Edited by | Gene Fowler, Jr. |
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Production
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| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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Running time
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114 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.6 million |
| Box office | $6.8 million |
Hang 'Em High is a 1968 American 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.
The story is set in Oklahoma Territory in 1889. It opens with Jed Cooper (Eastwood) driving a small herd of cattle across a stream. When the men in a posse composed of Capt. Wilson (Begley), Reno (Joseph Sirola), Miller (Bruce Dern), Jenkins (Bob Steele), Matt Stone (Alan Hale, Jr.), Charlie Blackfoot (Ned Romero), Maddow (Russell Thorson), Tommy (Jonathan Lippe), and Loomis (L. Q. Jones) surround him and accuse him of rustling the herd, he shows them a receipt for the cattle, but the man he bought them from was a rustler who killed the herd's owners. Cooper explains that he knew nothing about the murder, but only Jenkins expresses doubts about his guilt. After Reno takes Cooper's saddle and Miller takes his wallet, the men hang him from a tree and ride away, leaving him for dead.
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