Hangman's House

Having worked as a 'grip' during his summer holidays between terms at the University of Southern California, John Wayne was given the opportunity to rub shoulders with John Ford in this film as an extra. When Wayne sustained an injury to his shoulder, Ford suggested to him to work full-time in films.

Hangman's House (1928)

*** (out of 4)

John Ford directed this melodrama about an infamous hangman judge who's on his death bed when he asks his daughter (June Collyer) not to marry the man she loves (Larry Kent) but instead marry a man (Earle Foxe) who isn't any good but carries a certain social flame. As it turns out, this man is responsible for the suicide of a woman who just happens to have a brother (Victor McLaglen) who sets out for revenge. Once again Ford perfectly captures the mood, feel and atmosphere of the Ireland settings and makes a very fast paced film. The movie is mainly melodrama but there's an added touch of what would eventually become known as Gothic Horror. The creepy house used in the film is something you'd expect to see in a Euro Horror film as it really becomes its own vital character. The visuals are great throughout and really add to the dread of the situations and the entire cast shines in their roles. Foxe makes for a great villain with Kent a likable and sympathetic character. McLaglen steals the show as the brother who will stop at nothing to get vengeance. The finale contains some great stunts with the climax clearly being the highlight of the film. There's a scene here, which Ford would later use in The Quiet Man and we also get a clear view of a young John Wayne during one scene.

On the opposite side of the disc for 3 Bad Men, I figured it was short and I might as well cross it off my John Ford list. Not worth the time. The story here is just boring, and, though it's interesting to see Victor McLaglen in a silent role and John Wayne as an extra (this was his first film appearance, and that's probably what the film is best known for), it's one of Ford's worst. McLaglen is supposedly the star, but he's mostly a side character. The main story revolves around a love triangle. June Collyer is the daughter of a notorious judge who sentenced many people to the gallows. Her father insists she marry a rich man (Earle Foxe) to ward off his bad reputation, but she's in love with Larry Kent. McLaglen plays a mysterious figure from Foxe's past who shows up to expose his own evil history. Wayne appears as a spectator at a horse race who gets so excited he breaks the fence in front of him. I admit I fell asleep about ten minutes before the end of this one but wasn't interested enough to go back and finish it.

Citizen Hogan ( Victor McLaglen) is an Irish expatriate, wanted by the British, hiding out in the French Foreign Legion. He gets a message and says he must return to Ireland to kill somebody.

From the title and what goes on during the first part of the film, I was thinking that he came back to kill Lord Justice O'Brien (Hobart Bosworth), the titular hangman but actually a judge. Maybe the judge sentenced a friend or relative to hang? And although Ford builds this judge up as a very bad guy, haunted by the people he sentenced to death, I can never see what exactly he did that was wrong in the line of duty considering capital punishment was routine at the time. He wasn't said to take bribes. He wasn't convicting anybody, just sentencing them. Would the townspeople like him to just let murderers go? Would they prefer they be paroled in their house, in the bedroom next to their teen daughter's room? Since the townspeople hate him so, the only thing I can figure is that because he is an Irishman cooperating with the British system of justice, they just consider everybody executed by said British as a martyr and thus the judge as a traitor, even if the people he hanged would wreak chaos on normal people if freed. But I digress.

But the judge dies pretty quickly into the film, and yet Hogan hangs around, risking capture. So it turns out the judge was never his actual target, but the actual target is associated with the "Hangman's House".

This seems like a warm up for The Quiet Man in several ways. The tormented lovers kept apart by family, the crowd cheering at a horse race, the odd superstitions of the people, and so on. Even some small bits of dialogue are the same as in The Quiet Man. The only rather laughable bit is that the villain looks SO MUCH like a villain, especially a silent era villain.

This film is probably best remembered as having a bit part for John Wayne in it as he goes crashing through a fence at the end of the horse race, and you probably will not spot him unless you know he is there. But it is worth a look in its own right.

With a pleasingly Gothic setting, John Ford's tale of revenge starts out well but loses impetus as it tries to keep us in the dark about the reason behind Victor McLaglen's decision to take leave of the Foreign Legion in order to 'kill a man' in Ireland. June Collyer and Larry Kent are a little too bland as the romantic leads, but Earle Fox delivers as a villain with absolutely no redeeming features.