The Hanged Man

There's a line in Macbeth when the new king of Scotland has his best friend killed, then sees his ghost at a state dinner. He says something to the effect that back in the day, "When the brains were out, the man stayed dead." Oh, if only everyone who got hanged in movies and television stayed dead, keeping Mac happy and Banquo resting peacefully.

But Steve Forrest just looked and acted dead in ABC's The Hanged Man, a series pilot that went nowhere, thanks to the saner heads at the network. The mini-movie--an interminable 74 minutes of back lot cheesiness and dreadful acting--is available on video in dollar stores across the nation.

You can read the other reviews for a synopsis. I will just tell you that there are constitutional safeguards against cruel and unusual punishment for prisoners.

No such safeguards are in place for TV viewers.

The Producers intent to became it in a TV series what they previously labeled as Pilot where James Devlin (Steve Forrest) is suppose not guilty man by an insolved murder, due he'd bad background as gunfighter, he is sentenced to death by hanging, turns out that Devlin after be hanged strangely back to the life without further explanations, something alike unearthly by the way, aftermaths he left the town aiming for never going back, meanwhile wandering adrift finds himself in a settlement where allegedly has a huge orebody of silver belonged to gorgeous widow Carry Gault (Sharon Acker) left by his dead husband, with a sole elder work Nameless (Will Geer).

Oddly enough such place drawn attention of the greedy Lew Halleck (Cameron Mitchell) due such mining area will supply his large silver's foundry at outskirts of town, nonetheless Carry wasn't willing to sell the area for two main reasons, firstly she believes that was sit down in a precious ore minerals mainly silver, second by the Halleck's harsh way trying buy the mining claim for lowest price, pushing the widow thru warmongering manner, to worsen her allied Devlin didn't get any romantic interest in the eye candy-derisible widow, it' a crying shame.

This small TV picture is high regarded in Brazil, mainly by inusual offering and a strong supporting casting as Dean Jagger, Will Greer, Cameron Michell, Barbara Luna, Ray Teal and mainly the blonde bombshell Cary Acker among others, sadly a tiny dealer has earmarked a warn-out lousy DVD copy to ashamed the buyer at the extent to give up to watch it for so bad print, thanks to our weather-friend Youtube where is available a decent clean image with classic dubbed version, unfortunately the forthcoming series never sees the light.

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1996 / How many: 3 / Source: TV-DVD-Youtube / Rating: 6.5.

I realize THE HANGED MAN was just a pilot, so expectations should be managed in terms of quality.

That said, Steve Forrest, Cameron Mitchell, and Will Geer deliver good performances and more could have been made with the premise of a man who survives hanging, and who at first seems to reject God, then seems to accept Him and ultimately runs from death again. The religious aspect in the movie is not clear.

Direction OK, photography rather basic. It would never have been a masterpiece but I think an opportunity was lost to come up with a better film.

Bland, predictable made-for-TV western has Steve Forrest as a feared gunfighter convicted of a murder and sentenced to hang, but who manages to survive the hanging and is set free. By-the-numbers script holds no surprises and the characterizations are all cardboard, including Forrest's one-note portrayal of a killer given a second chance. Bad-guy Cameron Mitchell chews the scenery, pretty Sharon Acker is earnest as a widow who owns a silver mine that "silver king" Mitchell wants to get and Will Geer is somewhat enjoyable as a crusty old-timer called "Nameless" who's Acker's hired hand. It's not long before you can predict exactly what's going to happen, what the bad guy's going to do, what the good guy's going to do and how things will be neatly wrapped up at the end. The whole production looks rushed and cheesy, the equivalent of a Monogram western of the '40s--and, like those Monogram westerns, it's a harmless time-waster. You could do worse, but you could also do much, much better.

With a director that really knew how to direct a western this could have been a really good movie. It's still well worth watching. I just wish it had a little more about the super natural than it did. The acting was pretty good, and had a lot of recognizable actors in it.