O Enforcado

Released to TV in 1974 and directed by Michael Caffey, "The Hanged Man" is a Western starring Steve Forrest as a condemned man who miraculously survives a hanging and decides to help a widow (Sharon Acker) prevent a ruthless land baron (Cameron Mitchell) from chasing her off her remote desert ranch. Will Geer is on hand as an old-timer on the ranch while BarBara Luna plays the condemned man's babe. Brendon Boone appears as the lead henchman while Rafael Campos plays a priest.

"The Hanged Man" was a pilot for a series that never materialized. Producers would make these pilots long enough to be released as a self-contained movie to recoup their losses in the event it wasn't picked up and this was the case with "The Hanged Man." Despite being a TV movie, it has a generally realistic vibe. The premise is interesting, the cast is fine and the movie's short-and-sweet. But it lacks the pizazz to cull it from its TV Western mediocrity. There's a reason it wasn't picked up for a series. Still, it's worth checking out if you favor the actors and late 60s/early 70's Westerns.

Speaking of the actors, the movie features two alumni from the late 60's Star Trek TV series: BarBara Luna appeared in the acclaimed 2nd Season episode "Mirror, Mirror" while Sharon Acker appeared in the 3rd Season Golden Turkey "The Mark of Gideon." BarBara later appeared on two 2nd Season episodes of Buck Rogers and the 25th Century as Hawk's (totally hot) babe.

The film runs 73 minutes and was shot in Old Tucson & Mescal, Arizona, and Red Rock Canyon State Park, Cantil, California.

GRADE: C+

This was to be a series pilot, but didn't get picked up. The typical way a drama series pilot in the 70s was handled was to make it long enough to end up as a movie of the week, so if it didn't get picked up as a series, then at least some production money was recouped. I saw this after seeing The Lazarus Man series, and was surprised at the similarities. This one is typical TV western fare, older gunslinger sees the evil of his ways, and turns into good gunslinger, yet always full of angst about the old ways. The whole idea of a hanged man returning to life was merely a contrivance to make things more interesting. I must say I missed the whole mind-reading ability thing. It wasn't evident apparently because there were plenty of times the lead didn't read someone's mind when if he had, he would have saved himself a lot of trouble. By the way, this movie shows why Cameron Mitchell should always be remembered as the epitome of hammy acting.

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.

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.

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.