La Colline des potences

This movie should be right up there with "High Noon", "The Searchers", "The Magnificent Seven", and other classic westerns. The cinematography and fantastic outdoor location alone make it a must see. Gary Cooper plays a gun-toting frontier doctor, with a mysterious past, Maria Schell, a determined immigrant, who becomes his patient. Karl Malden, a ruthless miner, who becomes her partner. The supporting cast is excellent, including a very slender young actor by the name of George C. Scott, whose performance is compelling. This is one of Cooper's last movies, and one of his best. I'm not really sure why, but this movie has not been enjoyed as much as it should, or received the praise it deserves. If you're a fan of the genre, and you have not seen this movie, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

Travelers pass by the Hanging Tree on the Gold Trail in Montana, 1873. Joseph Frail (Gary Cooper) arrives at the small gold mining town of Skull Creek, Montana. He buys a home from an old prospector eager to sell. He treats Rune for a suspicious bullet wound. Frenchy Plante (Karl Malden) is a slimy local. George Grubb (George C. Scott) is a bitter drunken faith healer. Frail is a card-playing, hard-hitting, gun-slinging doctor with a dark history and a heart of gold. A stagecoach is attacked. The posse finds passenger Elizabeth Mahler barely alive and blinded.

It's an interesting western for the most part. I'm conflicted with the third act. I like some of it. I like the idea of Frail and Elizabeth. I don't see how Elizabeth would partner up with Frenchy with his slimy nature. Going wild is highly ill-conceived which is exactly why no one should partner up with Frenchy. If I hit the jackpot in that place, I would try to hide it for as long as possible and arm up. Still, I like a lot of the premise with Frail and Elizabeth. It's a good western.

In 1873, in the Gold Trail, Montana, the mysterious and controller Dr. Joseph Frail (Gary Cooper) arrives in the small town of Skull Creek with miners in a gold rush. Dr. Frail buys a cabin on the top of a hill and he sees the smalltime thief Rune (Ben Piazza) wounded and chased by a mob that wants to hang him. Dr. Frail helps and heals Rune; but in return, he demands that the young man becomes his bond servant. The alcoholic healer and preacher George Grubb (George C. Scott) tells to the locals that Dr. Frail, who is an excellent gambler and gunfighter, is a devil, but nobody gives attention to his words.

Sooner the stagecoach is robbed by thieves that kill the passengers but the coachman survives and three days later he reaches Skull Creek. He tells that the horses had speed down the hill with a young woman inside the stagecoach. The men organize a pursuit and the rude Frenchy Plante (Karl Malden) finds the Swedish Elizabeth Mahler (Maria Schell) burnt and blind. Dr. Frail and Rune take care of her and they learn that Elizabeth and her father, who was killed in the heist, had come to America to settle down.

When Elizabeth is healed, she falls in an unrequited love with Dr. Frail and she decides to stay in Skull Creek to seek gold with Rune. They form a partnership with Frenchy and Dr. Frail secretly helps them to begin their business with The Lucky Lady Mine. When Elizabeth learns that Dr. Frail is helping her, she is disappointed but she promises to pay her debt with him someday. During a heavy rain, a tree falls down and the trio of partners finds a fortune in gold underground. Frenchy drinks with the locals and when he is drunk, he takes an attitude that will affect the lives of the locals and Skull Creek, mostly of Dr. Frail, Elizabeth and Rune.

"The Hanging Tree" is an unconventional and great western with a dramatic story supported by complex characters in a small town in the gold rush and not in shootout and other usual themes in this type of film. The lead characters are intriguing, with Gary Cooper performing a bitter character with a hidden past but also a good and fair man. Rune is also a good man that had robbed only due to his needy situation. Maria Schell performs a sweet and well-educated woman, capable to greet everybody and also tough in a negotiation. Karl Malden is fantastic as usual and the scum Frenchy Plante is one of the most despicable characters I have ever seen. Virginia Gregg has a minor but effective performance and her character Edna Flaunce is an example of how sickening and nauseating a human being can be.

This is the first time that I see this film, recently released on DVD by a small Brazilian distributor, and it was a magnificent surprise for me since I am not a fan of the conventional Western genre. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Árvore dos Enforcados" ("The Hanging Tree")

No need to recap the sprawling plot.

For a western, the movie is generously produced. The Washington state locations are scenic as heck and a great backdrop to the rushing crowds and boisterous miners. In fact, the gold camp recreation is one of the most realistic I've seen. Then too, the production has one of the most underrated directors of westerns of the period, Delmer Daves, whose list includes such classics as 3:10 to Yuma (1957), Jubal (1956),and the generally overlooked Cowboy (1958). All of these are tightly written and efficiently directed little gems.

But I have to say that despite the first-rate production values and a first-rate cast, this more epic sized western doesn't achieve the impact of Daves' smaller movies. The problem is a loose script and a dawdling camera that stretches out the dramatics and the movie's length to a sometimes tedious degree. I'm guessing that Warner Bros. wanted a production equal to Gary Cooper's iconic standing. I suspect they were also promoting newcomer Schell's career, and thus much time is split between her, Cooper, and the always reliable Malden. All perform well, but add up to bits and pieces that don't fit together very well, while padding the screen time unnecessarily.

I wish Scott's truly fearsome religious zealot had gotten a bigger role. He might have made the movie memorable, so strong is his spotty presence. Something I don't usually notice in films is the movie score. But here the music is blended nicely into the screenplay, without overdoing it. Perhaps revealingly, this is Daves' final western. From here, he went on to teenage fare, such as the blockbuster A Summer Place (1959) that despite its teen angst of the day is not without notable compensations. Anyway, this film's a scenic delight at the same time the narrative unfortunately is not, which adds up to a very mixed result.

Gary, for that movie, was Doc Joe Frail. Maria, sister of Maximilian Schell, became Elizabeth Malher. Everything that happened to Frail seemed real. He healed Elizabeth's blindness but feared loving her because of his past. There was the guilt from the tragedy he carried, the fear of someone finding out. The jealousy and anger of people waiting and wanting to take Doc's life for his past and, mostly, the fortune.

Frenchy Plante is played by Karl Malden. He is a fortune hunter with a drinking problem. Karl was one of two directors who made this film. Delmar Daves was in charge of the beginning and middle. Karl did the finishing work. By that time, Mulden had 20 movies under his belt.

George C. Scott is Dr. George Grubb, a Bible toting, Scripture spouting fiend. He is not a particularly nice person. He targets Doc Frail and goes after him. This is Scott's first credited role and he carries it off very well.

Jerry Livingston does the title theme. "The Hanging Tree". It was sung in the movie by one of my favorites, Marty Robbins. He, also, made it popular to the public through radio and records. Now I have a CD of "The Best of Marty Robbins" that I have introduced to my grandson. I want him (and our other grandkids) to know about something besides today's music.

Just for some aside information: The only cast member, of this movie, still living is Karl Malden. He turned 94 in March of 2006. Wow, what a life he's had!