The Hanged Man

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.

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

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.

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.

James Devlin (Steve Forrest) is a tough man who made his living with his gun. However, he's been convicted of murder an is awaiting a hanging. The killing was in self-defense but his reputation alone was enough to guarantee a death sentence. When this unrepentant man is hung, however, something very strange happens. Though clearly dead, hours later he comes to life and spends much of the rest of the film trying to figure out why as well as what his place will now be in the world. Soon, a jerk named Halleck (Cameron Mitchell) gives him a reason for being...and he makes it his life's work to fight this man and protect the widow who Halleck is trying to bully. Oh, and did I mention that the widow is a widow because her husband was the man that Devlin killed??

This is a decent film and mildly enjoyable. I think if they'd played the supernatural angle more, it would have been a more interesting film...and then possibly might have been picked up as a series. On the other hand, by 1974, westerns had pretty much come and gone....and why the network would revive the genre is tough to understand.

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.