Hangman’s Knot (1952)

Hangman’s Knot is a 1952 western and it stars Randolph Scott, always an enticing prospect. It was written and directed by Roy Huggins who would later have an impressive career in television, being involved in classic series such as Maverick and The Rockford Files.

It starts with a gang led by Randolph Scott carrying out a daring robbery. Their target is a wagon carrying a gold shipment. The wagon has a military escort. The robbery is successful. The soldiers escorting the wagon are all killed.

But things are not what they appear to be. The robbery wasn’t carried out by bandits but by Confederate soldiers undertaking a daring mission. Randolph Scot’s characters isn’t an outlaw, he’s a major in the Confederate Army. The problem is that when they carried out the attack on the gold wagon the war had been over for a month, but they didn’t know that.

Now they’re in a tricky situation. Nobody is going to believe them if they say they were just doing their duty as soldiers and didn’t know the war was over. They’re going to be hunted down as outlaws. And that’s what happens. There are posses out everywhere searching for them. They can expect to be hanged.

They do have the gold. The question is what to do with that gold. They didn’t steal it. They were acting under military orders. As far as they’re concerned they’re not thieves. But since they have the gold it might be better to keep it. If they ride into the nearest Union Army post to return the gold they’ll certainly be hanged. The Major isn’t sure that they’re justified in keeping the gold for themselves but (quite apart from the practical difficulties involved) he doesn’t relish the idea of handing it over to the Union Army. For the time being they’ll hold onto it.

One of the posses catches up to them. The Major and his comrades are holed up in a stagecoach way station. It’s a standoff. There are too many in the posse for there to be a chance of breaking out. On the other hand there aren’t enough men in the posse to have a chance of storming the way station. It’s an interesting balance.

And the Major has made sure that the men in the posse know about the gold. He figures it might be useful if those deputies are thinking more about gold than about catching outlaws.

As the Major expected the members of the posse are soon consumed by gold fever. That breeds dissension but it still doesn’t necessarily give the Major and his men the chance to escape.

Tension builds within the way station as well. The Major had commandeered a stagecoach, with two passengers. A man and a woman. And there’s the old guy in charge of the way station, and his daughter. There’s no way of knowing how difficult these people might become.

There’s also simmering tension between the Major and his second-in-command, played by Lee Marvin. It’s fuelled by longstanding resentment and by gold and by that woman passenger, who happens to be young and pretty.

So there’s dissension on both sides.

This movie begins with stirring action scenes and it ends the same way. Huggins handles the action pretty well. He handles the psychological stresses equally well.

Randolph Scott gives his usual reliable performance, with just a touch of moral ambiguity. He and his men didn’t steal that gold as such but the Major does intend to keep it. Lee Marvin gives a trademark entertainingly psychotic performance. Donna Reed is a fine heroine. The supporting cast is strong.

Umbrella Entertainment have released this movie on DVD in Region 4 in their excellent (and good value) Six Shooter Classics series. It gets a good transfer. It’s fullframe, which is the correct aspect ratio.

Hangman’s Knot is a fine little western. There’s enough action to satisfy any reasonable person but there’s a bit more to it than that. Highly recommended.