Although Clint Eastwood is incredibly famous for his "spaghetti westerns", this film was made domestically just after his spaghetti phase and I think it's as good any of these movies (even "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"). His acting is about the same, maybe a little better, but it's nice to see his supporting cast is much more competent than what we'd been used to seeing. Pat Hingle, Charles McGraw, Bruce Dern and Eg Begley, Sr. all provide able support, as do lesser-known characters such as the "good man" about to be executed or the two young boys who assisted Dern in his cattle rustling.

So apart from an able cast, why did I like it? Well, the story was the key. Clint Eastwood was wrongfully hung by a lynch mob at the beginning of the movie. He miraculously survives and becomes a lawman bent on apprehending the men who almost killed him. Despite this, Eastwood's character has depth and the movie really has something to say about frontier justice. Unlike some westerns, the bad guys are not ALWAYS killed by the Marshall but are brought to justice--which almost always means a hanging. Over time, Eastwood's lust for vengeance diminishes, as it's tough and not always a fair way to exact justice. You see and ultimately believe Eastwood's internal struggle.

Hang 'Em High marks Clint Eastwood's return to the American cinema, taking his character from those Sergio Leone films back to the good old USA. And even giving the man with no name, a name.

In this case he's Jed Cooper who has bought some cattle from some rustlers unknowingly and is accused of rustling and murder by a self constituted posse headed by vengeful Ed Begley. The dozen in the posse hang him.

Up to now this sounds like The Oxbow Incident. But unlike what happened to Dana Andrews, Anthony Quinn, and Francis Ford a very old and fraying rope was used. Eastwood's neck doesn't snap and the group don't wait until he chokes to death. He survives and becomes a man with a mission.

The nicest part for Eastwood is he gets to do his mission with the imprimatur of the law. The best performance in the film comes from Pat Hingle who's a no-nonsense hanging federal judge in the territory. He intends to see that laws are enforced and justice is swift.

Besides Hingle and Bailey, director Ted Post gives Eastwood a good cast of film and TV regulars in support. The tragic Inger Stevens is his leading lady here, a woman who's got a vengeance quest of her own going and who really does understand what makes Clint tick. This was one of her last films, she was a troubled and tragic woman in life. A very sad loss.

Clint's legion of fans will love this one.

Obviously styled on the Sergio Leone DOLLARS trilogy and with a similar approach to dramatic music and sun-bleached locales, HANG 'EM HIGH is one of Eastwood's toughest films. It has a plot that almost writes itself: Eastwood starts the film by being mistaken for a cattle rustler, at which point he's lynched without trial. He somehow survives, and ends up becoming a marshall, vowing to track down the gang responsible.

That storyline is standard revenge fare for the genre, but two things lift this film above the norm: the style and the musings on capital punishment. As well as the various lynchings, one of the main characters (the great Pat Hingle) is a hanging judge and a (legal) execution sequence is the film's most powerful and harrowing shot. As for the style, for much of the film the action carries along to a loud, crashing score which I loved and which suited the events perfectly.

Eastwood plays one of his sternest characters yet, a man always cheating death and driven by vengeance; there's little of his laidback, laconic charm from the Leone trilogy. The supporting cast is excellent: tragic actress Inger Stevens makes her mark as a woman whose life is driven by her own dreams of revenge, there are tons of western actors present (Ed Begley, Ben Johnson, Bruce Dern, L. Q. Jones) and even an outrageous cameo from Dennis Hopper. The film grips your attention throughout until the final violent, inevitable conclusion.