Ride to Hangman's Tree is directed by Alan Ratkin and collectively written by Luci Ward, Jack Natteford and William Bowers. It stars Jack Lord, James Farantino, Don Galloway, Melodie Johnson and Richard Anderson. Music is by Frank Skinner (Joseph Gershenson supervising) and cinematography by Gene Polito.

A remake of Black Bart, Highwayman (1948),Ride to Hangman's Tree is fun and unassuming if ultimately forgettable once the end credits have been and gone. The film opens up with the lead actors introducing themselves which straight away takes one out of the mindset of expecting drama to unfold, and so it proves. Picture has tongue in cheek and racks up the Western clichés with carefree abandon, but this never becomes dull once an acceptance of film's intent is reached. The cast are fine, with Johnson socko gorgeous to boot, while the music and scenic photography are decent. 6/10

Primarily, director Alan Rafkin helmed only two westerns during his forty-year career in Hollywood, and both constituted remakes. "Ride to the Hangman's Tree" (1967) rehashed director George Sherman's superior "Black Bart" (1948) with Dan Duryea and Yvonne De Carlo, while "The Shakiest Gun in the West" (1968) with Don Knotts was a second take on director Norman Z. McLeod "The Paleface" (1948) with Bob Hope. Ostensibly, most of Rafkin's credits were television situation comedies. "Ride to the Hangman's Tree" qualifies as a tongue-in-cheek horse opera about a trio of career Texas outlaws who survive the eponymous tree, go their separate ways, and reunite in California during a gold strike. Howard Christie, who most will remember as the producer of "Laredo," had been producing movies and television shows since 1945 with several "Abbot and Costello" farces as well as sagebrushers such as "Smoke Signal," "Showdown at Abilene," "Joe Dakota," "Last of the Fast Guns," "No Name on a Bullet," "The Raiders," and "Gunfight in Abilene." Most of those westerns were lighthearted oaters like "Laredo." Comparatively, Christie was somebody like A.C. Lyles except he made remakes. Sometimes, he even remade his own oaters, with "Showdown in Abilene" becoming "Gunfight in Abilene."

Guy Russell (Jack Lord of "Dr. No"),Matt Stone (James Farentino of "Ensign Pulver"),and Nevada Jones (Don Galloway of "Rough Night in Jericho") are three buddies who rob banks until Guy and Matt are captured during a double bank robbery. They are taken to Boot Hill where the authorities plan to hang them when Nevada intervenes, blows up the tree, and gets the drop on the lawmen. Not long afterward, our heroes part company, but they hold up a stagecoach before they split the blanket. When Matt informs them that he is quitting to go to California, Guy relieves him of his share of the robbery and take his horse. Matt gets to Sacramento, California, where he meets an old acquaintance, attorney named Jeff Scott (Robert Yuro of "The Hell with Heroes") and begins robbing Wells Fargo stagecoaches as a desperado called 'Black Bart' who wears a black sack over his head, rides a black horse, and wields a double-barrel sawed-off shotgun. To complete his masquerade, Matt appropriates an ersatz Mexican accent. Eventually, it is only a matter of time until Guy and Nevada arrive in Matt's stomping ground. They sign on as coachmen to Wells Fargo. A Wells Fargo detective smokes out our heroes. When Nevada brings the coach back to town with his passenger, the passenger turns out to be the detective and he orders the arrest of Nevada. Meantime, the strongbox that Nevada threw out to Black Bart contained nothing, and Guy pursued Black Bart to Matt's ranch where his house guest, singer and dancer Lillie Malone (Melodie Johnson of "Coogan's Bluff"),is entertaining Matt's guests. When Matt walks into his office, Guy is waiting for him and demands his share of the loot. Matt explains that the strong box was empty. Naturally, Guy refuses to believe him.

The chief difference between "Ride to the Hangman's Tree" and "Black Bart" is that the remake staged the double hold-up that the original used merely as exposition on the way to the hangman's tree. Just when Rafkin's version is getting interesting, the action grinds to an abrupt halt. Guy and Matt have managed to escape from a blazing shack that they holed up in after an abortive hold-up. Things look dire for them. Inexplicably, except to save on the film's budget, Nevada shows up and saves them. The three ride away, except Matt makes plans to go straight and leaves Guy and Nevada to ride back to his ranch. End of movie! What could have been a promising remake, just skids to a stop.

This movie is so uninspired that it has only two points of interest. First, it is an unacknowledged remake of the much better 1948 movie "Black Bart". Second, the female lead is played by Melodie Johnson who made a few films and then quit movies. I believe she now writes crime novels and is highly regarded. Melodie Johnson is an interesting actress because she had that rare gift of being able to change her appearance completely. (More famous actors with this gift are Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers.) The Melodie Johnson in this movie is unrecognisable from the voluptuous blonde with the plunging cleavage in "Gaily, Gaily", has no similarity with the bimbo who romped in the bath with Clint Eastwood in "Coogan's Bluff", and has nothing in common with the subdued country girl in "The Moonshine War" who offers herself to Patrick McGoohan (and is turned down!!!).

The only reason to watch this feeble movie is to compare Melodie's Johnson's appearance and performance with those in her other films.