Karl Malden: “I had watched him on the big screen for years, and there is something about a Western star that, to me, makes him especially bigger than life. I was so excited to be working with him that I completely reverted to being the new kid, so awestruck that it took me several days to warm up and figure out what I was doing.”
Malden (who directed a few days when Delmer Daves became ill): “Cooper knew himself and he knew the lens of the camera… Cooper knew what to avoid and what to do. He always relaxed in front of the camera and concentrated on the role. He knew what would appear on the screen and he played for it. People have often mistaken his ability to relax on the set for indifference, but he was very interested in the making of the film, the acting process.”
Interesting comments from Malden. I find it a little strange that, even now, there are those who completely misread Cooper’s style and suggest he was a mediocre actor.
THE HANGING TREE is a wonderful film – mature, thoughtful and involving. And Marty Robbins’ rendition of the theme is right on the money.
It’s a genuine shame this movie has yet to make it to DVD in presentable form. I have the German Warner disc and it’s not a very pretty sight at all.
Woudn’t it be great to hear George C Scott’s comments on THE HANGING TREE!
Yes it would. I’ve looked, but so far nothing.
Yes, an increasingly puzzling omission from the Warner Archive.
Makes me wonder if the materials are wonky or something.
Indeed we NEED a good DVD of THE HANGING TREE. One more here who finds this a beautiful, mature and absorbing Western.
I am sure there must be a problem with the master material because
certainly Warners would have released this by now.While Warners and
Columbia are prepared to remaster good originals for their DVD/R editions
I doubt if they would be willing to “restore” wonky material;especially
for a DVD/R.Actually THE HANGING TREE needs a restored edition on
a “proper” DVD if they indeed; still exist;as far as the majors are concerned
anyway. The Spanish DVD of De Toths THE BOUNTY HUNTER is pretty
pallid;little better than the edition that occasionally pops up on TV over
here in the UK.Again I am sure Warners would have released this one if
a decent master existed.While not in the same league as THE HANGING
TREE it is far better than some of films that appeared in the Scott triple
sets that appeared a few years back.
When are Paramount going to get their act together and start releasing
some of their “lost” Westerns; at least as DVD/Rs.
I am thinking about things like PONY EXPRESS,RED MOUNTAIN,
THE HANGMAN,THE GREAT MISSOURI RAID,THUNDER IN THE SUN
FLAMING FEATHER,THE SAVAGE and so on.Its not as if they lack
star power. Hell; I would even buy some of that A.C. Lyles stuff.
John, re the Paramount stuff:
There’s a thread running over at the HTF on Olive Films, who have released a number of Paramount titles on licence. A long list of Paramount properties has been published which now have Olive as their distributor. There’s a number of the titles you mentioned included. Of course this is no guarantee as to if/when these may actually appear, but it is a chink of light.
Colin,
So far Olive Films have only released one Paramount Western
HANNIE CAULDER which I can happilly live without.
Also Olive Films website seems to be down at the moment so I dont know
what is going on.I will check out the HFT link. By the way I should have
included RUN FOR COVER on my list.
Having watched my copy of DRUM BEAT all the way through it looks as
if the film was edited with a chainsaw! How is your copy;I am sure the version
shown in theatres could not have looked like this.
Colin,
Thanks for the HTF link.There are some great films on that list which
I would love to see issued.Surprised to see only 2 Pine-Thomas films
on the list considering the huge number of titles in the Paramount vaults.
Would love to get a copy (although not a Western) of Joseph Loseys
THE LAWLESS.I must say the Olive Films/Paramount titles I have
purchased so far have been brilliant transfers and “proper” DVDs to boot!
Heres hoping.
I saw DRUM BEAT on first release. It looked absolutely beautiful, but I’m sure that wont surprise anyone to hear. I dearly hope someday it will surface in a print letterboxed for the original ‘Scope. This is no minor work–it’s a major Western director and if it perhaps not quite in the top tier of his work (like, say, THE HANGING TREE), it’s still fine and essential Delmer Daves.
I agree DRUM BEAT is a major Fifties Western and one of Daves best
films;I even prefer it to BROKEN ARROW though I am sure I am
pretty much on my own there!
Sadly Warners no longer hold the rights to Ladds Jaguar Productions
imprint so the Aussie DVD I am afraid is all we are going to get.
Charles Bronson is outstanding in the film both brutal and sympathetic.
Going off subject yet again (sorry Toby) has anyone seen the December
releases from Columbia Classics? The second month in a row with no
Westerns. (Unless you count last months EDGE OF ETERNITY a
brilliant Scope transfer and an absolute must for Don Siegel freaks)
There is an early Boetticher B thriller THE MISSING JUROR;but what
have Columbia got against Westerns;are the ones they have released
so far finding few takers?
I just watched and recorded onto DVD my old TNT recording of “The Hanging Tree”. The color in the movie in TNT’s showing was a little off, slightly purplish and faded. Maybe this is why this movie has not been released it’s color is off. But I would think this could be corrected even with colorization, it could be corrected. The TNT version wasn’t bad though, I’ve certainly seen a lot worse.
FWIW about 3 years ago I found an ebay dealer from Brazil who was selling dvds of some hard or impossible to find films…one of them was THE HANGING TREE, others were RED SUNDOWN, BACKLASH, SEMINOLE. I bought these and several others from him. They were in nice dvd full-size cases with nice graphics and written in Portuguese. However, the movies could be set to play in English or Portuguese. They were very nice transfers in my opinion. However, this dealer has ceased selling on ebay. I only have one or two of those dvds left because eventually the same films were shown on tv commercial-free stations so I burned dvds and donated the Brazilian ones to a vets home. Point here is….check out any Brazilian connections you might have.