Released today by Warner Archive — The Hanging Tree (1959) from Delmer Daves. It was George C. Scott’s first film and Daves’ last Western, after a career filled with good ones: 3:10 To Yuma (1957), Jubal (1958) and more.
Karl Malden (from The Actor Within: Intimate Conversations With Great Actors by Rose Eichenbaum): “During the last two weeks of the picture, the director [Delmer Daves] got sick and went to the hospital. So I got a call on a Saturday to come over to Coop’s house. I get there, and he says they might have to close down production. ‘That’s too bad,’ I say. So he says, ‘Why don’t you finish directing the picture?’ ‘Me?’ ‘You can do it. You directed Widmark in Counter Attack. You can do it.’ So I said okay, but if I find that I’m lost and I don’t know how to do it, and we have to sit there and figure it out, don’t scream at me.’ ‘Kid,’ he said. He always called me kid even though I was almost as old as he was. ‘Kid, I’ve never spoken angrily to anyone in my life, and I’m not going to start now.’ So I accepted and directed the picture for two and a half weeks. When it was finished, Gary Cooper went over to Warner’s and said to them, ‘Star billing.’ That’s the first picture in which I got star billing. That’s the kind of man Gary Cooper was.”
Malden did a good job filling in for Daves–the picture is seamless. I say that having seen it again within the last few months. It’s one of my favorites of Daves, along with 3:10 TO YUMA (his masterpiece) and COWBOY, and Daves’ Westerns are generally strong. A few other accounts I’ve read (by Malden too, if I’m remembering right) suggest that Malden conferred with Daves and followed his plan, and it seems like that would be the case. In any event, my sense is that most of the film was done, its style and ideas, intepretations of the actors, all thoroughly set and just needed to be intelligently guided to the end, which Malden did.
Anyone here who hasn’t seen THE HANGING TREE should make a point of it–it’s a complex, serious and compelling Western made when the genre was at its peak. The protagonist played by Gary Cooper is a challenging character, and Cooper fully delivers on it as he was always able to do. Maria Schell is wonderful as the heroine, another unusual figure in a Western. Beautiful color, settings, art direction. Movies like this are why I love Westerns so much.
The movie Karl Malden directed with Richard Widmark may have been called COUNTER ATTACK at one time but was released as TIME LIMIT (the name of the original play), so that’s the title to look for. Very good movie.
Good thing George C Scott didn’t take the reins
Ain’t that the truth!
I’ve been reading up on that film lately, not knowing it was coming out from WA, and Scott evidently wasn’t in real good shape in that period.
Cooper’s last western, with a soul-touching song sung by Marty Robbins, that frames the begining and end of the movie. I might even spring for this one myself!
That song by Marty Robbins was and still is hauntingly beautiful to this day.
His Alamo tune is the one that knocks me out.
More power to Warners who have decided to re-master this great film.
The version knocking around Europe;I understand is, pallid and rather
bad. I am glad now that I waited.Though not in the same league;it
would be great if Warners remastered THE BOUNTY HUNTER.
The Spanish DVD is as bad as the version that always turns up on
UK TV.No classic; but the film is good entertainment;worthy of a
re-master IMHO.
Talking about MODs has anyone noticed the tidal wave of flack that
Fox have received on their new MOD series.The Scope pictures they
released in their initial wave have all been pan & scans;an outrage
considering the price they are charging for the darn things!
They do have ONE FOOT IN HELL coming up;and this SHOULD be in
scope.Poor Alan Ladd looked so ill in that film and his decision to
play the “bad guy” was a poor choice.Excellent cast;lousy film!
Too bad that the cats at Fox do not have the same quality demands as
the people at Warners and Columbia/Sony.
Having said that I would accept a good quality P & S version of
SIERRA BARON a film I am desperate to find in decent quality.
Also interesting to see the virtual lack of Scope pictures in their next
wave;though a gold-mine for Thirties and Forties buffs.
Certain folk in the know tell me that BANJO ON MY KNEE (1936)
with Stanwyck & McCrea is a very much sought after title;Im up for
it anyway!
There’s no excuse for pan and scan these days.
The Bounty Hunter would be a great thing for Warner Archive to get around to, especially widescreen. Shootout At Medicine Bend, too!
The Hanging Tree isn’t listed on the cover as being part of their “remastered” series
I should add, the new disc is in wide and the color is much better than what I’ve seen. I don’t remember whether they’ve screened on TCM or elsewhere so I can’t compare, it isn’t pan and scan,
hc, they showed it full frame on TCM–glad to hear the disc is wide (assume you mean 1.85 though I have a feeling 1.66 might be OK for that one).
What is with Fox? CinemaScope was their process–to me there is no excuse for them putting out any Fox title pan and scan if it was Scope. A disgrace.
I’ve noticed they didn’t get this right with every title on Fox Channel. I really wanted to watch CIRCLE OF DECEPTION again (sorry to mention a non-W,
Toby, but this is a movie worth anyone’s attention) and recorded it but when I found it was pan and scan I wouldn’t watch it because I made a personal rule about this sometime in the last ten years (it was while watching AT GUNPOINT
p&s on Western channel and that is a 50s Western).
We’re all friends here — non-Westerns are OK!
Funny how these days, those Fred MacMurray pictures keep coming up. I wanna see At Gunpoint so bad!
COMANCHE and SITTING BULL coming from France’s Sidonis in their September wave of Westerns.
Re THE HANGING TREE Warner Archive release not having the Remastered label on the box — I’ve been discussing this with the Warner Archive reps on Twitter this week. They said the Archive has decided to discontinue the red Remastered labels because of “consumer confusion.” (I can only surmise there’s a problem with those who don’t know the difference between remastered and restored.) The problem with this decision, as I pointed out to them, is that there is a lot of conflict between their email newsletters and the site itself on what has been remastered; the site has the wrong info or says nothing at all in too many places. For instance, their newsletter said THE HANGING TREE was remastered but the WB Shop listing specifically said it wasn’t. They corrected it after I pointed it out, and the site now says it’s newly remastered.
However, a number of other new titles (the new Forbidden Hollywood pre-Code sets, new Jeanette & Nelson releases) were also remastered but the WB Shop listings say nothing. So they’ve gone to the work of remastering these films but consumers don’t have any way to know unless they read — and trust — the newsletter over the site. I sent them the info. (Incidentally, if you missed one of the latest columns by Lou Lumenick of the NY Post, the initial runs of those Forbidden Hollywood sets are on *pressed* discs, if anyone is interested…)
They said when in doubt trust the email newsletter over the site as far as information on what’s remastered, but obviously that’s problematic if you don’t have an email box full of newsletters to refer to. Also, if the disc has the “marquee” style menu and not the plain blue menu, that means it’s remastered, but of course you can only find out after the purchase in that event.
I guess there is some disconnect between the Archive and the WB Shop where the discs are actually sold, and am told there will be improvements regarding the site and the accuracy of their listings starting next week, but I’m frankly disappointed that the remastering info is, at the moment, very difficult to find in a reliable place. The red labels made it so simple! And it was a good selling point for them — I have been much more likely to upgrade a TV recording if they remastered the print.
I would encourage everyone who patronizes the Archive to keep their eyes open for this issue and to communicate with the site’s Customer Service, Facebook, and/or @WarnerArchive (on Twitter) if you find future discrepancies between the promotional material and the site listings, to make sure they actually address this problem and give consumers accurate purchase info regarding what’s remastered and what’s not. They seem pretty responsive to consumers and are good about communicating on social media so if they hear from a few people about discrepancies or lack of info, I think the issue will be more likely to be resolved promptly.
In the meantime, you can buy THE HANGING TREE knowing it’s been remastered.
Best wishes,
Laura
Warner Archive seems to be quite good about their customer relations.
Wrote them recently (via Facebook) about The Bounty Hunter (1954). Turns out they’re considering a 3-D version — which would be the picture’s 3-D debut. Guess it all depends on how Dial M For Murder, House Of Wax, etc. pan out.
I’m happy to hear they’re at least thinking about this movie!
Its good to know they are considering THE BOUNTY HUNTER in any form,
although released “flat” the film is filled with” comin at ya gimmicks”
Warners are also rumored to have a 3D scope master (never released)
of THE COMMAND in their vaults.
Mike Khuns I do not feel SITTING BULL is worth getting as a “forced” subtitle
French version;time has not been kind to this film.
A widescreen version was released in Germany on a budget imprint
picture quality; OK nothing more.
Johnny Guitar if you are out there was your copy of SEVENTH CAVALRY
subtitle free?
Toby,regarding AT GUNPOINT I do wish the Archive would have another
Allied-Artists widescreen wave. I am thinking about titles like THE TALL:
STRANGER,OREGON PASSAGE,COLE YOUNGER GUNFIGHTER,
and GUNSMOKE IN TUSCON.At least we KNOW the Archive will not
insult us with pan & scans!
On The Command, I think they shot it Scope (released) and 3-D academy (not released). From my research, it was not Scope AND 3-D in the same print.
From David Butler’s oral history:
David Butler: “For 3-D, we had to line the people straight back because the dimension went that way, and in CinemScope we had to stretch them out. Every scene had to be staged differently. We would wind up with two pictures.”
This reminds me of the recent TCM showing of “The Tall Stranger” st. Joel McCrea, I had looked forward to recording this to get what I thought would be a widescreen version. BUT, shock of shocks, TCM showed a pan-scan version! How disappointed I was. It’s available widescreen in PAL format, so I thought they’d probably use that as their source. Nope. As for the Sidonis “7th Cavalry”, as of this moment, I still have not received it. They told me last week to wait until July 26 and see if I don’t get it by then. So I’m waiting in suspense for it. Probably more suspense than the movie will provide. I have a couple different versions of “At Gunpoint” I got from 2 different dealers. I think this is the one where the first version I had seem to have the very end edited at the most critical moment. Just as Fred MacMurray was about to draw, the picture switched to a cut of the bad guys shooting and then the next thing you see is Fred laying on the ground. I never even saw Fred draw. That’s why I got another version from a different more professional dealer. I did get in all the Alpha Roy Rogers DVDs I ordered from Oldies.com. I ordered a bunch of b/w Roy movies I didn’t have before and that color version of “Springtime Sierras” movie.
Paging Mike Kuhns, I just checked on Amazon Germany and see that
SITTING BULL has skyrocketed in price to a massive 30 Euros.
Mine was really cheap when I purchased it some time back.
I guess the thing must now be deleted!
I loved this film as a kid but it now seems such a mess despite all the
films good intentions. I really like Dale Robertson but this film is all over
the place IMHO.Also there are a few cheap non scope versions of this
film out there on dodgy PD imprints.
At least the Sidonis version should be the best yet; provided you are
able to disable the forced subs.
I only have one Sidonis title, purchased through Amazon.es, which doesn’t have forced subtitles. All of the others have them, like most French releases.
I’ve never found a DVD of SITTING BULL that wasn’t pan and scan and poor quality, so it will be nice to have one available that’s of decent quality. COMANCHE isn’t a particularly highly regarded Western either, but the more the merrier.
The trouble with SITTING BULL is that it clocks in at a massive 105
minutes. The romantic interludes between Robertson and Mary Murphy
are tedious to say the least.As history the film is nonsense and would
have been better if it had been made by Sam Katzman clocking in at
around 74 minutes.I watched Katzmans JACK McCALL DESPERADO
(also directed by Sidney Salkow) the other day which is total fantasy
from a factual point of view but it is fast moving fun;great entertainment.
As a widescreen spectacle SITTING BULL does have its moments but
in the end done in by its extreme length.
Perhaps Sidonis supply de-subtitled DVDs to other territories;but then
you generally pay more for them.COMANCHE should eventually appear
on MGMs MOD series;although there has been some concern if this
series still exists.