rogerblake-281-718819 Robert.E.Lee only surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia so in Nevada which was in the far West robbing a Union gold train a month later would still have been a legal military operation.Also using dynamite was an anachronism as it wasn't patented till 1867.And where did Scott and his men get their spanking new Henry rifles from? In reality if the South had had such weapons the outcome of the war may have been vastly different.However when did Hollywood let the truth get in the way of a cracking good story and this certainly is one.Scott was one of the great westerners,tall and rugged always seemed to be about forty five years old.Rarely a take your shirt off merchant one of the exceptions being Carson City which showed what a fine physique he had.His quiet good natured characters were a pleasant contrast to John Wayne's extroverts.Lee Marvin has a typical role as a loose cannon obviously suffering from the traumas of war.His fist fight with Scott (or his double) was very well staged.Marvin played a similar character in "The Raid" in which his commanding officer solves the problem by shooting him out of hand.The plot concerns Scott and his men robbing a Union gold shipment not realising that the war is over.They hide out in a staging post surrounded by some drifters who are after the gold for themselves.Among the passengers is the lovely Donna Reed and yes Scott gets the girl,who worries about a twenty four year age gap? The action sequences directed by the great Yakima Canutt are far superior to the average western of the time.It is the only western directed by Roy Huggins,why he never continued to make main stream films is a mystery to me,he was lost to television.Scott made some outstanding westerns directed by Andre De Toth and Budd Botticher,this film is by far the best of the rest,a thoroughly entertaining western.

TheLittleSongbird Hangman's Knot may be too short at only an hour and twenty minutes or so, there are one or two scenes that take too long to get going and some of the characters are clichéd(ie. nurse devoted to duty). However, it is a very well made movie, with tight editing, lavish scenery and beautiful photography. The film is beautifully directed, I love the metaphorical title, the script is well-written and intriguing, the opening twenty minutes set the tone of the film brilliantly and the sequence involving the "Rebs" is fantastic. The acting is very good and do a credible job in making us care for their somewhat clichéd characters. Randolph Scott is commanding, Donna Reed is as lovely as ever and Lee Marvin makes a positive impression without stealing his scenes too much. Overall, a very effective and underrated western. 7/10 Bethany Cox

classicsoncall Here's a solid little Randolph Scott number with a fine supporting cast taking place only a few weeks after the Civil War has ended. That's unknown to Major Matt Stewart (Scott), and his band of Rebels at the time they hijack a quarter million dollar gold shipment from a band of Union soldiers. Attempting to outrun the authorities that are soon to follow, they find themselves holed up at a way station with two stagecoach travelers who were on board when the Rebs sought cover for their getaway.Lee Marvin gets a fair amount of screen time as the Major's trigger happy, hot headed second, and the story offers a number of scenes where the two collide verbally and physically. It was somewhat of a breakout role for Marvin, who prior had mainly uncredited film parts and a few TV series appearances. The expected final confrontation between the pair however is interrupted by the young soldier Jamie (Claude Jarman Jr.) watching his commanding officer's back. It was somewhat of a twist to the story for this viewer, as all the while, the film kept making it a point that the young man had never killed anyone before, not even during the war. It brought full circle to a remark the Major made to him early in their story that before they got back home, Jamie would have to find a way to become a man.I guess I'm not used to seeing someone like Donna Reed in a Western, so her appearance took some getting used to. I can't say I was fully convinced with her character falling in love with the Major, considering the circumstances of their involvement with the Rebels, and even more so, the palpable difference in their ages. It didn't hurt that her traveling companion and self professed fiancée (Richard Denning) was such a lout, thereby setting up the comparison between himself and Scott's character.The near finale with the Major against the leader of the outlaw posse (Ray Teal) was somewhat original in it's execution and outcome. Oddly staged, it was surprisingly believable that the villain could be hauled away, stuck in his horse's stirrup. Thinking about it, I wondered how far the horse might have run and what the fate of Teal's character Quincey might have been. Would he have been dragged to death, fallen loose, or left to some other fate? Curious to ponder if nothing else.Ultimately, the Major vindicates himself in his sweetheart's eyes when he and his partner Jamie drop their saddlebags of gold bars. You kind of wondered what would happen with all that gold, and in some measure, I still do. Left with the station agent and his daughter in law, there wasn't much in the neighborhood they could do with it all.

bkoganbing Randolph Scott leads a group of Confederate raiders who rob a gold shipment and kill the Union Cavalry escort. Before one of them dies though, he informs the group that the Civil War's been over for a few weeks. They're outlaws now.That fact is brought home when a group of "deputies" lead by Ray Teal and Guinn Williams go out hunting the Confederates. They're not law officers in fact, but raiders looking to steal the gold and kill Scott and his crew. Scott and his crew take shelter in a stagecoach station and the fun begins.Everybody's in conflict here. Randolph Scott has eyes for stage passenger Donna Reed and her fiancée Richard Denning doesn't like it. Lee Marvin, who's one of Scott's men, also has eyes for Reed and willing to take a direct approach. The folks who run the station, Clem Bevans and Jeanette Nolan, don't like being caught up in the shooting at their station, but don't like the Confederates in particular as their Union sympathizers and Nolan's husband and son have both been killed in the war. Even the bad guys are arguing over just what approach to take in dealing with the Confederates and none of them trust the others. All this with the two groups shooting at each other.For 81 minutes a lot of plot is packed in and it's nicely done. Very tight editing, not a word or action wasted. Randolph Scott stands rigidly as the moral centerpiece of the film. Donna Reed, a year away from her Academy Award in From Here To Eternity, does well as a former Union Army nurse going west with her fiancée Richard Denning whom she learns is not all he seems. Lee Marvin gives a harbinger of things to come with his portrayal of a man quite ready and eager to become an outlaw.One of Randolph Scott's best westerns.