Hangman's Knot (1952)

Film: Hangman's Knot (1952)

Stars: Randolph Scott, Donna Reed, Claude Jarman, Jr., Frank Faylen, Lee Marvin

Director: Roy Huggins

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2022 Saturdays with the Stars series, we highlight a different Classical Hollywood star who made their name in the early days of television.  This month, our focus is on Donna Reed: click here to learn more about Ms. Reed (and why I picked him), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Today we're going to continue our journey with Donna Reed oddly with another western (this was not intentional, as this wasn't exactly a staple of Reed's filmography, but last week's first choice became unavailable so I had to pinch hit with Apache Trail to hit our deadline): Hangman's Knot.  It is filmed a decade after last week, and a lot happened between the two films.  For starters, Reed made during this time the most famous film of her career It's a Wonderful Life, which was nominated for multiple Oscars including Best Picture and Best Actor, but wasn't something that Reed herself would gain a citation for despite it being probably the best role of her career.  This wasn't a hit for MGM, where she was under contract, though (It's a Wonderful Life was made when she was on loan to RKO), and the quality of her roles didn't improve, perhaps in part because the movie was not commercially successful at the time (it gained much of its popularity when it fell into public domain & became a Christmas classic in the years ahead).  Eventually, tired of playing the same wife & girlfriend roles, Reed moved to Columbia, and made a number of lower-tier films (and one classic we'll discuss next week which would become her other signature film role), one of which was Hangman's Knot.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about a group of confederate soldiers who find out in Nevada in 1865 that the war has ended (and they lost).  They also have intercepted a large amount of gold, which their commanding officer Major Matt Stewart (Scott) thinks they should give back to the Confederacy to help rebuild, while his compatriots, specifically Rolph Bainter (Marvin) thinks it would be better in his pocket.  As they are headed back, they come across both a group of bandits who are looking for the gold thieves (and more importantly, the gold), and a stagecoach that's carrying two people (unmarried), including a war nurse for the Union, Molly Hull (Reed).  They take the two, along with a station agent & his daughter, hostage while they hole up in a small building, trying to stave off the bandits who return & are looking for the gold.  This results in a showdown not just outside, but in, as Rolph wants to take the gold & Molly for himself, even though Matt Stewart has similar designs.  In the end, the bigger name on the marquee wins, and Matt Stewart gets the girl and brings the gold back to Virginia.

The movie is honestly pretty good.  I have always struggled with Randolph Scott as an actor (I have heard his movies with Budd Boetticher are what will change your mind about him, and they're on the list but I haven't gotten there yet), but you don't really need him to be good to enjoy this movie.  The Technicolor is beautiful, gorgeous vistas shot in the famed Corriganville Movie Ranch (most-noted for being where the John Ford classic Fort Apache was made).  Our Star of the Month Donna Reed doesn't get a lot to do, it's worth noting.  She kind of just serves as the love interest once again, not a lot different from her days at MGM, and I suspect looking into 1953 she was hoping for different (as we'll discuss next week, she both did & didn't get that).

The best performance in the movie is from Claude Jarman, Jr., who plays the young twink who has never killed a man despite being in the war for years.  Jarman, who was a child star in the 1940's for MGM (he's best known as the boy in The Yearling), was making his first foray into adult film roles with Hangman's Knot, and he has a sensitivity here that stands out.  He wouldn't last as an adult star, though.  He'd make his final film role four years later is Disney's The Great Locomotive Chase, and would soon run the San Francisco International Film Festival and work behind-the-scenes in movies.  At the age of 88, he's one of the last living contract players from MGM in the 1940's.