FILM · 1968 · USA
Hang 'Em High
39 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (39)
- #001
Clint Eastwood, playing Marshal Jed Cooper, wore the same gun belt and holster he had used in the "Dollars Trilogy" (the three "Spaghetti Westerns" directed by Sergio Leone) and in the Hogan role in Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970).
- #002
This was Clint Eastwood's first leading role in a Hollywood film, and he was already 38 years old. Hang 'Em High also marked Eastwood's first job as a producer: with his friend Leonard Freeman he founded Malpaso Productions (Spanish for "bad step," an irony Eastwood enjoyed) as a company lent out to help independent filmmakers, and he never imagined it would grow into a full-scale production company.
- #003
Clint Eastwood had relationships with Inger Stevens and Arlene Golonka during filming.
- #004
The monthly salary of 250.00 US dollars offered to Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) as a deputy US marshal in 1889 would be equivalent to about 7,942.00 US dollars in 2022 (95,304.00 US dollars a year).
- #005
Clint Eastwood turned down both the big-budget films Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Mackenna's Gold (1969) in favor of Hang 'Em High.
- #006
Writers Mel Goldberg and Leonard Freeman were first told that Clint Walker had been cast in the lead, and they were deeply disappointed when they learned it was actually Clint "Easterwood" [sic]. The Dollars Trilogy had not yet been released in the United States, and Eastwood was not big enough to play the Clint Walker role. Needless to say, it worked out very well.
- #007
United Artists executives suggested experienced action directors such as John Sturges and Robert Aldrich, but Clint Eastwood gave the directing reins to Ted Post, who had directed twenty-four episodes of Rawhide (1959) and was very good with dialogue. The Rawhide (1959) episodes Post directed had featured Charles McGraw, Ed Begley, Bruce Dern and Pat Hingle.
- #008
The exterior scenes of Fort Grant and the courthouse were shot on MGM's famous Western Street on Lot #3, a popular location for film and television productions. Many Twilight Zone (1959) stories were shot on this set because it could pass as a "cowboy-style" town and also as an urban street from the turn of the century. Similar sets on the same lot were Billy the Kid Street and Ghost Town Street.
- #009
Producer Leonard Freeman was greatly impressed by James MacArthur's professionalism, needing only a single take for his scenes as The Preacher. Shortly afterward Freeman realized he needed an actor to play Danny Williams in his new series Hawaii Five-O (1968); Tim O'Kelly, who played the role in the pilot, had scored poorly with test audiences. Freeman remembered MacArthur's performance in this film and offered him the role of Danny. MacArthur played Danny in eleven of the series' twelve seasons.
- #010
The character of Judge Adam Fenton was partly based on Judge Isaac Parker, whose federal court in Fort Smith, Arkansas, held jurisdiction over Oklahoma and Indian Territory.
- #011
The old man Jenkins, who surrenders to the judge, is played by Bob Steele. Steele was a master of Western films who even starred in his own "B" Western series. When he died in 1988, his screen career had lasted more than 50 years and he had appeared in more than 200 feature films and television episodes, including the role of the butler Canino in the film noir The Big Sleep (1946).
- #012
Sergio Leone was approached to direct this film, but he turned down the offer because he was working on Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) at the time.
- #013
Ed Begley and Inger Stevens died in Hollywood in April 1970, two days apart. Begley died of a heart attack at 69, and Stevens died by suicide at 35; in the same way, Captain Wilson (Begley) also dies in this film. Stevens was the first of three of Clint Eastwood's leading co-stars to die by suicide; the others were Jean Seberg (Paint Your Wagon (1969)), who took an overdose of barbiturates in 1979, and Elizabeth Hartman (The Beguiled (1971)), who jumped from a fifth-floor window in 1987.
- #014
Screenwriter Mel Goldberg and director Ted Post were reunited in 2013 when they happened to be neighbors in rehab. They celebrated Ted's 95th birthday together.
- #015
Producer Leonard Freeman found the tree to be used for the hanging in the opening scene about 19 kilometers north of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The opening lynching scene was shot beside the Rio Grande. The tree used for the hanging is no longer standing, and the riverbed is now covered with thick brush.
- #016
Following the success of Italian Westerns, Clint Eastwood (whose company served as co-producer) set out to imitate the "spaghetti style." As a result, this film is often mistaken for one of the Italian-made "Spaghetti Westerns." The exterior shooting was done mostly in Arizona and New Mexico.
- #017
The federal court with jurisdiction over Indian Territory was in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Oklahoma Territory was created a year after this story begins, in 1890, from the western part of Indian Territory. The real-life "hanging judge" was Isaac Parker, who was not a great admirer of execution, but the death penalty was mandatory. Judge Parker had a tall wooden fence built around the gallows to prevent the spectator crowd from watching. There is a courthouse museum in Fort Smith, and a Federal Police Officer museum is being built nearby.
- #018
This was the first of Pat Hingle's three feature films with Clint Eastwood, the others being The Gauntlet (1977) and Sudden Impact (1983). Each film was made in a different decade: one in the '60s, one in the '70s and one in the '80s. The two also worked together on 'The Book' (s7e14), a television episode of The Book (1965). This film and Sudden Impact (1983) show Eastwood as a tough lawman on the edge of prudence and Hingle as his superior, who regards his way of doing things with great disdain.
- #019
Judging by the white flames on their noses, Eastwood rides three different red horses after he is arrested and hired: one for the in-town scenes and two for the countryside and desert scenes.
- #020
Since this film marked the beginning of the "Modern" Western era (with a darker and more serious feel), it is fitting that it stars Clint Eastwood, the new giant of modern Western films, and includes the off-screen death of a character played by Ben Johnson (Marshal Bliss), the star of the previous "John Wayne" era of Westerns.
- #021
Before taking on the role of The Skipper on Gilligan's Island (1964), Alan Hale, Jr. worked as a Western character actor. Surviving Gilligan's Island: The Incredibly True Story of the Longest Three-Hour Tour in History (2001) dramatizes how Hale left a Western film set to travel to Los Angeles to read for the part.
- #022
Roxanne Tunis, long rumored to be Eastwood's former mistress, appears as an extra.
- #023
This film represents what could be called the fourth phase of Western stars. The first was represented by William S. Hart, who in silent films played highly dramatic versions of the Western hero and had actually grown up in the days of the Wild West (even though Hart was in fact born in New York); his era was one in which the new film medium offered adventure at a time when three-quarters of Americans still lived in rural settings. The second were the singing cowboys such as Gene Autry, who offered a very carefree and stylized image that provided both entertainment and escape during the hard years of the Great Depression. The third was represented by John Wayne, who played serious figures in serious situations in keeping with the mood of the postwar period; his reign, spanning roughly three decades, was along with Wayne's the longest to date. In this film Clint Eastwood introduced a cowboy greatly modernized, in stories very similar to John Wayne's films but far more serious. His lean frame and flat, wide-brimmed hat (bearing a strong resemblance to the Hipshot character in the popular Rick O'Shay comic strip) brought new life to a genre whose popularity had greatly declined in a society where the baby boomers were coming of age.
- #024
Character actress Arlene Golonka played a remarkably varied range of roles over her career. Within just five years, she played a bumbling virgin nurse on the television series M*A*S*H (1972), a sweet bakery clerk on The Andy Griffith Show (1960), and an Old West prostitute in this film.
- #025
Famed character actor James Westerfield plays a shiftless prisoner awaiting hanging at Fort Grant. A versatile performer, he played the federal judge in True Grit (1969).
- #026
Dennis Hopper, who plays the crazed prisoner locked in the feed and grain warehouse, was only a few months away from starting production on Easy Rider (1969).
- #027
The Tumbleweed Wagon, which plays a significant role throughout the film, takes its name from a similar prison wagon in the first episode of Clint Eastwood's famous series Rawhide (1959).
- #028
Before this film, Ted Post had made only three theatrical features in his first 18 years as a director: The Peacemaker (1956), The Return of Phileas Fogg (1957) and The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959). The vast majority of his directing work was in television. He had previously worked with Eastwood on the series Rawhide (1959) and was clearly influenced by Sergio Leone's Westerns, but Post adds his own flourishes to this film. His rapid pushing in of faces for bold close-ups and his frantic editing techniques were calculated to unsettle the viewer. The pensive mood and sense of menace are also emphasized by abandoned buildings, swirling dust, the noise of wind on the soundtrack and tumbleweeds blowing through the streets.
- #029
The opening scene recalls Rawhide, the popular Western series that made Clint Eastwood famous.
- #030
Whether out of budget concerns or to avoid on-screen violence, surprisingly much of the action takes place off camera. This includes the killing of Johanson and his wife, the killing of Marshal Bliss, the shooting of the blacksmith Stone, the dangerous transport of the notorious killer the Swede, the knifing death of one of the Captain's men, and the Captain's suicide. The credits roll and the film ends with the Marshal setting off after the two remaining outlaws.
- #031
As the Preacher (James MacArthur) walks to the gallows, he reads Psalms 1:1-3 from the King James Version of the Bible.
- #032
Clint Eastwood appeared in this film alongside Bruce Dern. Eastwood later worked with his daughter Laura on A Perfect World (1993). Laura and Francesca Eastwood appeared in Twin Peaks (2017).
- #033
This film was shot in New Mexico and Arizona but is presented as taking place in Oklahoma in 1889, 18 years before Oklahoma became the 46th state in 1907. Both New Mexico and Arizona were admitted to the Union five years later, in 1912, as the 47th and 48th states respectively.
- #034
Loomis states that he does not know whether he is 37 or 38 years old. The actor L. Q. Jones was about 41 when this film was released.
- #035
Bruce Dern appeared in this film alongside Dennis Hopper, who starred with Dern's daughter Laura in Blue Velvet (1986).
- #036
When the Marshal tries to arrest Reno in the saloon, he tells Reno not to go for his gun and that he needs him alive. But when Reno backs away and tries to draw his gun, the Marshal shoots him 5 times, even though the first shot or two had already successfully prevented Reno from drawing. That is far too many shots for someone the Marshal said he needed alive.
- #037
For the Castilian Spanish dub version, Ernesto Aura was cast as the voice of Clint Eastwood.
- #038
Hang 'Em High was also a novel by Leonard Freeman and Mel Goldberg.
- #039
About 31 minutes in, as Jed (Clint Eastwood) rides toward town, the harmonica in the music appears to be playing the theme song of Gilligan's Island. Alan Hale Jr., the Captain on Gilligan's Island, plays a blacksmith in this film.
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