Review of Hangman's Knot

Although much admired in its day, "Hangman's Knot" (1952), is not one of my favorite Scott-Brown westerns. Critics love screenplays which preserve the Greek unities of time, place and plot, but, frankly, Scott and his comrades were holed up in the stage station for so long that I got tired of waiting for them to break out. Especially as many, if not all the characters, are compounded of the old, overly familiar clichés; e.g. nurse devoted to duty (Donna Reed), soldier doing his best to balance conflicting loyalties (Scott), untried youth overcoming scruples (Claude Jarman, Jr.), shoot first and always no-account (Lee Marvin), white man selling out to the Indians (Richard Denning), spry old gent bursting with philosophy (Clem Bevans), and the lust for gold making fiends of most all (Ray Teal and company). On the other hand, this is the only big-screen effort directed by writer-producer Roy Huggins, so it has curiosity appeal.