The Hanging Tree

Gary Cooper plays a frontier doctor with a checkered past who works in a rowdy Montana mining camp. Cooper falls in love with Maria Schell, a young Swiss girl whom he has treated for shock after she was the victim of a holdup. He finances Schell's grubstake, which makes her rich. When Schell's ...more

The Hanging Tree is one of three outstanding Westerns adapted from the stories of Dorothy Johnson. As in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and A Man Called Horse, Johnson is more interested in reexamining the clichés of the West than in telling a conventional story. Not fully appreciated by critics at the time of its release, Hanging Tree features excellent, sure-handed direction from Delmer Daves, solid performances from stars Gary Cooper and Maria Schell, and a strong screenplay by Wendell ...more