Clint Eastwood is best known for playing the Man With No Name in Sergio Leone’s Dollars Trilogy.
But the 94-year-old Hollywood legend starred in many other classic Westerns, including 1968’s Hang ‘Em High, which he chose after turning down Once Upon a Time in the West and Mackenna’s Gold.
Set in 1873 Oklahoma, this revisionist Western sees Eastwood play Jed Cooper, who survives a hanging at a lynching after is being mistaken for a murder.
Vowing revenge on the corrupt lawman who carried out the injustice, he takes up a job as a Deputy US Marshal who is determined to restore law and order to the region.
Pat Hingle co-stars as the federal judge who hires him and is based on Judge Isaac C Parker, a real-life historical figure who was called the Hanging Judge due to the number of men he sentenced to death in 19th century Arkansas. Many federal marshals were killed under Parker’s reign, so Hang ‘Em High accurately depicts just how dangerous the job was. Eastwood’s Swedish co-star, Inger Stevens, had never heard of him prior to filming, but that didn’t stop her from succumbing to his charms, and the pair ended up having an affair on set.
After the shoot had finished she told director Ted Post: “Anytime you do a picture with Clint and there’s a part in it, call me.” Tragically this wasn’t to be as she died just two years later at 35.
Hang ‘Em High is leaving Amazon Prime Video within the next 30 days.