# The Hanging Tree (1959 film)
**The Hanging Tree** is a 1959 American Western film directed by Delmer Daves, starring [Gary Cooper](https://www.edgepedia.org/gary-cooper) as Dr. Joseph "Doc" Frail, a frontier physician with a violent past who arrives in a lawless Montana gold-mining camp. The film was adapted by Wendell Mayes and Halsted Welles from Dorothy M. Johnson's 1957 novelette of the same name, and it was produced by Baroda Productions, a company owned by Cooper, and distributed by [Warner Bros. Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/warner-bros-pictures).[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | February 1959; New York opening 11 Feb 1959; 106 minutes, Technicolor, 1.85:1 widescreen, RCA Sound[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) |
| Source | Novelette *The Hanging Tree* by Dorothy M. Johnson (New York, 1957); screenplay by Wendell Mayes and Halsted Welles[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) |
| Principal cast | Gary Cooper (Doc Frail), Maria Schell (Elizabeth Mahler), Karl Malden (Frenchy Plante), George C. Scott (Dr. George Grubb), Ben Piazza (Rune)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) |
| Production | Baroda Productions, Inc.; filmed near Yakima, Washington, 17 Jun to 13 Aug 1958, on a budget of $1.35 million[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree) |
| Directing change | Daves fell ill on 25 Jul 1958; co-star Karl Malden took over directing, with Vincent Sherman co-directing on 30 Jul 1958 only[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) |
| Music | Score by Max Steiner; title song by Jerry Livingston and Mack David, sung by Marty Robbins, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) |
| Debuts | First screen appearances of George C. Scott and Ben Piazza, and the first film from the producing team of Martin Jurow and Richard Shepherd[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in Skull Creek, a transient, lawless Montana gold-mining camp of the 1870s.[3](https://www.cineaste.com/winter2012/from-the-archives-the-hanging-tree) Dr. Joseph "Doc" Frail, a drifter whose background is unknown to the townspeople, buys a cabin on the hill above town and sets up practice. When Rune, a young wanderer, tries to steal a gold nugget from a sluice box and is shot by a pursuing mob, Frail rescues the injured man and demands that he become his bond servant in payment, threatening to expose him as a thief if he refuses.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE)
Frail proves a compassionate physician but can be imperious and severe with others; the town storekeeper Tom Flaunce remarks that "Doc carries his soul in his doctor's bag." After a stagecoach is attacked by robbers and careens over a cliff, a search party led by the prospector Frenchy Plante finds the sole survivor, Elizabeth Mahler, whom Frail nurses back to health, removing her bandages after weeks of treatment for temporary blindness.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) • [4](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/77288) Once she recovers, Frail dismisses her and Rune, and the two form a mining partnership with Frenchy, striking it rich in a stake they call the "Lucky Lady" mine. When the drunken, lustful Frenchy tries to rape Elizabeth during the town celebration, a chain of events leads to a fateful encounter between Frail and a lynch mob at the hanging tree.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree)
## Production
The film was a Baroda Production, a company owned by Gary Cooper for the purpose of selecting and producing hand-picked projects, and Cooper's daughter Maria Cooper Janis later wrote that the film was particularly close to his heart, resonating with his Montana childhood and giving him a chance to play a much darker role than audiences were used to.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree) • [5](https://www.garycooper.com/blog/the-hanging-tree-xgrp7-s8dpa) Daves, who had directed well-regarded Westerns such as *[Jubal](https://www.edgepedia.org/jubal)* (1956), *3:10 to Yuma* (1957), and *The Badlanders* (1958), was chosen to direct.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree)
**Filming.** The picture was shot on location near [Yakima, Washington](https://www.edgepedia.org/yakima-washington), from mid-June to mid-August 1958, with the mining town of Skull Creek built for the production; specific locations included Nile, Yakima, and Goose Prairie, Washington.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052876/locations/) The town set was built south of Little Rattlesnake Creek near Nile; nothing remains of it, but the site became known as Hanging Tree Campground.[7](https://sites.google.com/view/washingtonstatefilmlocations/filmsblog/the-hanging-tree-1959) During filming Cooper suffered hip pain from an earlier career injury, which made riding difficult and produced his character's distinctive lean to the left in the saddle, a physical habit Cooper incorporated into Frail's characterization.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree)
**The directing change.** According to the film's daily production reports, Daves's last day on the production was 25 July 1958, after which he became too ill to direct and was hospitalized for ulcers. [Karl Malden](https://www.edgepedia.org/karl-malden), who had recently directed his first film, *Time Limit* (1957), was approached to complete the film despite reservations; Cooper encouraged him and offered his support, and Malden guided the film through the end of post-production recording. Vincent Sherman served as co-director on 30 July 1958 only.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree) Malden later recalled that Cooper could not be directed in words: told how a scene should be done, Cooper said "Show me," and Malden acted it out with [Maria Schell](https://www.edgepedia.org/maria-schell) before Cooper performed exactly what was wanted.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree)
## Cast and reception
The film marked the screen debuts of [George C. Scott](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-c-scott), in the scene-stealing role of Dr. George Grubb, a wild-eyed religious fanatic and alcoholic, and of the playwright and stage actor Ben Piazza as Rune. Maria Schell, an Austrian actress, made her first American film as Elizabeth Mahler, a role TCM's Jeff Stafford describes as more complex than those usually given to women in Westerns.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree) • [5](https://www.garycooper.com/blog/the-hanging-tree-xgrp7-s8dpa)
On release the film received respectable reviews but was not a big box office hit; Bosley Crowther of *The New York Times* wrote that Daves had directed the gold camp action for "a great deal of clatter and bang" and that the story was "absorbing to the end."[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree) The Variety review of 28 January 1959 praised the cast's performances while finding that the title song, though good, suffered by comparison with the realism of the final scene.[8](https://www.mtosmt.org/classic/mto.03.9.1/mto.03.9.1.sayrs.html) On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film holds 89% on the Tomatometer from 9 reviews and 73% on the audience Popcornmeter from more than 1,000 ratings.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hanging_tree)
## Music
[Max Steiner](https://www.edgepedia.org/max-steiner) wrote the score, and the title song, with music by Jerry Livingston and lyrics by [Mack David](https://www.edgepedia.org/mack-david), was sung by [Marty Robbins](https://www.edgepedia.org/marty-robbins) over the opening and closing credits; it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE) A music-theoretical study notes that unlike *High Noon* (1952), where the title song expresses what the stoic hero cannot say, in *The Hanging Tree* the song is meant to be the story itself, and "hanging tree themes" musically saturate the film even though the tree itself does not appear frequently on screen.[8](https://www.mtosmt.org/classic/mto.03.9.1/mto.03.9.1.sayrs.html)
## Legacy
Underrated at the time of its release, the film is now considered a superior Western from the waning years of the genre, and one of Cooper's best performances from his final decade, comparable to his work in *High Noon* (1952) and *[Man of the West](https://www.edgepedia.org/man-of-the-west)* (1958).[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree) It was Daves's last Western, and the entry in *The BFI Companion to the Western* calls it his most complex and ambitious film, praising its dramatic use of space; TCM notes that its detailed depiction of the mining camp looks ahead to [Robert Altman](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-altman)'s *McCabe and Mrs. Miller* (1971).[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree) • [3](https://www.cineaste.com/winter2012/from-the-archives-the-hanging-tree) A Cambridge volume on Daves's career treats the film, alongside *The Red House* (1947) and *Spencer's Mountain* (1963), as evidence that his interest in social progress was a sustained concern across genres and decades.[10](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/refocus-the-films-of-delmer-daves/changing-societies-the-red-house-the-hanging-tree-spencers-mountain-and-postwar-america/2C3A854EE3F7E2F14D725581D4991029)
## References
1. [The Hanging Tree (1959), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/53715-THE-HANGING-TREE)
2. [Jeff Stafford, "The Hanging Tree" (2010), Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/359257/the-hanging-tree)
3. [Leonard Quart, "From the Archives: The Hanging Tree," Cineaste Magazine, Winter 2012](https://www.cineaste.com/winter2012/from-the-archives-the-hanging-tree)
4. [The Hanging Tree (1959), TCM movie page](https://www.tcm.com/watchtcm/titles/77288)
5. ["The Hanging Tree," Gary Cooper official site, notes by Maria Cooper Janis](https://www.garycooper.com/blog/the-hanging-tree-xgrp7-s8dpa)
6. [The Hanging Tree (1959), Filming & production, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052876/locations/)
7. [Washington State Film Locations: The Hanging Tree (1959)](https://sites.google.com/view/washingtonstatefilmlocations/filmsblog/the-hanging-tree-1959)
8. [Elizabeth Sayrs, "Narrative, Metaphor, and Conceptual Blending in 'The Hanging Tree,'" Music Theory Online 9.1 (2003)](https://www.mtosmt.org/classic/mto.03.9.1/mto.03.9.1.sayrs.html)
9. [The Hanging Tree, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hanging_tree)
10. ["Changing Societies: The Red House, The Hanging Tree, Spencer's Mountain, and Post-war America," ReFocus: The Films of Delmer Daves, Cambridge University Press](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/refocus-the-films-of-delmer-daves/changing-societies-the-red-house-the-hanging-tree-spencers-mountain-and-postwar-america/2C3A854EE3F7E2F14D725581D4991029)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Westerns before 1980 › Released 1930 to 1960*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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