Michael Ledo This is a 1974 made for TV film, a good old fashion western.Devlin (Steve Forrest) is a free thinking gun slinger who escapes the hangman's noose like Lazarus...sort of. He goes on to help the poor widow Gault (Sharon Acker) save her silver mine. That's about it. No twists. Cameron Mitchell plays the bad guy. "Slicker than bear grease." Available on a 70's 50 film pack.

dukeakasmudge The Hanged Man was a movie pilot for a TV series that was never picked up? You learn something new every day.Also at the start of the movie, it says this movie was produced by Bing Crosby Productions.I never knew Bing Crosby had his own production company so I looked it up & never realized his company produced so many TV shows & movies.Interesting.As for The Hanged Man...... Was this suppose to just be a Western or was there more to it? It seemed like there was a meaning behind the movie (If you get a 2nd chance at life, take it & make the most of it, Miracles are just second chances, etc, etc, etc) or am I just reading way too much into it? There were a few scenes that made me think & seemed like they had some type of meaning to them.I just can't figure it out. The Hanged Man is worth taking a look at least once if you're a Western fan.If you're not then I'll leave it up to you.It is an interesting movie.I LOVED that fiery ending

rixrex This was to be a series pilot, but didn't get picked up. The typical way a drama series pilot in the 70s was handled was to make it long enough to end up as a movie of the week, so if it didn't get picked up as a series, then at least some production money was recouped. I saw this after seeing The Lazarus Man series, and was surprised at the similarities. This one is typical TV western fare, older gunslinger sees the evil of his ways, and turns into good gunslinger, yet always full of angst about the old ways. The whole idea of a hanged man returning to life was merely a contrivance to make things more interesting. I must say I missed the whole mind-reading ability thing. It wasn't evident apparently because there were plenty of times the lead didn't read someone's mind when if he had, he would have saved himself a lot of trouble. By the way, this movie shows why Cameron Mitchell should always be remembered as the epitome of hammy acting.

Woodyanders Rugged Steve Forrest gives a properly steely and stalwart performance as James Devlin, a tough, cynical gunfighter who after miraculously surviving a hanging decides to dedicate his life to doing good instead of bad. Devlin comes to the aid of Carrie Gault (the engagingly spunky Sharon Acker), a feisty widow who's being pushed around by evil land baron Lew Halleck (a smoothly hateful Cameron Mitchell). Director Michael Caffey makes the most out of Ken Trevey's interesting script; he coaxes fine acting from a solid cast, maintains a snappy pace and compellingly mysterious mood throughout, and stages the thrilling shoot outs with a reasonable amount of flair and skill (the final confrontation between Devlin and Halleck is especially tense and exciting). Keith C. Smith's polished cinematography gives the movie a plausibly dusty, gritty look while Richard Markowitz's spare, spooky, stirring score likewise hits the spot. Popping up in nice supporting roles are Dean Jagger as a kindly lawyer, Will Geer as a nutty, rascally old ranch hand, Rafael Campos as a naive young priest, and Hank Worden as a chatty, friendly old geezer. An offbeat and intriguing allegory on fate and redemption, "The Hanged Man" is well worth checking out.