Randolph Scott is Matt Stewart, major for a Confederate patrol given the mission of stealing a Union gold shipment in Nevada.
What he and his men don’t know until after they’ve killed a dozen Union soldiers it that the war ended a month earlier.
Now Scott and his men find themselves on the run, but with a small fortune in gold in their saddle bags.
They wind up holed up in a stage station, besieged by a posse that might be more interested in the gold than justice.
The major’s band includes the hot-headed, kill-happy Rolph Bainter (Lee Marvin) and a young man named Jamie (Claude Jarman Jr.) who’s unproven under fire.
Also in the stage station is Molly (Donna Reed), a pretty young woman who happened to be on a stage the Rebels highjacked, and her wanna-be fiancee Lee Kemper.
What to do with the gold poses another problem. Some of Stewart’s men would like to split it up among them as war bounty.
Some of the neutrals, Molly included, think he should turn it over to authorities, especially if he’s telling the truth about not knowing the war was over.
The major would prefer to take the gold back South, where he’s sure it’s needed to help rebuild after the war.
Randolph Scott as Maj. Matt Stewart, whose men rob a gold shipment and kill a dozen Union soldiers before learning the war had already ended in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Donna Reed as Molly Hull, a former Union nurse who finds herself sympathizing with Maj. Stewart’s plight in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Review:
The film has Randolph Scott in the lead role, and that’s a plus. Most of the movie takes place inside the stage station, as the major tries to keep him men alive and tries to come up with a way to escape the posse waiting outside.
In addition to the major’s band, Molly and Kemper, those inside include the old-timer who runs the station and his daughter, a bitter woman who has lost both her husband and her son to the Civil War and views the Rebel intruders with hatred.
The major tries to convince the those around him that he truly didn’t know the war was over, that any killing that resulted from the raid on the gold shipment was a case of soldier vs. soldier.
Slowly, the neutrals in the stage station start to believe the major’s story. Some of them might even help him try to escape what looks like a death trap.
Claude Jarman Jr. as Jamie Groves, the youngest of Stewart’s men and one reluctant to kill in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Lee Marvin as Rolph Bainter, a man who’s developed a mean streak fighting for the Confederacy in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Directed by:
Roy Huggins
Cast:
Randolph Scott … Major Matt Stewart
Donna Reed … Molly Hull
Claude Jarman Jr. … Jamie Groves
Frank Faylen … Cass Browne
Glenn Langan … Capt. Peterson
Richard Denning … Lee Kemper
Lee Marvin … Rolph Bainter
Jeanette Nolan … Martha
Clem Bevans … Plunkett, station agent
Ray Teal … Quincey
Guinn Williams … Smitty
Runtime: 81 min.
Guinn Williams as Smitty and Ray Teal as Quincey, members of a posse who want the gold more than the men who stole it in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Clem Bevans as Plunkett, the station manager, and Jeanette Nolan as his embittered daughter Martha in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Memorable lines:
Martha: “Anything I can do to see you Southern butchers killed, I’ll do it.”
Major: “You oughta be grateful I don’t kill him. He (Lee Kemper) gave his word and broke it. Do you like him for it?”
Molly: “Yes.”
Major: “I hope you mean it, because you’ve got to live with him.”
Station agent: “There ain’t nothing you or anybody else can do for her. This ain’t anything new for Marthy. When her man was killed (in the Civil War), her boy joined up. He never come again. And she’s made herself old and sick with hating ever since. I’ve learned to leave her be.”
Frank Faylen as Cass Browne, wondering what’s going to happen to the gold once the truth is revealed in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
John Call as Egan Walsh, one of the men trapped in the stage station with Maj. Stewart in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Maj. Stewart: “Is it that easy to kill a man?”
Rolph Bainter: “Well, isn’t it? What else have we been doing for the last five years?”
Cass Browne, as Stewart and his men are trapped in a stage station: “You got any plans?”
Maj. Stewart: “Yeah. We go out shooting. Sometime tomorrow.”
Browne: “Wish I hadn’t asked.”
Rolph Bainter to Lee Kemper: “You so much as bat an eye and I’ll shoot it right out of your head.”
Donna Reed as Molly Hull, trying to fend off the advances of Rolph Bainter in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Glenn Langan as Capt. Peterson, mastermind behind a gold theft too late to help the Confederacy in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Richard Denning as Lee Kemper, a man who wants Martha and a share of the gold in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
Lee Marvin as Rolph Bainter and Randolph Scott as Maj. Matt Stewart, looking for a way out of a surrounded stage station in Hangman’s Knot (1952)
){kind=link}