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HANGED MAN, THE {TELEVISION MOVIE} (TV)

Summary

A television movie about a man seeking revenge on a crooked union organizer for the murder of his friend.

In the small Western town of Jason City, a man inspects the body of Whitey Devlin, who perished in a car explosion the night before and is being kept within a stack of large ice blocks in the town’s ice delivery plant. The man is shaken by the sight of Devlin’s mutilated body and the apparent apathy of the town’s citizens towards his death. He then recovers a key hidden in the town’s train station and uses it to open a P.O. box. Inside is a check for fifty thousand dollars made out by “Arnold Seeger,” along with a small handgun. The man pockets the check and the handgun and decides to hitchhike to New Orleans with a man and his niece heading there for Mardi Gras, festooned with all manner of decorations. The daughter makes a strange proclamation, telling the man to return to his wife and family immediately or he will regret it, although the man claims he is not married. She continues to try to make predictions about him and introduces herself as Celine, accompanied by her Uncle Picaud. They arrive in New Orleans as Celine attempts to perform a tarot reading for the man, and he leaves before she can give him a warning; her readings keep coming up with the “hanged man” card.

The man purchases a souvenir pillow from a gift shop and goes to a hotel looking for Seeger. The hotel clerk refuses to tell him what room Seeger is staying in, so instead the man drops off a package for him. The man manages to overhear Seeger’s room number and bribes the delivery boy into letting him make the drop-off personally. The door is answered by a woman, who claims that Seeger is on his way back from Seattle after settling a union dispute. Seeger is nowhere to be found, and the man, Harry, tells the woman, Seeger’s wife Lois, that Whitey is dead. Meanwhile, Seeger is hounded by reporters at the airport about the more sinister implications of the recent strikes and about accusations that he has misappropriated union funds, although he denies all of this. He is stopped when one of the reporters mentions Whitey’s death; Whitey was his former business manager, and he claims he is “deeply shocked.” Lois claims to Harry that Whitey planned to blackmail Seeger, and that the check, comprising stolen union funds, was meant as a deterrent. She also says she feels as though she is imprisoned in her marriage to Seeger, but Harry is more focused on Whitey’s death. The check could potentially serve as evidence to jail Seeger, but says that Whitey didn’t want to kill Seeger; according to her, Harry was Seeger’s best friend and he wouldn’t want her to suffer punishment for murder either. Lois offers Harry the money if he helps her get away from Seeger, and Harry grimly agrees. She puts the check in his pocket and he leaves.

Outside, Harry encounters a man calling himself Grebb who knows his name and brings him aside to talk. Unbeknownst to Harry, Whitey is actually alive and gets on the phone with Lois as the two plan some sort of scheme. Grebb, working for the government, tells Harry that he saw him at the train station in Jason City and knows he picked up something there, but Harry refuses to tell him anything. Grebb claims that he and the government have been building a case against Seeger for six years, and that his downfall and prosecution is inevitable but could be hastened with Harry’s help. Harry wants nothing to do with Grebb, although Grebb offers to help him discover the identity of Whitey’s killer. Harry still refuses and leaves, even after Grebb threatens to place him in protective custody.

Harry eventually ends up at a local Christian Science Reading Room, where he hides the check within the pages of a long-disused encyclopedia volume. He then searches the streets for a hotel with rooms available, secretly followed by Grebb. Celine finds him and offers to show him a room where he can stay, and takes him to the stable where she and Picaud have parked their car. He is unhappy with her selection but she convinces him to stay with her. An inebriated Picaud returns and allows Harry to stay, although he is unnerved by his presence, calling him “the hanged man.” Celine is convinced based on her tarot reading that something terrible is going to happen to Harry, although he is skeptical and goes to sleep. The next morning, Seeger talks to Lois about the missing check and believes that Harry has it and that he will arrive to see him; he threatens death to Harry if he does not comply. Harry has breakfast with Celine and rejects her offer to spend the day with her. They are approached by Grebbs, who tries to warn Harry not to go through with his plan, but Harry ignores him.

Outside Seeger’s room, Harry has an encounter in the hallway with two of Seeger’s men, who seize his gun and bring him before Seeger and Lois. Harry is roughed up and his gun emptied of bullets before it is returned to him. Seeger and Harry talk in private, and Harry admits that he planned to kill him in revenge for Whitey’s death. Seeger claims that he is not responsible for Whitey’s death, although Harry recounts a number of other “accidents” that Harry orchestrated from afar. Harry tells him about the check, which is for a Swiss bank account and was cancelled. Seeger balks, particularly when Harry tries to blackmail him for a quarter of a million dollars. However, Seeger changes his mind when Harry mentions meeting with Grebb, and Harry promises to contact him when he wants him to deliver the money. Harry leaves, and Seeger promises Lois that Harry will face consequences for his actions. Harry instructs the hotel staff to deliver a letter to Lois without it being seen by Seeger. He finds Grebb and Celine waiting for him in the hotel lobby, and Harry once again ignores Grebb’s warnings and leaves with Celine.

While out shopping with Celine, Harry spots Lois in a costume shop and speaks to her in private. She tells him that Seeger is hastily assembling the money to pay him off, and that he has become frightened by Harry’s return. Celine overhears them as Harry asks Lois to meet him that night at a café in costume so as to avoid attracting attention. Lois leaves, and Celine feels jealousy about his attraction towards Lois. Harry tries to tell her to forget about her superstitions and “magic” in order to face reality, and warns her to stop following him. Lois reports back to Whitey, disguised as a clown, to tell him about her planned meeting with Harry; she has deceived Harry into believing that she intends to run away with him. Whitey leaves when Seeger returns, and soon Grebb arrives and meets with him and Lois. Grebb warns Seeger that his time is nearly at an end due to his investigation, but Seeger is not forthcoming with information and pretends not to know who Harry is, driving Grebb away.

That night the Mardi Gras festivities are in full swing, including a parade. Harry calls Seeger and gives him a time and place where they will make the exchange; Harry specifically requests that Seeger be there in person to conduct it. Lois confirms that Seeger has the money on hand, but Seeger implies that he has something up his sleeve. Harry slips through the parade and tries to enter the Christian Science Reading Room to recover the check, but finds it locked, forcing him to break in to the rear entrance. He retrieves the check and hides it in his shoe before leaving. Outside he is immediately jumped by two of Seeger’s men and he tries to fight them off, but one of them pulls a gun on him and shoots him before Harry kills him with his own gun. Harry stumbles through the Mardi Gras crowd, still pursued by Seeger’s man. Seeger learns that Harry got away and leaves with his money.

Harry eventually wanders back to Celine and Picaud’s stable, and collapses at their door. They and their friends try to tend to his wounds as Grebb makes his way through the Mardi Gras crowd. Celine removes Harry’s shoes to make him more comfortable and he desperately grabs the check. She obeys his instructions and places it back in his shoe, pointing out that his goals of wealth and contentment are just as “make-believe” as her own superstitious traditions. He sends out Celine to fetch Lois for him; Whitey follows behind, still in disguise. Lois tries to get Harry to give up his check as Celine tells her that she must leave. Whitey enters armed with a gun and reveals himself, demanding to know where the check is. Harry realizes that Lois set him up and is attacked by Whitey until Celine presents him with the check. Harry and Celine are forced to ride out through the Mardi Gras parade on Picaud’s float with Whitey in order to go out and collect Seeger’s money; Whitey reveals that he faked his death and that the body Harry saw was that of a homeless man, and that he is using Harry as a patsy so that he can get Seeger’s money without drawing attention to himself.

They pull over near Seeger’s location and Whitey sends Harry out to make the deal, although Harry’s condition has been rapidly deteriorating due to his injuries. Harry and Seeger make their exchange, observed from afar by Grebb. Grebb sends his man after Seeger while Harry tricks Whitey and struggles with him. Whitey nearly shoots Harry but is stopped when Grebb shoots him dead. Lois weeps over his body as Grebb arrests Seeger. Eventually Harry recovers and thanks Celine for her assistance before she leaves. The film ends as Harry and Grebb depart together. Commercials deleted.

Details

  • NETWORK: NBC
  • DATE: November 30, 1973 9:00 PM
  • RUNNING TIME: 1:26:45
  • COLOR/B&W: Color
  • CATALOG ID: B:55916
  • GENRE: Drama
  • SUBJECT HEADING: Drama
  • SERIES RUN: NBC - TV, 1964
  • COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

  • Ray Wagner … Producer
  • Donald Siegel … Director
  • Jack Laird … Writer
  • Stanford Whitmore … Writer
  • Dorothy B. Hughes … Based on the novel "Ride the Pink Horse" by
  • Benny Carter … Music by
  • Sammy Cahn … Music by
  • Edmond O'Brien … Cast, Arnie Seeger
  • Vera Miles … Cast, Lois Seeger
  • Robert Culp … Cast, Harry Pace
  • J. Carrol Naish … Cast, Uncle Picaud
  • Gene Raymond … Cast, Whitey Devlin
  • Norman Fell … Cast, Gaylord Grebb
  • Brenda Scott … Cast, Celine
  • Pat Buttram … Cast, Otis Honeywell
  • Edgar Bergen … Cast, Hotel Clerk
  • Archie Moore … Cast, Xavier
  • Randy Boone … Cast, The Boy
  • Stan Getz … Cast, Himself
  • Astrud Gilberto … Cast, Herself