Watch Good Day for a Hanging For Free

Undescribable Perfection

To me, this movie is perfection.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Blistering performances.

I found Good Day to be a really entertaining B movie for weekend afternoon viewing. Like many B movies, it has a fairly simple plot (pretty similar to an episode of Bonanza or Big Valley but that's good enough for me). No major spoilers in this review but hit a few plot points.The plot involves a group of bank robbers that hold up the local bank and kill the sheriff as they escape. Fred MacMurray reluctantly assumes the role of sheriff and captures a young former resident who was a friend of his daughter and arranges for him to be hanged.The cast is a solid one. Besides MacMurray, there is Robert Vaughan in a pre- Man from UNCLE role. Others notable costars include popular western star James Drury,Denver Pyle, Bing Russell and Howard McNair (Floyd from Andy Griffith). Like many B movies, this strong cast overcomes any drawbacks from a fairly routine Western plot.The mood of the townspeople plays a protagonist against MacMurray. They want blood at first, but then sour on the idea of hanging a former resident.I always liked Fred MacMurray's more serious roles form 40s and 50s before his Absent Minded Prof roles and My 3 Sons. He is excellent in this movie.It's not as complex as a John Ford, Mann or Sturges "A Western", but it is a B Western that most Western fans should enjoy.

In the same year that he won a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for "The Young Philadelphians," Robert Vaughn was in top form again as a robber of a bank with others, but who is accused of killing the town marshal.Fred MacMurray, the new marshal, witnessed the killing and his testimony convicted the Vaughn character. Vaughn gives a convincing performance as he bursts out in tears admitting what he did was wrong, but that he is no killer. This persuades the town to sign a petition for a commutation of sentence.To add to the situation, MacMurray's daughter is in love with Vaughn and argues with her father over the situation.We also see the idea of circumstances, poverty and a bad environment used as excuses for what has occurred.In his departure as a gunslinger, James Drury plays the town doctor who also has his eyes on MacMurray's daughter.Of course, we see the real truth come out in the end. We also see veteran character actress Kathryn Card give an interesting performance as the widow of the dead marshal, an understanding woman.

As a kid I saw Fred MacMurray in a bunch of films like "The Absent Minded Professor", "The Shaggy Dog" and of course his TV series "My Three Sons". So when I catch him in a Western every now and then it just seems hard to picture him as some rugged plainsman shooting it out with villains in the Old West. Yet he generally acquits himself reasonably well as he does here, a testament to his range as an actor in a role obviously against stereotype. Speaking of which, MacMurray offers up one of the better barroom brawls you'll see in a Fifties Western, going up against Edmon Ryan portraying defense attorney Selby. Slick move by the lawyer with the quick sucker punch, just as I expected. The story however, is another story. I'm not thoroughly convinced (especially after having seen a few hundred Westerns), that the good people of Springdale would have been so fickle as to turn on their newly appointed Marshal Cutler (MacMurray) for actually doing his job. Reasonable doubt never held much sway in films involving pioneer justice, and the idea that a slick lawyer might have changed a few opinions wasn't enough to save Eddie Campbell's (Robert Vaughn) hide here either. The added element of the marshal's daughter (Joan Blackman) having a thing for the bad guy was an interesting concept here as well, but it's not like it hadn't been done before.There was a puzzling element in the script for me, considering how the writers were seemingly making the liberal case against capital punishment. The idea of a fence around the gallows was deemed necessary to prevent gawkers, as public execution was coming to be seen as cruel and unusual punishment. Yet nothing prevented Campbell from watching the carpenters build the scaffold that he was going to die on - how cruel was that? I just didn't get it.Before this was over, you just knew that somehow, Cutler and his daughter would have to arrive at some reconciliation over her relationship with the young outlaw. That's done with Eddie's jailbreak setting up the finale, and I just knew I would groan if Eddie wound up accidentally hanging himself as he climbed up the gallows during the shootout between his gang and the town folk. That actually happened in some B Western I can't remember the title of right now, but when I do I'll get back to you on it. You have to wonder sometimes how far a picture will go to stretch credibility. Here they only stretched it a little bit.Addendum***9-22-2016*** OK, I found the title I was referencing in the last paragraph in which an outlaw inadvertently falls into a noose and hangs himself. It was the 1968 spaghetti Western "This Man Can't Die' starring Guy Madison. You can look it up on IMDb as "Long Days of Hate" or by it's Italian title, "I lunghi giorni dell'odio".

Most of us remember Fred MacMurray from the sitcom "My Three Sons." However, Macmurray gave some great performances in some great movies,"Double Indemnity," "Pushover" and this terrific little sleeper. MacMurray plays Ben Cutler, first a reluctant posse member, then a reluctant Marshall, finally the unflinching witness against and executioner of his daughter's childhood sweetheart. What is brilliant about this movie is the gradually changing loyalties of his loved ones and townspeople. First they are out for the blood of the kid (Robert Vaughn's brilliant as a dangerous, manipulative coward). Then, as Vaughn wins greater and greater sympathy, MacMurray is treated as the heavy. As Cutler, MacMurray finds real courage, standing virtually alone by the film's climax. This is a powerful movie and a real treat. See it.