La maison du bourreau

Citizen Hogan ( Victor McLaglen) is an Irish expatriate, wanted by the British, hiding out in the French Foreign Legion. He gets a message and says he must return to Ireland to kill somebody.

From the title and what goes on during the first part of the film, I was thinking that he came back to kill Lord Justice O'Brien (Hobart Bosworth), the titular hangman but actually a judge. Maybe the judge sentenced a friend or relative to hang? And although Ford builds this judge up as a very bad guy, haunted by the people he sentenced to death, I can never see what exactly he did that was wrong in the line of duty considering capital punishment was routine at the time. He wasn't said to take bribes. He wasn't convicting anybody, just sentencing them. Would the townspeople like him to just let murderers go? Would they prefer they be paroled in their house, in the bedroom next to their teen daughter's room? Since the townspeople hate him so, the only thing I can figure is that because he is an Irishman cooperating with the British system of justice, they just consider everybody executed by said British as a martyr and thus the judge as a traitor, even if the people he hanged would wreak chaos on normal people if freed. But I digress.

But the judge dies pretty quickly into the film, and yet Hogan hangs around, risking capture. So it turns out the judge was never his actual target, but the actual target is associated with the "Hangman's House".

This seems like a warm up for The Quiet Man in several ways. The tormented lovers kept apart by family, the crowd cheering at a horse race, the odd superstitions of the people, and so on. Even some small bits of dialogue are the same as in The Quiet Man. The only rather laughable bit is that the villain looks SO MUCH like a villain, especially a silent era villain.

This film is probably best remembered as having a bit part for John Wayne in it as he goes crashing through a fence at the end of the horse race, and you probably will not spot him unless you know he is there. But it is worth a look in its own right.

This is a hidden gem of a film from Ford's silent period. Much of Ford's output often feels somewhat erratic, with different narrative pieces introduced and never quite fitting together, but Hangman's House is a shockingly well put together film. At only 70 minutes, it feels stuffed with detail, but that detail never feels like a distraction here. Instead, everything works in tandem, revolving around everything else with a solid narrative core. It's got so much of what animated Ford (horse racing, Ireland, the underdog everyman against the traitorous outsider), and it ends up working wonderfully well together.

In Algeria, in the French Foreign Legion, is an Irish man, Denis Hogan (Victor McLaglen) who receives news and immediately declares that he must go home to Ireland, even though he has a price on his head there. We do not learn the reasons for his return until much later, though. Back home, the elderly judge, Lord Justice O'Brien (Hobart Bosworth), the hangman's judge as he's called, is nearing death and trying to arrange for the advantageous match of his daughter, Connaught (June Collyer), at the same time. She's in love with the local Dermot McDermot (Larry Kent), but Father has his eyes on the wealthy socialite John D'Arcy (Earle Fox), who should be able to open doors for her future. Because he is dying, Conn gives into her father's demands and marries D'Arcy.

Lord Justice O'Brien is haunted by the people he sent to the gallows, though. There's a wonderful little moment where O'Brien looks into the fire and sees flashbacks (including an uncredited John Wayne) of his victims. Beset by guilt, when Hogan appears outside his window in a hood, resembling Death to a certain degree, O'Brien has a heart attack and dies on the night of his daughter's wedding. Conn, though, is trapped in a loveless marriage with the unappealing D'Arcy while Dermot promises to be her friend no matter what.

There's a big horserace in the county, and Conn has placed her own horse, The Bard, in the race. When the jockey mysteriously disappears, Dermot offers to ride for her, an offer she happily takes. However, D'Arcy fights the idea, having put all the money he could borrow on another horse (and presumably being responsible for the disappearance of the jockey). The race is the kind of well-filmed spectacle Ford demonstrated he could handle in The Shamrock Handicap with exciting jumps and falls as the horses race over fences and walls, ultimately leading to the expected outcome of Dermot winning.

D'Arcy is broken, his dreams of fleeing Ireland with his winnings dashed, and Dermot and Conn begin to hope that they might be able to find a way to be together. Dermot flings his wallet at D'Arcy with a promise to kill him if Dermot ever sees him again, and Dermot goes to find Citizen Hogan, having heard that Hogan might know something about D'Arcy's past. Hogan, having been captured by the English soldiers at the race and escaped at the hands of his Irish loyalists, finally offers up his reasons for returning to Ireland. D'Arcy had married Hogan's sister in Paris, abandoning her, an action that led to her death.

Without a plan on what to do in the future, Dermot returns Conn home, to her father's large house, and goes home himself. However, D'Arcy has come back and he's trying to sell everything in the house. Dermot and Hogan return for a final showdown, and it's the amalgamation of elements into an exciting conclusion that Ford had already become well-practiced at.

Why did I enjoy this movie so much? Because despite its short runtime and rather large set of characters, elements of setting, and crisscrossing motives, everything ends up coming together in a satisfying way. Like a series of cogs fitting together perfectly to create the smooth motion of a single machine with a single purpose. Every character is there supporting the central story of justice being visited upon those who have escaped it. Every action is in support of it. And, more importantly, the characters and their motivations feel real, avoiding sensations of contrivance. It's a very good movie, a real hidden gem.

With a pleasingly Gothic setting, John Ford's tale of revenge starts out well but loses impetus as it tries to keep us in the dark about the reason behind Victor McLaglen's decision to take leave of the Foreign Legion in order to 'kill a man' in Ireland. June Collyer and Larry Kent are a little too bland as the romantic leads, but Earle Fox delivers as a villain with absolutely no redeeming features.

Hangman's House (1928)

*** (out of 4)

John Ford directed this melodrama about an infamous hangman judge who's on his death bed when he asks his daughter (June Collyer) not to marry the man she loves (Larry Kent) but instead marry a man (Earle Foxe) who isn't any good but carries a certain social flame. As it turns out, this man is responsible for the suicide of a woman who just happens to have a brother (Victor McLaglen) who sets out for revenge. Once again Ford perfectly captures the mood, feel and atmosphere of the Ireland settings and makes a very fast paced film. The movie is mainly melodrama but there's an added touch of what would eventually become known as Gothic Horror. The creepy house used in the film is something you'd expect to see in a Euro Horror film as it really becomes its own vital character. The visuals are great throughout and really add to the dread of the situations and the entire cast shines in their roles. Foxe makes for a great villain with Kent a likable and sympathetic character. McLaglen steals the show as the brother who will stop at nothing to get vengeance. The finale contains some great stunts with the climax clearly being the highlight of the film. There's a scene here, which Ford would later use in The Quiet Man and we also get a clear view of a young John Wayne during one scene.

On the opposite side of the disc for 3 Bad Men, I figured it was short and I might as well cross it off my John Ford list. Not worth the time. The story here is just boring, and, though it's interesting to see Victor McLaglen in a silent role and John Wayne as an extra (this was his first film appearance, and that's probably what the film is best known for), it's one of Ford's worst. McLaglen is supposedly the star, but he's mostly a side character. The main story revolves around a love triangle. June Collyer is the daughter of a notorious judge who sentenced many people to the gallows. Her father insists she marry a rich man (Earle Foxe) to ward off his bad reputation, but she's in love with Larry Kent. McLaglen plays a mysterious figure from Foxe's past who shows up to expose his own evil history. Wayne appears as a spectator at a horse race who gets so excited he breaks the fence in front of him. I admit I fell asleep about ten minutes before the end of this one but wasn't interested enough to go back and finish it.