The Hanging Tree

The Hanging Tree is a 1959 Technicolor film directed by Delmer Daves. Karl Malden took over directing duties for several days when Daves fell ill. The film stars Gary Cooper, Maria Schell, George C. Scott and Malden and is set in the gold fields of Montana during the gold rush of the 1860s and 70s. The story follows a doctor who saves a criminal from a lynch mob, then learns of the mans past and tries to manipulate him.

Joseph Fraildoctor Gary Cooper, gambler, gunslingerrides into small town of Skull Creek, Montana, with miners in a gold rush, looking to set up a doctors office. He passes by the hanging tree, an old oak with a thick branch over which has been slung a rope with a frayed end, presumably a former noose.He rescues and treats Rune Ben Piazza, a young sluice robber who has been shot, and obliges him into temporary servitude as a method of payment. Frail houses and feeds Rune while covering his identity as the wounded sluice robber. ........

Source: Wikipedia