Lamont Johnson spent most of his career directing television but did direct some subtle and excellent theatrical films, especially One on One (1973) and the Last American Hero (1977). A Covenant with Death was Johnson's first film and the first film for Gene Hackman. Hackman was usually cast as a working man, often a cop, as he was in his this film, or a struggling private detective. Hackman made four or five films a year from the 60's through 2001; his last film was in 2004.
The premise of A Covenant with Death (from a Stephen Becker novel) is an intriguing one: a man convicted of murdering his wife is scheduled to die by hanging in 1920's New Mexico, but on the scaffold he kills the hangman. While waiting for the new hangman to arrive the condemned man is found to be innocent, but he is re-arrested for killing the hangman. Unfortunately the whole thing is fudged a bit by making it appear that the killing might have an accident. The judge who is struggling with the legal dilemma is half Mexican and questions of prejudice come up but are never explored in any depth.
The cinematographer on A Covenant with Death was Robert Burks, who photographed many Hitchcock films, including Vertigo (1958) and The Birds (1963). A Covenant with Death was Burks's penultimate film and its bright, flat lighting suggests that Johnson was thinking of television and the credit for the low-key cinematography of Vertigo should be credited to Hitchcock more than to Burks.
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