High Noon (1952)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Fred Zinnemann

Writers:

Carl Foreman (screenplay)
John W. Cunningham (magazine story "The Tin Star")

Release Date:

30 July 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Western

Tagline:

Simple. Powerful. Unforgettable.

Plot:

A marshall, personally compelled to face a returning deadly enemy, finds that his own town refuses to help him.

Plot Keywords:

Revenge | Wedding | Badge | 1880s | Famous Score

Awards:

Won 4 Oscars. Another 11 wins & 8 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Sun. July 26

8:00 PM

TCM

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Marshal Will Kane
Thomas Mitchell	...	Mayor Jonas Henderson
Lloyd Bridges	...	Deputy Marshal Harvey Pell
Katy Jurado	...	Helen Ramírez
Grace Kelly	...	Amy Fowler Kane
Otto Kruger	...	Judge Percy Mettrick
Lon Chaney Jr.	...	Martin Howe (as Lon Chaney)
Harry Morgan	...	Sam Fuller (as Henry Morgan)
Ian MacDonald	...	Frank Miller
Eve McVeagh	...	Mildred Fuller
Morgan Farley	...	Dr. Mahin - Minister
Harry Shannon	...	Cooper
Lee Van Cleef	...	Jack Colby
Robert J. Wilke	...	Jim Pierce (as Robert Wilke)
Sheb Wooley	...	Ben Miller

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Canada:G (Manitoba) | Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | West Germany:12 (f) | Germany:12 (DVD rating) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (original rating) | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 (re-release) | Sweden:15 | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #15653)

Filming Locations:

Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Stanley Kramer Productions

Trivia:

John Wayne strongly disliked this movie because he knew it was an allegory for blacklisting, which he and his friend Ward Bond had strongly and actively supported. Twenty years later he was still criticizing it in his controversial May 1971 interview with Playboy magazine. Inventing a scene that was never in the movie, he claimed Cooper had thrown his marshal's badge to the ground and stepped on it. He also stated he would never regret having driven blacklisted screenwriter Carl Foreman out of Hollywood.

Goofs:

Continuity: Amy's luggage has been loaded on to the train, which we see pull off without any unloading, but it reappears on the cart in the final scene.

Quotes:

Martin: You risk your skin catching killers and the juries turn them loose so they can come back and shoot at you again. If you're honest you're poor your whole life and in the end you wind up dying all alone on some dirty street. For what? For nothing. For a tin star.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Life on Mars: (#1.5)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Battle Hymn of the Republic

Citizen Kane

High Noon is one of the most loved films of all times thanks to the elements that came together to make it the classic that it is. The movie owes a lot to Fred Zinnemann for his tight account of this story by Carl Foreman. The film benefits from Dimitri Tiomkin's great score and the great cinematography by Floyd Crosby.

This is a film that packs a lot of symbolism because of the times when it was done. Those were the days of the communist hysteria where many people in the industry were accused, tried and lost jobs because when they faced the HUAC and Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Gary Cooper plays a man who is decent enough to return to the town where he just has gotten married and has finished his tour of duty. His conscience doesn't let him leave his post as he delays his plans and goes back to defend the town from the bandit who's been freed by Northern judges, and is coming back to seek revenge from Marshal Kane and the town.

Gary Cooper embodied the all Amercian hero. He was an actor who could do no wrong, as he proves in his take of Marshal Kane. We see him as the clock is ticking away toward noon time when the train will arrive in Hadleyville. We see him perspire as he goes around trying to get people help him deal with the problem, to no avail; he will have to do it himself. In the process, he clearly disappoints his new bride, who is horrified at the prospect of losing the man she clearly loves.

Grace Kelly was such an elegant figure that it's hard to imagine she would be in Hadleyville at all! Katy Jurado was also excellent as the jaded Helen Ramirez, the woman who owned a lot of businesses in town. Also effective, Thomas Mitchell, as the mayor of the town and Lloyd Bridges, as Harvey.

This is a film to treasure.