Q:Build a movie plot around this: Who hides in his house and sends his wife to the door? Sam Fuller
A:
In Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico Territory, Marshal Will Kane (Cooper), newly married to Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly), is preparing to retire. The happy couple is departing for a new life, raising a family and running a store in another town; but word arrives that Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), a vicious outlaw who Kane sent to jail, has been released, and is arriving on the noon train. Miller's ganghis younger brother Ben (Sheb Wooley), Jack Colby (Lee Van Cleef), and Jim Pierce (Robert J. Wilke)await his arrival at the train station; it is clear that Miller intends to exact revenge.For Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simpleleave town before Miller arrives; but Kane's sense of duty and honor is strong. "They're making me run," he tells her. "I've never run from anybody before." Besides, he says, Miller and his gang will hunt him down anyway. Amy gives Kane an ultimatum: She is leaving on the noon train, with or without him. While waiting at the hotel for the train, she meets Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado), who was once Miller's lover, and then Kane's, and is leaving as well. Amy understands why Helen is fleeing, but the reverse is not true: Helen tells Amy that if Kane were her man, she would not abandon him in his hour of need.Kane's efforts to round up a posse at the tavern and the church are met with fear and hostility. Many townspeople believe that Kane's departure would defuse the situation; a gunfight in the streets would be bad for the town's reputation. Others are Miller's friends, and resent that Kane cleaned up the town in the first place.Kane's young deputy Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges), who is bitter that Kane didn't recommend him as his successor, says he will stand with Kane only if Kane goes to the city fathers and "puts the word in" for him. Kane rejects the quid pro quo, and Pell turns in his badge. Kane's old friends and allies cannot help him either: His predecessor, Marshal Howe (Lon Chaney Jr.) is old and arthritic; Judge Percy Mettrick (Otto Kruger), who...