High Noon (1952) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A marshall, personally compelled to face a returning deadly enemy, finds that his own town refuses to help him. Director: Carl Foreman (screenplay), John W. Cunningham (magazine story "The Tin Star") Stars: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 46 titles created 18 May 2014 a list of 28 titles created 8 months ago a list of 25 titles created 5 months ago a list of 31 titles created 2 months ago a list of 34 titles created 2 weeks ago Search for " High Noon " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 4 Oscars. Another 13 wins & 10 nominations.

See more awards » Videos A Civil War veteran embarks on a journey to rescue his niece from an Indian tribe. Director: John Ford A senator, who became famous for killing a notorious outlaw, returns for the funeral of an old friend and tells the truth about his deed. Director: John Ford Fred Dobbs and Bob Curtin, two Americans searching for work in Mexico, convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains. Director: John Huston A weary gunfighter attempts to settle down with a homestead family, but a smoldering settler/rancher conflict forces him to act. Director: George Stevens A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process. Director: John Ford A small-town sheriff in the American West enlists the help of a cripple, a drunk, and a young gunfighter in his efforts to hold in jail the brother of the local bad guy. Director: Howard Hawks An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.

Director: Sam Peckinpah An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses. Director: Elia Kazan A woman is asked to spy on a group of Nazi friends in South America. How far will she have to go to ingratiate herself with them? Director: Alfred Hitchcock A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression. Director: John Ford A religious fanatic marries a gullible widow whose young children are reluctant to tell him where their real daddy hid $10,000 he'd stolen in a robbery. Director: Charles Laughton Two Western bank/train robbers flee to Bolivia when the law gets too close. Director: George Roy Hill Edit Storyline On the day he gets married and hangs up his badge, lawman Will Kane is told that a man he sent to prison years before, Frank Miller, is returning on the noon train to exact his revenge. Having initially decided to leave with his new spouse, Will decides he must go back and face Miller. However, when he seeks the help of the townspeople he has protected for so long, they turn their backs on him.

It seems Kane may have to face Miller alone, as well as the rest of Miller's gang, who are waiting for him at the station... Written by Man_With_No_Name_126 When these hands point straight up...the excitement starts! See more » Genres: Rated PG for some western violence, and smoking | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 30 July 1952 (USA) See more » Also Known As: A la hora señalada See more » Filming Locations: Did You Know? Trivia Gary Cooper , "B" movie producer Robert L. Lippert and screenwriter Carl Foreman were set to go into a production company together, after the success of this film. John Wayne and Ward Bond ordered Cooper to back out of the deal, as HUAC was preparing to "blacklist" Foreman. Shortly afterward, Lippert was made "persona non grata" by the Screen Actors Guild, which destroyed his independent production company. See more » Goofs In the two shots where we see Kane and then Harvey enter the livery, the sky is covered with clouds. In all other scenes, the sky is clear.

See more » Quotes [to Deputy Harvey Pell] Joe : I knew you had guts but I never figured you for brains. It takes a pretty smart man to know when to back away. (New Hope, Alabama USA) – See all my reviews This is the definitive Western. There are other excellent Westerns of course ("The Unforgiven," "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," "The Searchers," "My Darling Clementine," and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" come immediately to mind), but none tops this one. Even though the difference in age between Gary Cooper and Grace Kelley makes the thought of their marriage seem a little kinky, it's easy to buy into the story. Katy Jurado is sexy, Lloyd Bridges is callow, and the townspeople mean well, but when push comes to shove, they reveal their cowardice. (If you remember the scene in "Blazing Saddles" in which Van Johnson says, "Howard Johnson is right," you'll almost certainly laugh at an inappropriate moment in "High Noon." ) "High Noon" is a textbook example of the storyteller's art. The drama begins with the opening credits and doesn't let up until everyone's true character has been laid bare.

This one is suspenseful and thrilling, and I find more to admire with every viewing. 87 of 127 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes Will Kane | Heroes Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia ~ Will Kane Gary Cooper as Will Kane in High Noon. William "Will" Kane is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the film, High Noon. He is played by Gary Cooper in the 1952 film, by Lee Majors in a made-for-TV sequel, High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane (produced in 1980, 28 years after the original movie was released), and by Tom Skerritt in 2000's High Noon, which was entirely re-worked for cable television. Biography In High Noon, Will Kane is a town marshal of the fictional Hadleyville, New Mexico. It is both his wedding day and his last day as a marshal.

He is about to leave town with his bride, Amy, to start a new life as a store clerk when the clerk of the telegraph office brings bad news: a man he sent to prison some years earlier, Frank Miller, has been released from prison and is arriving on the noon train. Kane, and the townsfolk who remember Miller, know Miller's visit is for one reason: revenge. Upon his conviction years earlier, Miller swore he would kill Will Kane. Kane's friends tell him to leave town, which he does briefly, but he feels that running away is not a solution, so he returns to face Miller and the gang. Will tries to find support from his friends and others, but none wants to help - they all tell him to leave town or offer reasons why they can't (or won't) help. Will chooses to stand up against this gang alone, even though it could result in his own death. The four men arrive: Frank Miller, his brother Ben and two other men, Jack Colby and Jim Pierce. After a brief gun fight in town, Kane kills Ben and Colby. His new bride, Amy, abandons her non-violent Quaker lifestyle to shoot Pierce.

Frank then takes Amy hostage and threatens to kill her unless he gives himself up. Kane gives himself up but Amy uses a distraction to allow Kane to shoot and kill Frank Miller. As townspeople come out to offer congratulations, Kane takes off his tin star and throws it in the dirt. Contrary to popular myth, he does not step on it. The movie ends with Kane and his bride driving out of town to destinations unknown. Description Throughout the movie we see Kane's emotions range from the joy of his wedding, to concern, disappointment, anger, fear and even his own mortality as he writes out his will before the noon train arrives. Despite the iconic and Oscar-winning portrayal of the character by Gary Cooper (see below), "Cooper was not producer Stanley Kramer's first choice to play Marshal Will Kane." Nevertheless, Will Kane is "one of Cooper's most famous roles." Lee Majors explained that he accepted the role in the sequel, because "I've always admired Gary Cooper. And I wanted to do a Western again." Ron Hardy, who directed the recent remake, argued that Tom Skerrit was an ideal actor to take over the role in the remake. Hardy explained that like "Cooper, he is Mr. Everyday.

People know who Tom Skerritt is. They don't treat him like a superstar. They feel he's approachable." Legacy In 1952, Gary Cooper won a Golden Globe Award and his second Academy Award for his portrayal of Will Kane. While The Washington Post refers to the character as "A Classic Role," Entertainment Weekly ranked the character fourteenth on its list of the top twenty "All-Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture" in April 2009. The magazine included him on its list because in "High Noon, Gary Cooper's retiring lawman faces down a killer and his goons despite being deserted by the rest of the town." Entertainment Weekly went on to cite his most heroic move as when "Kane's last ally gets cold feet, he tells him to go to his family, and then refuses the help of a teenager." Kane was also ranked by the American Film Institute as the fifth greatest movie hero of all time. Nevertheless, although Cooper's performance has received considerable praise as indicated above, Majors and Skerritt's performances have not been so positively received. The New York Daily News referred to Lee Majors as "sadly miscast" as Kane in the sequel.

Entertainment Weekly also contrasted Cooper with Skerritt to Skerritt's disadvantage. Reviewer Ken Tucker reminisces upon "the all-purpose image of Cooper that's taken hold in the popular imagination: the gaunt, chiseled stone face, a stoic deadpan that rendered Cooper the leading-man, romantic-actor equivalent of Buster Keaton....By contrast, Skerritt saunters through the new Noon as if he were still the easygoing, ironic lawman of Picket Fences." Is it 'High Noon' for Obama on Syria? - CNNPolitics.com Is it 'High Noon' for Obama on Syria? By Tom Cohen, CNN Updated 7:38 PM ET, Mon September 2, 2013 Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds.

JUST WATCHED Obama presses Congress on Syria 01:53 Story highlights President Obama may feel like Marshal Will Kane in the iconic Western film Abandoned by his allies, Obama decides to go to Congress for political cover In the film, Kane is told that "people got to talk themselves into law and order" By seeking congressional approval, Obama buys himself some time If President Barack Obama fancies himself a modern Will Kane of "High Noon," standing up for what's right when his allies desert him on Syria, he might be following advice the marshal got in the iconic 1952 Western film. Kane, played by Gary Cooper, goes to his mentor and predecessor Martin Howe in a last-ditch plea for help, but the former lawman -- crippled by age and arthritis -- declines and explains why everyone from the judge to the deputy to the church-going folks of Hadleyville backed off. "It figures. It's all happened too sudden," says Howe, played by Lon Chaney Jr.

"People got to talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it." Obama bought himself time for that discussion on whether to attack Syria over the use of banned chemical weapons by putting the question to Congress, setting up Senate committee hearings this week and votes in both chambers after the House returns from summer recess on September 9. Stunned by what U.S. officials call a major chemical weapons attack on August 21, less than two weeks ago, Obama initially tried to put together an international coalition to respond immediately to punish the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and signal widespread resolve. With Russia undermining any U.S. Security Council action, Obama hoped for a coalition similar to the one forged for the 2011 air strikes on Libya -- led by NATO allies with backing from Arab League states. JUST WATCHED Congressional hawks tie Syria to military budget cuts That plan crumbled last week when Britain's Parliament voted against taking part in a military intervention in Syria. Both France and Germany, while agreeing that the international community must respond to the Syrian chemical weapons attack, also have balked at military intervention without U.N. approval.

Even with backing for an international response from regional powers Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others, Obama decided to force Congress to take a stand instead of using presidential authority to order a U.S. strike. His arguments for acting sound like a modern "High Noon" script. Obama looks to Congress to bolster legal case for Syria strike "This attack is an assault on human dignity," he said Saturday in detailing his decision to seek congressional authorization. "It also presents a serious danger to our national security. It risks making a mockery of the global prohibition on the use of chemical weapons." Citing a possible escalation in the use of chemical weapons without a response, he added that "in a world with many dangers, this menace must be confronted." "We cannot raise our children in a world where we will not follow through on the things we say, the accords we sign, the values that define us," Obama said. However, the response he then outlined sounded a bit less direct than Marshal Kane's shootout in the streets with Frank Miller's gang. A U.S. strike would be self-wounding "This would not be an open-ended intervention," Obama said. "We would not put boots on the ground. Instead, our action would be designed to be limited in duration and scope.

But I'm confident we can hold the Assad regime accountable for their use of chemical weapons, deter this kind of behavior, and degrade their capacity to carry it out." To CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen, Obama's surprise decision to seek congressional authorization was strategic. "He probably calculates that for Republican skeptics in Congress, they will have to explain to the American public why it is that they will not sanction military action on Syria after its large-scale use of chemical weapons while they continue to describe Syria's closest ally, Iran, and its nuclear weapons program -- which still has yet to produce any nuclear weapons-- as a grave threat to the world," Bergen wrote Monday.. For liberal Democrats who generally oppose any U.S. military action, "Obama can essentially ask, 'If not now, when?'" Bergen continued. Obama posed that question Saturday in his remarks to the nation. Syria vote could have consequences for 2016 "What message will we send if a dictator can gas hundreds of children to death in plain sight and pay no price?" he said.

"What's the purpose of the international system that we've built if a prohibition on the use of chemical weapons that has been agreed to by the governments of 98 percent of the world's people and approved overwhelmingly by the Congress of the United States is not enforced?" Insisting the decision goes well beyond the issue of chemical warfare, Obama argued that "if we won't enforce accountability in the face of this heinous act, what does it say about our resolve to stand up to others who flout fundamental international rules, to governments who would choose to build nuclear arms, to terrorist who would spread biological weapons, to armies who carry out genocide?" Opinion: Obama on war -- a realist and risk taker "We cannot raise our children in a world where we will not follow through on the things we say, the accords we sign, the values that define us," he said, channeling a bit of Marshal Kane. Rep. Mike Pompeo, a conservative Kansas Republican, told CNN on Monday that Obama is "standing up for what he believes, and I agree with the president" on the need to respond militarily to what he called "horrendous war crimes being committed against the civilian population" of Syria.

"I just don't think it's something we can look the other way and say, 'Well, it's halfway around the world. Who cares?'" Pompeo said. "We do care. And we also have a strategic interest there because our adversaries are not stopping." That sounded like Obama, not Martin Howe in "High Noon," who tells Kane the reason nobody will back him is that "maybe because down deep, they don't care. They just don't care." Will Kane: The Unconventional Hero of High Noon | Heroes: What They Do & Why We Need Them Heroes: What They Do & Why We Need Them Fictional Heroes Scott Allison By Jesse Schultz In many ways the hero of the western genre has it easy. They’re often tough as nails, a sure and expert shot with a six-shooter or two, and can meet any threat with a steely-eyed resolve. While their opponents can be formidable, in the end these adversaries will be not quite as brave, tough, or good with a gun. That was what made the portrayal of the character of Will Kane so jarring in the 1952 film High Noon. America was familiar with the western, ranging from well-made dramas to B-grade outings with comedy and song.

The plot is a familiar enough one: the lawman of a small frontier town receives word that a bad man and sworn enemy has been released from jail and is en route to meet up with his gang. Revenge is promised and a showdown inevitable. But already Kane is reluctant to face his old nemesis. Newly married to a Quaker wife (played by Grace Kelly), Kane only wants to retire from his position as Marshal and ride off with his bride — which he actually does at first at the behest of his friends. But he can’t. Instinctively, Kane knows that he will have to face his enemy, Frank Miller, eventually and he decides that he’d rather do it at his home with a badge and a gun. Here the plot deviates from formula as Kane receives no help from his old friends and even his new wife is urging him to flee. His attempts to recruit deputies is an abject failure and his current deputy will only help if he’s promised the job of Marshal — a position Kane does not believe he’s fit for. The town is unanimous: despite the crimes Frank Miller has committed or the fact that collectively they outnumber his gang several times over they want Will Kane to take the fight elsewhere. They want no part of it.

Alone and betrayed, Kane is understandably terrified. He has lost his long-time friends, his wife, and soon he is likely to loose his life as Miller is due to arrive by train at high noon. Gary Cooper does an excellent job of portraying Kane’s fear without seeming cowardly. But despite having lost everything he refuses to run. He will face Frank Miller no matter how terrified he is. In movies we’re accustomed to seeing the hero face down and defeat armies of opponents as if it were merely a day at the office. That is what made High Noon special for its time. Will Kane is understandably fearful in facing a gang single-handedly and knows he would likely face defeat, but he stays anyway. Still not all appreciated the film and it is said that the later film western, 1959’s Rio Bravo starring John Wayne, is a counter-point to High Noon. Both films have their merits and both have their own depiction of heroism. But High Noon has, I think, the most telling portrayal of a hero. The story of a man, who while completely terrified, opts to stay and do the right thing regardless of the cost.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – The author, Jesse Schultz, really does live in the West and frequently becomes nervous when the clock strikes twelve. Two of his previous blog posts on Merlin and The Makers of Fire will appear in our new book Heroic Leadership: An Influence Taxonomy of 100 Exceptional Individuals . High Noon (1952) Pages: ( 1 ) ( 2 ) ( 3 ) Background High Noon (1952) is possibly the all-time best Western film ever made - a successful box-office production by Stanley Kramer and director Fred Zinnemann (who also directed From Here to Eternity (1953) and A Man For All Seasons (1966)). The Western genre was employed to tell an uncharacteristic social problem tale about civic responsibility, without much of the typical frontier violence, panoramic landscapes, or tribes of marauding Indians.

The film's screenplay by Carl Foreman [this was his last Hollywood film before blacklist exile to London, soon after his work on Home of the Brave (1949), Champion (1949), and The Men (1950)], written during a politically-oppressive atmosphere in the early 1950s when McCarthyism and political persecution were rampant, was loosely adapted from a Collier's Magazine story The Tin Star (by John W. Cunningham) published in December 1947. In fact, the film's story has often been interpreted as a morality play or parable, or as a metaphor for the threatened Hollywood blacklisted artists (one of whom was screenwriter Foreman) who faced political persecution from the HUAC during the McCarthy era due to actual or imagined connections to the Communist Party, and made life-altering decisions to stand their ground and defend moral principles according to their consciences. It also has been interpreted as an allegory of the Cold War and US foreign policy during the Korean War.

This taut, tightly-scripted, minimalist film tells the tale of a solitary, stoic, honor-bound marshal/hero, past his prime and already retired, who was left desolate and abandoned by the Hadleyville townspeople he had faithfully protected for many years (symbolically - during the World War II years). Due to the townspeople's cowardice (representing cooperative witnesses before the HUAC), physical inability, self-interest, expediency, and indecisiveness, he is refused help at every turn against a revenge-seeking killer and his gang. Fearful but duty-bound, he eventually vanquishes the enemy, thereby sparing the civilized (democratic) town the encroachment of barbaristic frontier justice brought by the deadly four-man group of outlaws (symbolic of the aggressive threat in the Korean War, or the HUAC itself). Embittered by film's end, he tosses his tin star into the dirt of the dishonorable frontier town.

One of the film posters described the theme of the deserted, lone marshal who stubbornly insisted on delaying his newly-married life with a pacifist Quaker wife (symbolic of US isolationists) in order to stay and confront his former nemesis and paroled murderer - Frank Miller: The story of a man who was too proud to run. Another slogan claimed: "...when the hands point up - the excitement starts!" [Director Howard Hawks and actor John Wayne both responded to the liberal preachiness of this 'un-American' film (and its cowardly townspeople) by creating a no-nonsense, right-wing rebuttal in Rio Bravo (1959). In the film, self-reliant Sheriff John T.

Chance (John Wayne) refused the well-meaning assistance of Pat Wheeler's (Ward Bond) men -- "some well-meaning amateurs, most of 'em worried about their wives and kids," although all he had to help him keep a murderer from making a jailbreak was "a lame-legged old man and a drunk."] The dramatic, tightly-compressed, austere black and white film with high-contrast images was shot in a spare 31 days, and the physically-pained, ravaged look etched on 51 year old Gary Cooper's gaunt face was due to actual illness (a recurring hip problem, bleeding stomach ulcers, and lower back pain), and emotional stress due to his recent breakup with actress Patricia Neal after a three-year, well-publicized affair while separated from his wife. The time span of the film (about 105 minutes) approximates the actual screen length of the film - 85 minutes - accentuated by frequent images of the clock as time rapidly dissipates before the final showdown. Cameraman Floyd Crosby's years of filming New Deal documentaries is evident in the film's sparseness, static compositions, and authentic feel.

This simple, stark, low-budget Western classic, with a total budget of $750,000, was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture (won by Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)), Best Director, and Best Screenplay - it was awarded four awards: Best Song for "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin')" (sung by Tex Ritter throughout the film, lyrics by Ned Washington, music by Dimitri Tiomkin), Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture (Dimitri Tiomkin), Best Film Editing (Elmo Williams and Harry Gerstad), and Best Actor for Gary Cooper's performance - his second Oscar after a win for Sergeant York (1941). [Cooper's win was an unusual honor, since Western films (and acting roles) are rare nominees and winners in Academy history! The film's theme song was made a popular hit by Western singer Frankie Laine.] Presumably, the Academy felt obligated to honor one of filmdom's greatest directors (DeMille) with the Best Picture Oscar, as his career was coming to an end.

A made-for-TV movie was titled High Noon, Part II: The Return of Will Kane (1980) with Lee Majors in the lead role. It was remade as a science-fiction film, writer/director Peter Hyams' Outland (1981) with Sean Connery, with the adapted plot transferred to interstellar space (and ridiculed as "High Moon"). It was also remade as a TV movie by Ted Turner's TBS station with Tom Skerritt as the lead character and Michael Madsen as the heavy named Frank Miller. Other High Noon imitations or variations: the teen comedy Three O'Clock High (1987) took the conflict to a school setting, while The Baltimore Bullet (1980) moved it to a pool hall show-down. The Story The film's credits, accompanied by the "High Noon" title song, play atop a scene of desperadoes gathering on the outskirts of a town. On a blazing summer morning [probably between 1870 and 1880], the three gang members have converged on the small, quiet, arid western town of Hadleyville (population about four hundred).

The gunslingers ride by the town's church (one of the town's many seemingly respectable, stable, and supportive institutions), where Sunday morning church bells are pealing as a signal to worship. They are ominously recognized by an old Spanish woman who crosses herself, a fireman, and other townsfolk outside the Ramirez Saloon. One of the three, Ben Miller (Sheb Woolley), rides his unbridled horse uncontrollably toward a sign reading "MARSHAL" - a foreshadowing of the film's conflict. The riders pass the Justice of the Peace's window (the town's courtroom), where the societal ritual of marriage is in preparation. Judge Percy Mettrick (Otto Kruger) is to marry the town's 'ex' marshal, middle-aged Will Kane (Gary Cooper) ["Will" - a richly symbolic name] and a beautiful young Quaker girl, Amy Fowler (23 year-old Grace Kelly in her first major role). [The first view of a clock is in this scene: it is 10:35 am.

Another clock reads 10:33 am in the town's barber shop.] Word spreads quickly about the gang members who are identified by the barber (William Phillips) as Ben Miller, James Pierce (Bob Wilke) and Jack Colby (Lee Van Cleef, a frequent Western villain, e.g., For a Few Dollars More (1965), and the "Bad" character in The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly (1966)). In a cross-cut, parallel scene at 10:35, the trio arrives at the town's deserted train station platform just as the train station master (Ted Stanhope) reads a disturbing telegram. An impatient, surly Pierce, one of the riders asks the station master: Gang member: Noon train on time? Station master: Yes, sir. They are planning to reunite with their pardoned leader, Ben's brother Frank, arriving at noon on the mid-day train, to seek revenge on the town's marshal.

[They metaphorically represent the destructive forces of the 'four horsemen of the apocalypse.'] During the marriage ceremony, Kane's (and Amy's) first words in the film are "I do." Their wedding guests include the town's senior selectman and ring bearer Jonas Henderson (Thomas Mitchell), ex-Marshal Martin Howe (Lon Chaney, Jr.) and good friend/neighbor Sam Fuller (Harry Morgan, credited as Henry Morgan) and his wife Mildred (Eve McVeagh).

[Kane will have individual confrontations with each of the three male guests Henderson, Fuller, and Howe ("the entire board of selectmen in this community") later in the film.] After they are pronounced "man and wife" and the celebration begins, Kane finds privacy in an adjoining room with his new wife and promises: "I'm gonna try, Amy, I'll do my best." The new and younger marshal to replace Kane is expected to arrive the following day, and Henderson assures everyone: "This town will be safe 'til tomorrow." His new bride has firm, pacifist Quaker convictions that deplore violence, and he will be putting away his marshal's star in his last act in office - he removes his badge, a popular Western icon, and pins it on his gun holster, amidst applause. At that moment, the train station master bursts in, bringing a telegram ("it's terrible, it's shocking"). The message announces that outlaw Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), put away in a penitentiary by Kane five years earlier for terrorizing the town, was pardoned a week earlier and paroled. And three others are waiting for Miller who is to arrive on the noon train at Hadleyville, to seek revenge on the Marshal.

Kane glances at the clock - it's 10:40 am. Henderson encourages the newlywed couple to leave town immediately: "Get out of this town this very minute...Don't stop 'til you get to Clarksburg." The former marshal's first reaction reveals his sense of responsibility: I think I ought to stay. The newly-wed couple leave town immediately, gathered into a horse and buggy buckboard to quickly ride away. From his Flores Hotel second-floor window, young deputy Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges) witnesses their rapid departure and gloats to his dark-haired girlfriend - a worldly-wise, half-Mexican saloon owner and businesswoman Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado), that Kane appears to be cowardly: "That's funny...Kane and his new wife just took off in a big hurry...Hey, you don't suppose Kane's scared of those three gunnies...I never saw him whip a horse that way." Helen crosses the hall to alert Sam (Tom London): Ben Miller is in town. He has two of the old bunch with him.

During their retreat a few miles from town to the freedom of open country, Kane has second thoughts, as the oft-repeated, haunting theme of the film plays in the background. His inner conflict about leaving and the central dilemma of the film is reflected on his face as he stops the buggy and tells Amy that he's got to go back - due to his fidelity to his Western code of honor. Because of his fateful decision, their honeymoon will be postponed until after his 12 o'clock showdown: Kane: It's no good. I've got to go back, Amy. Amy: Why? High Noon | Wild Wild Cold War Wild Wild Cold War High Noon Movie Summary Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is a retired marshal in the western town of Hadleyville. As Kane is about to depart on his honeymoon, he gets word that Frank Miller, a longtime enemy of Kane’s (and a criminal whom Kane had previously put away) is scheduled to arrive in Hadleyville on the noon train, meeting up with a gang of three bandits to exact their revenge on Kane and the town. Though his wife wants to leave, Kane decides he must stick around and defend the town against Miller and his bandits.

He attempts to rally the townsfolk, but no one is willing to join Kane is his epic stand against the gang. With his wife threatening to leave on the noon train no matter what, Kane is left alone to battle Miller and his three cutthroats in an epic duel in Hadleyville at “high noon.” Who will be the last man standing? Can Kane defend his beloved town in an epic battle of good meets bad? Cold War Connections and Themes This is crazy, I don’t even have any guns. –Gary Cooper as Will Kane, High Noon, 1952 The Cold War, by very definition, was a war without sustained, active combat. Rather, it was a face off between two superpowers—the United States and the Soviet Union—in an ideological and political battle. Citizens, perpetually fearful of the great Soviet unknown, galvanized themselves at home against the growing threat of the “Red Scare.” Communism threatened to destroy the most basic tenets of the American lifestyle—capitalism, individualist beliefs, and religious freedom, just to name a few. As such, Americans had good reason to distrust (or attack) any Communists or Communist sympathizers living among the general populace.

Enter HUAC: the House Un-American Activities Committee. Establishing itself as a standing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1945, HUAC aimed to root out the threat of Communism in American life by investigating suspected Communists in influential positions in government, military, and entertainment. One of HUAC’s most infamous (and publicly visible) targets was the Hollywood Ten. The Hollywood Ten was a group of directors screenwriters suspected of harboring Communist viewpoints who, in 1947, refused to answer any questions asked of them by HUAC in court. Citing 5th Amendment rights, these ten individuals challenged the contempt of court ruling handed down to them, but their appeal was rejected and each was sentenced to a year in federal prison. While the Hollywood Ten were perhaps the most prominent victims of the “Red Scare” in the entertainment industry, hundreds of others were blacklisted from Hollywood as well. One of them was Carl Foreman, the director of High Noon. While Foreman was never tried directly, he refused to answer questions and name names about suspected Communists in Hollywood, resulting in his being branded an “unfriendly witness” and his eventual blacklisting.

In contrast to Foreman, High Noon’s star, Gary Cooper, was actually deemed a “friendly witness” by HUAC for his perceived cooperation during questioning some years earlier in 1947. Despite not naming any names (claiming he threw away scripts with Communist influences as soon as he read them, and completely disassociating himself with any sympathizers), Cooper maintained an anti-Communist lifestyle and never gave the committee any pause in terms of where his loyalties resided. Although Cooper was never linked to any Communist activities, some had reasons to doubt his true beliefs—one of these individuals was John Wayne. Critical Response to High Noon [High Noon] is the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life. –John Wayne, interview with Playboy Magazine, 1971 One of the reasons for John Wayne’s incredible distaste for High Noon was because he viewed it much like many historical scholars: as a sharp criticism against HUAC’s investigation and blacklisting of Communists in Hollywood.

The elements of this allegory encompassed all of Hollywood and the aura or paranoia at the time of the “Red Scare.” Miller and his gang of no-good bandits represented the chairmen of HUAC, invading Hadleyville (meant to represent Hollywood) and threatening the townspeople. The townspeople, unwilling to fight back against the threat facing them, are seen to represent the cowardly, cooperating witnesses to HUAC. Will Kane (played by Gary Cooper) is seen as the “lone ranger” of the town willing to stand up against Miller and his gang, which he (and Cooper and Foreman) saw as a clear and present threat to a democratic lifestyle. Kane, disgusted and left bitter at the town’s events, leaves town with his marshal’s star crushed underfoot. Wayne thought the film was an embarrassment to American ideals as well as the idea of the classic Western. He believed that a truly brave sheriff would have faced the villains head on—instead of asking everyone in the town for assistance—and would have defeated them strongly and swiftly. Wayne was also disgusted by the movie’s final scene, in which he thought the retreating Kane represented a complete abandonment of ideals of responsibility and service.

Along with friend and director Howard Hawks, Wayne swore to create a proper response to the weak-willed High Noon—and in 1959, he did just that with Rio Bravo. — References: 1. “High Noon: The Best Picture Project.” The Best Picture Project. N.p., 22 June 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. < 2. “High Noon (trailer) – YouTube .” YouTube – Broadcast Yourself. . N.p., 24 May 2009. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. < 3. “House Un-American Activities Committee – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., 13 Nov. 2011. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. < 4. “Interview: John Wayne.” Playboy May 1971. The New Effort. 6 May 2009. Web. 14 Nov. 2011. < 5. Simkin, John. “Hollywood Ten.” Spartacus Educational. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2011. < 6.

“Wayne for Camels.” The Pop History Dig. N.p., 29 Jan. 2010. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. < Search for: DVD Savant Blu-ray Review: High Noon Fred Zinnemann Reviewed by Glenn Erickson Controversial producer Stanley Kramer had his first blockbuster hit with High Noon, a relatively inexpensive western that became one of the most popular pictures of 1952, took home four Academy Awards and still stands near the top of its genre. Viewers were riveted by Gary Cooper's anguished performance as a Marshall caught between his duty to his badge and to his new bride, played by the new star Grace Kelly. Fred Zinnemann's embellishes his precise direction with powerful wordless scenes and montages that made audiences feel that they were watching an artistic triumph. Carl Foreman's script immediately frames High Noon as one of producer Kramer's moral and political message pictures. Newly retired Marshall Will Kane (Gary Cooper) marries Quaker Amy Fowler (Grace Kelly) just as news arrives in Hadleyville that criminal Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) is coming in on the Noon train, hot for revenge.

Knowing that the deadly Miller won't go away, Kane resolves to face him. He soon finds himself isolated and under attack from his friends and neighbors. The judge (Otto Kruger) flees without a moment's thought. Amy demands that someone else deal with Miller, now that Kane is no longer Marshall. She threatens to leave if he insists on staying. Bitter that he hasn't been given Kane's job, Deputy Harvey Pell (Lloyd Bridges) refuses to help his former boss. The old Marshall (Lon Chaney Jr.) can't help because he's crippled with arthritis. The boys at the bar are Miller's friends, and cynically welcome a showdown. When Kane appeals for deputies at the local church, a public debate dissolves into a chorus of recriminations and blame passing. Kane must face Miller alone. Foolishly thinking that her husband still yearns for the wealthy Mexican businesswoman Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado), Amy plans to leave town on the same train bringing Frank Miller. High Noon is one of producer Stanley Kramer's early message pictures, a grand statement about civic responsibility.

The producer had been courting a name as a liberal producer with bold movies about the Race issue (Home of the Brave) and disabled veterans (The Men). But Kramer clashed with his equally outspoken screenwriter Carl Foreman. A public flap ensued when Kramer allegedly refused Foreman a co-producing credit. Audiences were more interested in the new star Grace Kelly, and Tex Ritter's hit song Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin', which is cleverly used for recurring sequences of Marshall Kane walking through town, looking in vain for help. Most contemporary Hollywood westerns with stars as big as Gary Cooper were being filmed in color, yet this picture plays out on a B-western back lot set with almost no special production. High Noon compensates with expert filmic craftsmanship. Editor Elmo Williams' work is dynamic, almost ostentatiously so. Foreman's shrewd screenplay lends suspense to a series of dialogue scenes through the use of the same 'deadline' device that dominates many new action films. We're told that something dreadful will occur in X minutes -- the Titanic will sink, the bomb will detonate. Time becomes an automatic suspense machine as the seconds slip away.

By the time the noon train carrying Miller arrives, everyone in the story is checking their clocks. A metronome-paced montage kicks in as the hour approaches, recapitulating the forces arrayed against Will Kane. A crane shot finally reveals him standing alone in the dusty street. Much of the power of this sequence derives from Dimitri Tiomkin's insistent music score. Stylistically, High Noon is a triumph of talented filmmaking. Film theory students at UCLA in the early '70s were impressed by the movie's frequent cutaways to clocks: director Zinnemann and editor Williams experimented with the notion of making the film play in real time. In one screening we clocked the clocks, so to speak, and they did indeed stay within a couple of minutes of our "control" clock. So many clock faces are built into dialogue scenes that they must have been part of the original structure during shooting. This observation weighs against the frequent claim that the clocks were an editorial trick imposed later in post-production. The feminists in the critical studies program also lauded the formulation of the film's two female roles.

Grace Kelly's Waspish Amy is the "Clementine Carter" character, an unyielding Easterner who does not intend to surrender her refined moral values to the violence of the West. Katy Jurado's Helen Ramirez is the alternative 'dark woman' or 'Mexican girlfriend', usually conceived as "the native" who sacrifices herself to protect a hero who would never stoop to actually marry her. By breaking that unwritten rule, Ramirez is the most independent and sensible character in the show. She tolerates no guff from punk Lloyd Bridges (an excellent jerk) and even tells off La Princess in no uncertain terms. Amy Fowler may be the socially correct choice for a bride, but the smart and worldly-wise Helen Ramirez possesses a real capacity to love. Marriage with Ramirez could be a great adventure, were Will Kane not so conventional in his thinking. High Noon still carries a reputation as a courageous liberal statement. Howard Hawks and John Wayne reportedly stated to the press that they made 1959's Rio Bravo to counter High Noon's then-radical image of a Marshall throwing his badge away, in contempt of the town that wouldn't back him up.

Wayne's character in Rio Bravo is a professional who would never ask the community for help to do his job. Defending High Noon's political stance isn't easy, as its inconsistent messages are ladled on with the subtlety of a shovel. To develop its social argument, High Noon envisions Hadleyville as a rotten place filled with rotten citizens. This supposedly left-wing film tries to prove that Democracy won't work because people are basically selfish and cowardly. The judge skedaddles, pointedly taking his American flag and scales of justice with him (symbol! symbol!). Frank Miller's return will obviously bring big trouble, yet many of Hadleyville's able-bodied men are firmly on his side. Save for Kane, the only decent citizens in town are either crippled or under-aged. Businessman Harry Morgan is a craven coward, Kane's deputy Lloyd Bridges is concerned only for his hurt feelings, and the church congregation is a worst-case scenario of Bad Civics in Action. Instead of coming to Kane's defense, the preacher condemns him from the pulpit. Kane's best friend Jonas (Thomas Mitchell) uses the lack of consensus to squelch any effort to support Kane in his hour of need.

All of these rejections are a ploy to isolate Kane as the only individual in Hadleyville with morals and ethics, the only man who cares enough to stand up for What's Right. But Will meekly accepts little crucifixions in every scene. He gives feeble three-word speeches to the church congregation, like "I need help". How this tough lawman stood up to trigger-happy drunks and dangerous thugs is a big question, when he won't use a simple promise or a bit of intimidation to secure the desperately needed help of his own deputy. When people don't rally to his aid, Kane remains silent, a queer combination of pride and humility. Carl Foreman even turns Helen Ramirez into a martyr-enabler when, for her own reasons, she decides not to come to Will's defense: "He is not my man." For Kane to undergo his ordeal of character and will power, he must face his fate alone. Yet, after all the posturing, Kramer and Foreman make no particular statement beyond a murky, 'A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do'. High Noon is actually a better fit as a conservative fantasy about America fighting Communism in foreign wars.

Good ol' Kane (General MacArthur and company) defeated Evil foes five years ago (roughly the end of WW2), but now Evil is back and it's personal. Nobody gives a damn, or worse, they're on the side of the Commies. Kane must go it alone. Poor General MacArthur, stabbed in the back by the politicians. The pacifist argument in High Noon takes a conservative turn as well. Amy Fowler is a pacifist Quaker, yet has married a man whose profession involves gunplay and killing. When Amy blasts bad guy Robert J. Wilke in the back, the movie crudely suggests that Christian pacifism is a myth promoted by people who have never had to fight to protect their loved ones. Amy earns the right to keep her man the American Way, by killing for it. The end of High Noon presents the stickiest puzzle. It plays as emotionally correct yet satisfies neither read of the movie. Kane tosses his star in the dust to show his contempt for the town that comes out to congratulate him only after the fight is won.

Perhaps John Wayne and Howard Hawks were correct in interpreting this ending as Kramer and Foreman saying, 'Screw America.' Hadleyville has its share of jerks but also good women and loyal kids like the boy who so badly want to help. Kane is turning his back on all of them. Now he and Amy can open their store somewhere else. Are people in this next town going to be any different? Or will they be more scum unworthy of the ethically superior Mr. and Mrs. Kane? Is Will going to sit behind his notions counter when troublemakers terrorize his neighbors? The message of High Noon is confused, to say the least. People report being moved by its message, yet often can't come up with a coherent answer for what that message is. As a drama without symbolic significance, High Noon is very satisfying. I like to read nuances into the Kane-Ramirez relationship, and criticize Amy's lack of real commitment to the husband she expects to turn from hawk to dove overnight. The Dimitri Tiomkin music is always a kick, as is the dry Tex Ritter song that opens the plain-wrap film so perfectly. It's also fun to see eternal bad guys Lee Van Cleef and Robert J.

Wilke near the beginning of a career that mostly consisted of being gunned down by the hero, in picture after picture. Mad Magazine recognized High Noon as the key psychological Western of the 'fifties. One of its cartoons lampooned 'adult Westerns' by showing a picture of a traumatized Will Kane shooting a hole through his pocket watch, as if he had a neurotic aversion to the existential tyranny of Time. In the earliest Mad spoof, Hah! Noon!, Kane solved his little problem with 'Killer Diller Miller' by simply calling in a thousand National Guard troops, complete with tanks and artillery. The spoof had one of my favorite Western gag lines, ribbing the obvious doubles for Bridges and Cooper in their big barn fight: "Now my stuntman's going to give your stuntman the beating of his life!" High Noon has been a profound influence on the western genre. The old Gunsmoke TV series was basically a spinoff, and eclectic-minded directors have frequently revisited its situations. Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch riffed on the kids whose play shows the influence of the violence in the streets: "Bang!

You're dead, Kane!" Sam Fuller's Forty Guns did a wild and wooly number on the final 'Drop yer gun or she's dead' situation. Sheriff Barry Sullivan resolves the standoff by purposely shooting hostage Barbara Stanwyck so he can get a clean shot at her captor. Sergio Leone turned the first ten minutes of his Once Upon a Time In the West into an extended parody of High Noon, as three gunmen wait at a train station, intimidating the telegraph clerk to pass the time. Olive Films' 60th Anniversary Edition Blu-ray of High Noon will be a revelation to western fans familiar only with older 16mm prints that circulated for TV use. The B&W Hi-Def transfer lends new clarity and detail that restore visual interest to the mostly flat-lit show. The beefy Blu-ray soundtrack heightens the dynamic Dimitri Tiomkin music score. What we notice more about High Noon this go-round is director Zinnemann's precise visual control, especially in the wordless montages, the 'waiting' sequences at the train station, and the concluding shoot-out. Olive usually doesn't include extras but this special edition contains an original trailer, along with the best making-of documentary from earlier DVD versions.

Hosted by Leonard Maltin, the show features interviews with Lloyd Bridges, Stanley Kramer, Fred Zinnemann, the late John Ritter (Tex Ritter's son) and musician David Crosby (son of cameraman Floyd Crosby). On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, High Noon Blu-ray

Question: Who starred as Will Kane in the 1952 film 'High Noon'.
Answer: Gary Cooper