High Noon
High Noon is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense of duty is tested when he must decide to either face a gang of killers alone, or leave town with his new wife.
Though mired in controversy at the time of its release due to its political themes, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four as well as four Golden Globe Awards. The award-winning score was written by Ukrainian/Russian-born composer Dimitri Tiomkin.
Upon its release, High Noon received mixed reviews, as critics and audiences expecting typical Western action were surprised by the film's focus on moral and emotional conflict. Despite this, it was a commercial success. Over time, it has come to be regarded as one of the greatest films ever made. In 1989, the film was selected by the Library of Congress as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Its story and ending have inspired numerous later films, including many westerns.
Plot
In Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico Territory, Marshal Will Kane, newly married to Amy Fowler, prepares to retire. The happy couple will soon depart to raise a family and run a store in another town. However, word arrives that Frank Miller, a vicious outlaw whom Kane sent to prison, has been released and will arrive by the noon train, one day ahead of the new marshal. Miller's gang—his younger brother Ben, Jack Colby, and Jim Pierce—wait at the station.For Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simple—leave town before Miller arrives—but Kane's sense of duty and honor make him stay. Besides, he says, Miller and his gang would hunt him down anyway. Amy gives Kane an ultimatum: she is leaving on the noon train, with or without him.
Kane visits old friends and allies, but none can or will help. Judge Percy Mettrick, who sentenced Miller, flees and urges Kane to do the same. Harvey Pell, Kane's young deputy, is bitter that Kane did not recommend him as his successor; he says he will stand with Kane only if Kane "puts the word in" for him with the city fathers. When Kane refuses, Pell turns in his badge and pistol. Kane's efforts to round up a posse at Ramírez's saloon and the church are met with fear and hostility. Some townspeople, worried that a gunfight would damage the town's reputation, urge Kane to avoid the confrontation. Some are Miller's friends, but others resent Kane for cleaning up the town in the first place. Others believe that Kane's fight is not the town's responsibility. Sam Fuller hides in his house, forcing his wife, Mildred, to tell Kane he is not home. Jimmy offers to help, but he is blind in one eye, sweating, and unsteady. The pastor of the local church, whose service was interrupted by Kane seeking help from the parishioners, is of no aid. Neither are some apparently willing volunteers, after the mayor encourages Kane to leave town. Martin Howe, Kane's predecessor, is too old and arthritic. Herb Baker agrees to be deputized, but backs out when he realizes he is the only volunteer. One last offer of help comes from 14-year-old Johnny. Kane admires his courage but refuses his aid.
While waiting at the hotel for the train, Amy confronts Helen Ramírez, who was once Miller's lover, then Kane's, then Pell's. Amy believes the reason Kane refuses to leave town is that he wants to protect Helen, but Helen reveals there is no lingering attachment on Kane's part, and she, too, is leaving. When Helen questions why Amy will not stay with Kane, Amy explains that both her brother and father were gunned down by criminals, a tragedy that converted her to Quakerism. Helen nonetheless chides Amy for not standing by her husband in his hour of need, saying that if she were in Amy's place, she would take up a gun and fight alongside Kane.
Pell saddles a horse and tries to persuade Kane to take it. They end up in a fist fight. After knocking Pell senseless, Kane returns to his office to write out his will. As the clock ticks toward noon, Kane goes into the street to face Miller and his gang. Amy and Helen ride by on a wagon, bound for the train. The train arrives, and Miller steps off as the two ladies board.
Kane walks down the deserted main street alone. He manages to kill Frank Miller's brother, Ben, in the opening salvo. Just before the train departs, Amy hears the gunfire and runs back to town. Kane takes refuge in a stable, and Colby is killed when he comes in after him. Miller sets fire to the stable to flush him out. Kane frees the horses and tries to escape on one, only to be shot off and cornered. Despite her religious beliefs, Amy picks up Pell's pistol and shoots Pierce from behind, leaving only Frank Miller, who grabs Amy as a human shield to force Kane into the open. When Amy claws Miller's face, he pushes her to the ground, and Kane shoots him dead.
The couple embraces. As the townspeople emerge, Kane smiles at Johnny, but looks angrily at the rest of the crowd. He drops his marshal's star to the street and departs with Amy.
Cast
Main cast
Uncredited
Production
According to Darkness at High Noon: The Carl Foreman Documents— a 2002 documentary based in part on a lengthy 1952 letter from screenwriter Carl Foreman to film critic Bosley Crowther— Foreman's role in the creation and production of High Noon has been unfairly downplayed over the years in favor of producer Stanley Kramer's. Foreman told Crowther that the film originated from a four-page plot outline he wrote that turned out to be very similar to "The Tin Star", a 1947 short story by John W. Cunningham about an aging sheriff taking on a dangerous murderer.Foreman purchased the film rights to Cunningham's story and wrote the screenplay. By the time the documentary aired, most of the principals were dead, including Kramer, Foreman, Zinnemann, and Cooper. Victor Navasky, author of Naming Names, an authoritative account of the Hollywood blacklist, told a reporter that, based on his interviews with Kramer's widow and others, the documentary seemed "one-sided, and the problem is it makes a villain out of Stanley Kramer, when it was more complicated than that".
Years later, director Richard Fleischer claimed that he helped Foreman develop the story of High Noon over the course of eight weeks while driving to and from the set of the 1949 film The Clay Pigeon, which they were making together. Fleischer said that his RKO contract prevented him from directing High Noon.
There is a description of an incident very similar to the central plotline of High Noon in Chapter XXXV of The Virginian, by Owen Wister, in which Trampas calls out The Virginian, who has a new bride waiting whom he might lose if he engages in a gunfight. High Noon has even been described as a "straight remake" of the 1929 film version of The Virginian, which also featured Gary Cooper in a starring role.
House Un-American Activities Committee controversy
The production and release of High Noon intersected with the Second Red Scare in the United States and the Korean War. In 1951, during production of the film, screenwriter Carl Foreman was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee during its investigation of "Communist propaganda and influence" in the motion picture industry. Foreman had once been a member of the Communist Party, but he declined to identify fellow members or anyone he suspected of current membership. As a result, he was labeled an "uncooperative witness" by the committee, making him vulnerable to blacklisting by the movie industry.After his refusal to name names was made public, Foreman's production partner Stanley Kramer demanded an immediate dissolution of their partnership. As a signatory to the production loan, Foreman remained with the High Noon project, but before the film's release, he sold his partnership share to Kramer and moved to Britain, knowing that he would not find further work in the United States.
Kramer later asserted that he had ended their partnership because Foreman had threatened to falsely name him to HUAC as a Communist. Foreman said that Kramer feared damage to his own career due to "guilt by association". Foreman was indeed blacklisted by the Hollywood studios due to the "uncooperative witness" label along with pressure from Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn, MPA president John Wayne, and Los Angeles Times gossip columnist Hedda Hopper.
Casting
was originally offered the lead role in the film, but refused it because he believed that Foreman's story was an obvious allegory against blacklisting, which he actively supported. Later, he told an interviewer that he would "never regret having helped run Foreman out of the country". Gary Cooper was Wayne's longtime friend and shared his conservative political views; Cooper had been a "friendly witness" before HUAC but did not implicate anyone as a suspected Communist, and he later became a vigorous opponent of blacklisting. Cooper won an Academy Award for his performance, and since he was working in Europe at the time, he asked Wayne to accept the Oscar on his behalf. Although Wayne's contempt for the film and refusal of its lead role were well known, he said, "I'm glad to see they're giving this to a man who is not only most deserving, but has conducted himself throughout the years in our business in a manner that we can all be proud of... Now that I'm through being such a good sport... I'm going back to find my business manager and agent... and find out why I didn't get High Noon instead of Cooper..."After Wayne refused the Will Kane role, Kramer offered it to Gregory Peck, who declined because he felt it was too similar to his role in The Gunfighter, the year before. Peck later said he considered it the biggest mistake of his career. Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, and Charlton Heston also declined the role.
Kramer saw Grace Kelly in an off-Broadway play and cast her as Kane's bride, despite Cooper and Kelly's substantial age disparity. Rumors of an affair between Cooper and Kelly during filming remain unsubstantiated. Kelly biographer Donald Spoto wrote that there was no evidence of a romance, aside from tabloid gossip. Biographer Gina McKinnon speculated that "there might well have been a roll or two in the hay bales", but cited no evidence, other than a remark by Kelly's sister Lizanne that Kelly was "infatuated" with Cooper.
Lee Van Cleef made his film debut in High Noon. Kramer first offered Van Cleef the Harvey Pell role, after seeing him in a touring production of Mister Roberts, on the condition that Van Cleef have his nose surgically altered to appear less menacing. Van Cleef refused and was cast instead as Colby, the only role of his career without a single line of dialogue.