High Noon (1. 95. Articles. High Noon (1. SYNOPSISMarshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is looking forward to his honeymoon with his new bride Amy (Grace Kelly). But as he and his wife prepare to leave town, Kane is informed that Frank Miller (Ian Mac. Donald), his former nemesis, is out of jail and on the way to Hadleyville for a showdown with him. Not one to back down from a confrontation, Kane decides to postpone his honeymoon and face the murderous outlaw and his gang. However, as the lone sheriff attempts to enlist some of the townspeople to help him, he quickly discovers that no one is willing to risk their life beside him. As the minutes tick away toward the final showdown, Kane prepares to meet his fate alone. Producer: Stanley Kramer, Carl Foreman Director: Fred Zinnemann Screenplay: Carl Foreman, based on the story . Cunningham Cinematography: Floyd Crosby Editing: Elmo Williams Music: Dimitri Tiomkin Art Direction: Ben Hayne Cast: Gary Cooper (Marshal Will Kane), Grace Kelly (Amy Kane), Thomas Mitchell (Jonas Henderson), Lloyd Bridges (Harvey Pell), Katy Jurado (Helen Ramirez), Otto Kruger (Judge Percy Mettrick), Lon Chaney, Jr. Why High Noon is Essential. Among the many themes inherent in the Western genre, the division between civilization and lawlessness has always been a major issue. Usually, a representative from civilized society (a sheriff, a rancher, an army officer) is called upon to battle the forces of lawlessness, whether they are outlaws, greedy landowners, or Indians. The outcome usually results in a return to normalcy for the community with the antagonists vanquished and the hero riding off into the sunset, his mission accomplished. Alan Ladd's mysterious title character in Shane (1. George Stevens, is a classic example of the archetypal Western hero, one who upholds and protects the morality and laws of a civilized community against those who threaten its existence in the vast Western landscape. But in High Noon, we are presented with something quite different. On the surface, Hadleyville is a long- established community with a vibrant commerce, an active church, and a history of stable law enforcement. But beneath the facade of respectability are major flaws in the infrastructure. The town, which was once terrorized by Frank Miller, is now faced with his return from prison (his death sentence was commuted to life but he was paroled early for good behavior). Yet, except for the marshal, the townspeople seem unconcerned about the effect this will have on their community. They refuse to get involved, take a stand or rally to the side of the man who is responsible for their safe and comfortable existence. High Noon (1952) SYNOPSIS Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is looking forward to his honeymoon with his new bride Amy (Grace Kelly). But as he and his wife prepare to leave town, Kane is informed that Frank Miller (Ian.Even the marshal's good friend, William Fuller (Harry Morgan), hides inside his house with his wife and refuses to come to the door when Kane pays a visit. As the couple watch the marshal walk away, Fuller stands next to his ashamed wife and asks her if she would rather have him alive or dead in the street. Yet, his cowardice is not unusual; the entire town is reluctant to defend their freedom against an obvious threat to it. This issue of moral responsibility is what makes High Noon unique among Westerns and raises the question, is civilization really worth fighting for? In his biography, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: A Life in Hollywood, Stanley Kramer had this to say about High Noon: . I hired Gary Cooper to play the marshal because he was still a star, even though he was no longer at the height of his popularity. I thought he would give the picture the stature and attention it needed. It is, after all, a difficult story to define. It's a story filled with tense anticipation but very little action. Since all those who read it thought of it as a Western, they expected to see guns blazing and horses galloping everywhere.
A story that questions the shaming of the US through revisionist history, lies and omissions by educational institutions, political organizations, Alinsky, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other progressives to destroy America. Retrieved 1 June 2016. In our minds, though, it wasn't an action picture. We didn't even think of it as a Western. Foreman saw it as an allegory on his own experience of political persecution in the Mc. Carthy era. With due respect I felt this to be a narrow point of view. First of all I saw it simply as a great movie yarn, full of enormously interesting people. I vaguely sensed deeper meanings in it; but only later did it dawn on me that this was not a regular Western myth.. To me it was the story of a man who must make a decision according to his conscience. His town - symbol of a democracy gone soft - faces a horrendous threat to its people's way of life.. It is a story that still happens everywhere, every day.. The entire action was designed by Foreman and Kramer to take place in the exact screening time of the film - less than ninety minutes. Kramer noted in his previously mentioned biography . De. Mille's circus picture, The Greatest Show on Earth, had to be largely political, and I'm not referring to the unspoken old- boy politics of Hollywood's inner circle. I still believe High Noon was the best picture of 1. High Noon had enough effect to relegate it to an also- ran status. Popular as it was, it could not overcome the climate in which it was released. Carl Foreman, who wrote it, had by then taken off for England under a cloud of accusations as a result of his political beliefs. Between the time he turned in the script and the time the Academy voted, we all learned that he had been a member of the Communist Party, but anyone who has seen the picture knows that he put no Communist propaganda into the story. If he had tried to do so, I would have taken it out. The sequel picks up where the original left off, with Kane having to strap on his guns again to face down the bounty- hunting marshal who replaced him. And in 2. 00. 0, the TBS Superstation aired a remake of High Noon, starring Tom Skerritt as Will Kane. Actor Lee Van Cleef plays Jack Colby, one of Frank Miller's villainous thugs in the original High Noon. Van Cleef played similar parts in a number of Westerns, including The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1. Spaghetti Westerns of the sixties. Some of his best films in that genre include For a Few Dollars More (1. Death Rides a Horse (1. Sabata (1. 97. 0). Van Cleef was also memorable in director John Carpenter's Escape From New York (1. Will Kane's final act of throwing away his marshal's badge is referenced in director Don Siegel's 1. Dirty Harry (1. 97. But instead of a middle- aged cop trying to enlist help from a cowardly township, Clint Eastwood plays a maverick San Francisco cop - . It is at the end that Callahan throws away his badge in disgust. The pivotal church scene where Will Kane tries to enlist the help of the congregation was spoofed in director Mel Brooks' Blazing Saddles (1. By Scott Mc. Gee. High Noon (1. 95. HIGH NOON - Trivia and Other Fun Stuff. In an unusual turn of events, Gary Cooper asked John Wayne to accept his Academy Award. Wayne gave the following acceptance speech: . Coop and I have been friends hunting and fishing for more years than I like to remember. He's one of the nicest fellows I know. I don't know anybody nicer. And our kinship goes further than that friendship because we both fell off horses in pictures together. Now that I'm through being such a good sport about all this sportsmanship, I'm going back and find my business manager and agent, producer, and three- name writers and find out why I didn't get High Noon instead of Cooper.. Fred Zinnemann achieved this by using a long crane that he borrowed from fellow director George Stevens. If you look closely you can see, in the upper frame, the nearby Warner Brothers studio lot. The same Western set on the Columbia Studios lot was used by Zinnemann the next year as a Hawaiian locale in From Here to Eternity (1. The theme song to High Noon - . Kramer, in his autobiography, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: A Life in Hollywood, wrote: . I became so enamored of the song, I overused it, allowing it to cover some of Cooper's most dramatic moments. When we finally had the picture ready for its first preview, which was to be in Inglewood, the song was everywhere in the movie. By the time we got halfway through the showing, the audience was obviously restless. Before we were three- quarters of the way through, I knew why. At each repetition of the song, they started to laugh and then mockingly follow the lyrics. After the disastrous preview, everyone said I should get rid of . Fortunately I didn't agree. I insisted that the song was great and that I'd simply used it too much. I redid the soundtrack and forsook at least half of the . Lloyd Bridges, who plays Gary Cooper's bitter rival and deputy, is the father of actors Beau and Jeff Bridges. Gary Cooper's Oscar. Warner Baxter won in 1. In Old Arizona (1. Lee Marvin for Cat Ballou (1. John Wayne for True Grit (1. The most recent nominations for actors in a Western include Kevin Costner in Dance With Wolves (1. Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven (1. Famous Quotes from HIGH NOON: Will Kane: I'm tired of people telling me what to do. Helen Ramirez: If Kane was my man, I'd never leave him. I'd get a gun and fight. Judge Percy Mettrick: Have you forgotten what he is, how he promised to come back and kill you? He sat in that chair and said, 'I'll come back, Will Kane. I'll come back and kill you. A town that won't defend itself deserves no help. It's all for nothing. There's got to be some better way for people to live. Will Kane: It's no good. I've got to go back, Amy. They're making me run. I've never run before. Compiled by Scott Mc. Gee. back to top. High Noon (1. 95. The Big Idea Behind HIGH NOONProducer Stanley Kramer and writer Carl Foreman had both read John Cunningham's short story . The two men decided to call the film High Noon, which had once been the temporary working title for Home of the Brave (1. Kramer with a screenplay by Foreman. But it was the latter, not Kramer, who actually negotiated the screen rights to Cunningham's short story. If Kramer had bought the story, the rights would have undoubtedly cost much more than the $2. Foreman paid because Kramer was a well- known Hollywood producer among publishing circles.
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