High Noon

Plot

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 whom Kane sent to jail, has been released, and is arriving on the noon train. Miller's gang—his 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 simple—leave 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 Ramírez (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 then 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 entirely. 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 did not 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 visits a series of old friends and allies, but none can (or will) help: His predecessor, Marshal Howe (Lon Chaney Jr.) is old and arthritic; Judge Percy Mettrick (Otto Kruger), who sentenced Miller, flees on horseback, and urges Kane to do the same; townsman Herb Baker (James Millican) agrees to be deputized, but backs out when he realizes he is the only volunteer; Sam Fuller (Harry Morgan) hides in his house, sending his wife to the door to tell Kane he isn't home.

Kane writes out his will as the clock in his office ticks toward high noon. At the stables, Pell saddles a horse and tries to persuade Kane to mount it and leave town. Their conversation becomes an argument, and then a fist fight. Kane finally knocks his former deputy senseless, then goes into the street to face Miller and his gang. In one of the most iconic shots in film history, the camera rises and widens to show Kane standing alone on a deserted street in a deserted town.

The outlaws approach and the gunfight begins. Kane guns down Ben Miller and Colby, but is wounded in the process. As the train is about to leave the station, Amy hears the gunfire, leaps off, and runs back to town. Choosing her husband's life over her religious beliefs, she picks up Ben Miller's gun and shoots Pierce from behind, leaving only Frank Miller, who grabs Amy as a shield to force Kane into the open. Amy claws Miller's face and he pushes her to the ground, giving Kane a clear shot, and he shoots Miller dead.

Kane helps his bride to her feet and they embrace. As the townspeople emerge and cluster around him, Kane surveys them with bitter contempt, wordlessly throws his marshal's star in the dirt, and departs with Amy on their wagon.

Cast

Production

The creation and release of High Noon intersected with the second Red Scare and the Korean War. In 1947, while Carl Foreman was writing the screenplay, he was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during its investigation of "Communist propaganda and influence" in the Hollywood 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. 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 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 and additional pressure from Columbia Pictures president Harry Cohn, MPA president John Wayne, and Los Angeles Times gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, among others.

According to Darkness at High Noon: The Carl Foreman Documents—a 2002 documentary based in part on a lengthy 1952 letter from 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 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 a short story by John W. Cunningham called "The Tin Star". 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, a definitive 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".

Richard Fleischer later claimed he helped Carl Foreman develop the story of High Noon over eight weeks while driving to and from the set of The Clay Pigeon (1949) which they were making together. Fleischer says his RKO contract prevented him from directing High Noon.

Casting

John Wayne was originally offered the lead role in the film, but turned it down because he felt 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". Cooper was Wayne's longtime friend, and shared his conservative political views; he had been a "friendly witness" before HUAC, but did not implicate anyone as a suspected Communist, and later became a vigorous opponent of blacklisting. Ironically, Cooper won an Academy Award for his performance, and since he was working in Europe at the time, 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 and find my business manager and agent ... and find out why I didn't get High Noon instead of Cooper ..."

After Wayne turned down 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. He 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 (50 and 21, respectively). 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 him the Harvey Pell role, after seeing him in a touring production of Mister Roberts, on the condition that he 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 dialog.

Filming

High Noon was filmed in the late summer/early fall of 1951 in several locations in California. The opening scenes, under the credits, were shot at Iverson Movie Ranch near Los Angeles. A few town scenes were shot in Columbia State Historic Park, a preserved Gold Rush mining town near Sonora, but most of the street scenes were filmed on the Columbia lot in Burbank. St. Joseph's Church in Tuolumne City was used for exterior shots of the Hadleyville church. The railroad was the old Sierra Railroad in Jamestown, a few miles south of Columbia, now known as Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, and often nicknamed "the movie railroad" due to its frequent use in films and television shows. The railroad station was built for the film alongside a water tower at Warnerville, about 15 miles to the southwest.

Cooper was reluctant to film the fight scene with Bridges due to ongoing problems with his back, but did, without the use of a stunt double. He wore no makeup, to emphasize his character's anguish and fear, which was probably intensified by pain from recent surgery to remove a bleeding ulcer.

The running time of the story almost precisely parallels the running time of the film itself—an effect heightened by frequent shots of clocks, to remind the characters (and the audience) that the villain will be arriving on the noon train.

The movie's theme song, "Do Not Forsake Me, My Darling", became a major hit on the Country-Western charts for Tex Ritter, and later, a pop hit for Frankie Laine as well. Its popularity set a precedent for theme songs that were featured in many subsequent Western films. Composer Dimitri Tiomkin's score and song, with lyrics by Ned Washington, became popular for years afterwards and Tiomkin became in demand for future westerns in the 1950s like Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and Last Train From Gun Hill.

Reception

The film earned an estimated $3.4 million at the North American box office in 1952.

Upon its release, critics and audiences expecting chases, fights, spectacular scenery, and other common Western film elements were dismayed to find them largely replaced by emotional and moralistic dialogue until the climactic final scenes. Some critics scoffed at the unorthodox rescue of the hero by the heroine. David Bishop argued that pacifist Amy's detached and abstract decision to shoot a man in the back "pulls pacifism toward apollonian decadence". Alfred Hitchcock thought Kelly's performance "rather mousy" and lacking in animation; only in later films, he said, did she show her true star quality.

In Chapter XXXV of The Virginian by Owen Wister, there is a description of a very similar incident. Trampas (a villain) calls out the Virginian, who has a new bride waiting whom he might lose if he goes ahead with the gunfight. High Noon has even been described as a "straight remake" of the 1929 film version of The Virginian in which Cooper also starred.

The film was criticized in the Soviet Union as "glorification of the individual". The American Left lauded it as an allegory against blacklisting and McCarthyism, but it gained respect in the conservative community as well. It has been cited as a favorite by several U.S. presidents. Dwight Eisenhower screened the film at the White House, and Bill Clinton hosted a record 17 White House screenings. "It's no accident that politicians see themselves as Gary Cooper in High Noon," Clinton said. "Not just politicians, but anyone who's forced to go against the popular will. Any time you're alone and you feel you're not getting the support you need, Cooper's Will Kane becomes the perfect metaphor." Ronald Reagan cited High Noon as his favorite film, due to the protagonist's strong commitment to duty and the law.

By contrast, John Wayne told an interviewer that he considered High Noon "the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life", and later teamed with director Howard Hawks to make Rio Bravo in response. "I made Rio Bravo because I didn't like High Noon," Hawks explained. "Neither did Duke [Wayne]. I didn't think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help. And who saves him? His Quaker wife. That isn't my idea of a good Western."

Zinnemann responded, "I admire Hawks very much. I only wish he'd leave my films alone!" In a 1973 interview, he added, "I'm rather surprised at [Hawks' and Wayne's] thinking. Sheriffs are people and no two people are alike. The story of High Noon takes place in the Old West but it is really a story about a man's conflict of conscience. In this sense it is a cousin to A Man for All Seasons. In any event, respect for the Western hero has not been diminished by High Noon."

Accolades

High Noon received seven Academy Award nominations:

Entertainment Weekly ranked Will Kane on their list of The 20 All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture.

Katy Jurado won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Helen Ramírez, the first Mexican actress to receive the award. Cinematographer Floyd Crosby (father of musician David Crosby) also won a Golden Globe Award for his work on the film.

American Film Institute recognition

Cultural influence

In 1989, 22-year-old Polish graphic designer Tomasz Sarnecki transformed Marian Stachurski's 1959 Polish variant of the High Noon poster into a Solidarity election poster for the first partially free elections in communist Poland. The poster, which was displayed all over Poland, shows Cooper armed with a folded ballot saying "Wybory" (i.e., elections) in his right hand while the Solidarity logo is pinned to his vest above the sheriff's badge. The message at the bottom of the poster reads: "W samo południe: 4 czerwca 1989," which translates to "High Noon: 4 June 1989."

As former Solidarity leader Lech Wałęsa wrote, in 2004,

Under the headline "At High Noon" runs the red Solidarity banner and the date—June 4, 1989—of the poll. It was a simple but effective gimmick that, at the time, was misunderstood by the Communists. They, in fact, tried to ridicule the freedom movement in Poland as an invention of the "Wild" West, especially the U.S. But the poster had the opposite impact: Cowboys in Western clothes had become a powerful symbol for Poles. Cowboys fight for justice, fight against evil, and fight for freedom, both physical and spiritual. Solidarity trounced the Communists in that election, paving the way for a democratic government in Poland. It is always so touching when people bring this poster up to me to autograph it. They have cherished it for so many years and it has become the emblem of the battle that we all fought together.

The 1981 science fiction film Outland, starring Sean Connery as a federal agent on an interplanetary mining outpost, has been compared to High Noon due to similarities in themes and plot.

High Noon is referenced several times on the HBO drama series The Sopranos. Tony Soprano cites Gary Cooper's character as the archetype of what a man should be, mentally tough and stoic. He frequently laments, "Whatever happened to Gary Cooper?" and refers to Will Kane as the "strong, silent type". The iconic ending to the film is shown on a television during an extended dream sequence in the fifth-season episode "The Test Dream".

High Noon inspired the 2008 hip-hop song of the same name by rap artist Kinetics, in which High Noon is mentioned along with several other classic Western films, drawing comparisons between rap battles and Western-film street showdowns.

Sequels and remakes