High Noon

Genre: western (in black and white)

Also known as: Train sifflera trois fois (le)

With: Gary Cooper (Marshal Will Kane), Thomas Mitchell (Jonas Henderson, the Mayor), Lloyd Bridges (Harvey Pell, Will’s Deputy), Katy Jurado (Helen Ramirez), Grace Kelly (Amy Fowler Kane), Otto Kruger (Judge Percy Mettrick), Lon Chaney Jr. (Martin Howe), Harry Morgan (Sam Fuller), Ian MacDonald (Frank Miller)

Director: Fred Zinnemann

Screenplay: Carl Foreman (based on a story by John W. Cunningham)

Release: 1952

Studio: Stanley Kramer Productions

Rating: PG

MBiS score: 8.7/10 

 

I’m not afraid of death

But, oh, what will I do

If you leave me?* 

 

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Story-line: as soon as Miller, Colby and Pierce ride into Hadleyville, their presence inspires fear among the locals, even more so when news breaks out that Miller’s brother has been released from jail and is arriving on the noontime train. Simply put, those ne’er-do-wells are looking to take revenge on Will Kane, the outgoing lawman… and they don’t care if it’s Kane’s wedding day. Lovely Amy will be a widow before the day is done.

Pluses: a tone-perfect turn by Gary Cooper (in an Oscar-winning role), fine support from a radiant Grace Kelly, a solid Lloyd Bridges and Katy Jurado (as the enigmatic Helen), steady direction by a distinguished helmer, a rich and perceptive screenplay remarkable for its tightness, tension and complex character study, superb cinematography illustrating daily life in a frontier town, breathless editing, modest but pertinent production values and Tex Ritter’s poignant, Oscar-winning song.

Minuses: none I can think of.

Comments: in Fred Zinnemann’s tragic Western, the tall and slim Gary Cooper embodies a prototypical quiet hero faced with an impossible crisis. More than a simple shoot-’em-up, HIGH NOON is a disheartening tale about hatred, cowardice, duty and ungratefulness, a true classic as defined in my old Canadian Oxford Dictionary (‟a work… of lasting value”). The clock is ticking, Will’s efforts are fruitless and that damned train is due any minute now… 

 

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*High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me), written by Ned Washington and Dimitri Tiomkin.