High Noon (1952) #27

"High Noon" is not just a western. It's a story of ordinary, good people, refusing to stand up for what is right, who ultimately cause ruin for the good person who's doing the right thing.  More specifically, it can be directly linked to the nasty business of Hollywood blacklisting in the 1940's and 50's.  The blacklisting was a failure  of Hollywood, or of the intellectuals involved, or perhaps society as a whole.  The studios were complicit as was much of Hollywood; they allowed it to happen.   When someone is doing the right thing and the "good people" don't join the fight, then almost anything can happen.  This is exactly what took place in "High Noon", where a Marshall faces four gunmen alone or in Hollywood, where hundreds and hundreds of professionals had their lives diminished or ruined.

The screenplay was written by Carl Foreman who was blacklisted by HUAC before the movie was released.  He fled to England and later worked on another movie on this list ("The Bridge on the River Kwai").  He was a member of the communist party in the late 30's so I guess he deserved it, right?  He refused to name names and was therefore considered an 'uncooperative witness' so..."Buh Bye Now".

Back to the movie at hand.  Gary Cooper is a prime example of what the hero in a western should be.  He is standing alone against all odds and refusing to leave or run or back down, even when those around him are doing so.  Refusing to give up and willing to die for ideals and nothing more.  This probably relates all the way back to the birth of Christianity.  Christ had the choice to leave or run or back down, but he didn't.  If you have faith, you believe he was given the opportunity to back down in the Garden of Gethsemane but didn't.  He stayed the course for higher ideals.  Perhaps this is why the story resonates so strongly in western culture.

One of the first examples of revisionist Westerns, the movie made some departures from the romanticism of earlier westerns.  Cooper was 50 when this movie was made and there were criticisms that he was too old to play the part.  He was almost 30 years older than Grace Kelly who played his Quaker wife.  He looked older than he was at times because they used little to no makeup, which helped to show the wrinkles and worry on his face.  For most of the characters in the movie there is sweat and dirt, dust and grit.  There isn't a lot of the violence of later revisionist movies but this is a very early example.

The film follows the real chronology of the events.  There are some different cuts but it was released with a matching run time to the 85 minutes of the story between the wedding and the final departure from the town.  "24" did that more than 50 years later as a real time narrative.  These 85 minutes are spent while the Marshall tries to prepare for the return of Frank Miller from prison to be joined by three members of the old gang.  Most hope there won't be trouble when Miller returns, but everyone knows there will be.  No one is willing to stand up to the trouble.

Throughout "High Noon", clocks are used as an effective means to build the suspense.  The movie follows the gradual disillusionment of Cooper as he watches everyone around him refuse to stand up.  The judge who sentenced the returning murderer is first, his deputy Pell (Lloyd Bridges) is second and that sets up the realization this isn't going to go well for "Coop".   His woman, friends, co-workers and fellow town members all can't or won't or hide to avoid the trouble.  Side note (sorry, yes it's another one) Bridges was Grey Listed by HUAC and Cooper et. al. worked to get him on the film.

The movie is wonderful.  I might have mentioned in another post that Grace Kelly is a knockout.  Her film debut was a fine start and while the character is a little one dimensional she could stand there mute for most of the movie really.  Cooper is the archetype for the strong silent type...well almost silent...and many of the character actors are superb.  A really young Col. Potter of MASH fame (Harry Morgan) and an almost baby faced Jack Elam make appearances.   One of Cooper's best friends is Thomas Mitchell who played the bumbling Uncle Billy in Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life".  An interesting bit of trivia is this was the movie debut of both Kelly and Lee Van Cleef.  Kelly wins this one since she has lines of dialog.  Van Cleef doesn't have a one.

John Wayne hated the movie and thought it was extremely "Un-American" but ironically accepted the Oscar for Cooper's win of best actor for him since Gary wasn't able to attend.  Wayne was credited with saying he would never regret helping to blacklist the screenwriter Foreman.  Wayne and the director of yesterday's blog movie ("Bringing Up Baby") made "Rio Bravo" in response to "High Noon".  They did see the talent of Dimitri Tiomkin, however, who did the scores for both movies.  "Rio Bravo" then spawned "El Dorado" which was also a Hawkes/Duke collaboration.

Without any of the background and the political backdrop of the time, the movie should still be here.  With that additional flavour, it most certainly should be here.