HIGH NOON (1952)

   Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Katy Jurado, Lloyd Bridges, Tex Ritter(theme song), Fred Zinnemann (director).

   Released in 1952 at the height of anti-Communist paranoia in the United States, High Noon was almost immediately associated with those who were unpatriotic. Will Kane (Cooper), former sheriff, has just married Amy (Kelly), a young Quaker girl and, hence, a pacifist. The wedding is barely over when word comes that Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald) has been released from prison and is returning to town on the noon train—to get the sheriff. However, Kane is no longer sheriff, so others will have to take care of the problem. Kane leaves on his honeymoon with Amy, but at the edge of town he stops the buggy, thinking it is not right for him to leave. Amy begs him to continue, but Will cannot. Everything about who he is as a man says he cannot back down from Frank Miller. So he rejects his bride and returns to town to try to gather a citizens group to help. He goes to the church. He goes to the saloon. He asks old friends. But no one will help him, not even his young deputy. The music becomes more intense. Time is running out, and it looks like Will Kane will have to face Miller and his rowdies (including Jack Elam) alone at high noon. The film plays out, and everywhere Will goes he sees a clock ticking down the minutes. The subplot involves Kane’s former lover Helen (Jurado) deliberately inflaming Amy’s jealousy so that Amy will help her husband. High Noonis probably the best of the cold war Westerns.

   See also CODE OF THE WEST.