(Fred Zinnemann, US 1952, 84 min., 35mm)

Gary Gooper won an Oscar® for his portrayal of a beloved and admired small town lawman who is ultimately abandoned to fight four deadly outlaws. A landmark in Westerns for mature audiences, director Zinnemann and screenwriter Carl Foreman ingeniously develop characters while the action unfolds in real time. Grace Kelly, in her first major role, costars as Cooper’s supportive wife, and Tex Ritter croons the memorable title song: Do Not Foresake Me, Oh My Darlin’. A newly preserved 35mm print, with restored picture and audio, will be shown.

Click here for an extensive article on Fred Zinnemann, in honor of his centennial, by film critic Emanuel Levy.

This film appears as part of the Auteur Showdown series. Click here, To read more about auteur directors working in the western genre.
 
 
 

Program Notes

High Noon

~Michael T. Dennis, Department of Media Study, University at Buffalo

Among those films that make up the classic Westerns, none is perhaps as central to the genre’s history as Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon. Released in 1952, it challenged the conventions of what was, at the time, one of the most successful modes of Hollywood storytelling. While Westerns had previously been characterized by the presence of a gallant hero, High Noon instead presents Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper): friendless and full of doubt, but “a man of pride… the virtue that is the summation of most of the other virtues” (French 102). Awaiting the arrival of an old nemesis on the 12:00 train, the audience passes the time with Kane and his new bride, Ann Fowler (Grace Kelly) where it quickly becomes apparent that Zinnemann’s West is not the Technicolor Eden other directors sought to imagine onscreen. Owing much to Floyd Crosby’s newsreel-inspired cinematography, the events of High Noon occur in a stark world of black & white realism. With minimal action, the film becomes a study of anticipation and an indictment of the societies of weak-willed men.

For all of these reasons, High Noon met with mixed critical reception upon its release. Audiences were understandably surprised at seeing their beloved Western reach a new stage of maturity, and in fact the film’s producers harbored their own misgivings. Questions surrounded Zinnemann’s ability, as an Austrian Jew, to tell a decidedly American story. Gary Cooper’s star power was thought to be waning, and Grace Kelly had yet to distinguish herself from her lackluster television career. With a character-driven story meant to appeal to adults rather than cap pistol-toting kids, High Noon was made quickly for a paltry $740,000.

Hollywood responded favorably though, bestowing four Academy Awards (Best Actor for Cooper, Best Film Editing, and two awards for the film’s music). Where High Noon had been revolutionary, taking the Western beyond what directors John Ford and Howard Hawks ever envisioned, it would itself become a point of departure and influence for other Western filmmakers including revisionists Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah.

High Noon’s historical significance is underscored by its political subtext. A victim of the Hollywood blacklist, screenwriter Carl Foreman intended his story to parallel the situation in which he and his colleagues were forced to stand alone against the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Just as Marshal Kane finds the residents of Hadleyville unwilling to help him fight Frank Miller, Foreman felt deserted by friends who were themselves afraid of becoming targets of McCarthyism. This analogy did not sit well with some, famously inspiring right-winger John Wayne to note his dislike of the film which he and others felt “lied about what they conceived of as the frontier spirit” (Tuska 70).

Controversy aside, High Noon took its place in cinema history. Gary Cooper went on to star in Westerns for another decade while Grace Kelly graduated to acclaimed roles in the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Fred Zinnemann established himself as not only a competent director, but a master of suspenseful originality. The American Western was reborn.

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For Further Reading

French, Peter A. Cowboy Metaphysics: Ethics and Death in Westerns. Lanham: Rowman
and Littlefield, 1997.
Tuska, Jon. The American West in Film: Critical Approaches to the Western. Westport:
Greenwood Press, 1985.