High Noon (1952) starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Ian MacDonald
High Noon – starring Gary Cooper & Grace Kelly. Cooper won an Academy Award for his role as the aging lawman who stands alone to defend his town from hardened outlaws.
Editorial review of High Noon courtesy of Amazon.com
Innovative for its time, the suspenseful story unfolds in approximate real time (from 10:40 a.m. to high noon in an 84-minute film), and many interpreted Foreman’s drama as an allegorical reflection of apathy and passive acceptance of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anticommunist campaign. Political underpinnings aside, this remains a milestone of its genre (often referred to as the first “adult” Western), and Cooper is flawless in his Oscar-winning role. —Jeff Shannon
Unfolding in real time, the tension builds as we race ever closer to the climactic duel from which the film takes its name. For his career-defining role, Cooper would go on to win the Oscar® for Best Actor. High Noon s stellar cast also includes Lloyd Bridges (Try and Get Me), Thomas Mitchell (It s a Wonderful Life), Katy Jurado (Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid), Otto Kruger (Saboteur), Lon Chaney (The Wolf Man), Henry Morgan (Strategic Air Command), Jack Elam (Hannie Caulder) and Lee Van Clef (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). High Noon won a total four Academy Awards including Best Editing, Best Score (Dimitri Tiomkin, The Old Man and the Sea) and Best Song, Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin’, written by Tiomkin and Ned Washington and sung by Tex Ritter. High Noon also received Oscar® nominations for Best Picture (Stanley Kramer, producer), Best Director (Fred Zinnemann) and Best Screenplay (Carl Foreman).
Cast of characters
- Gary Cooper (The Fountainhead) … Marshal Will Kane
- Thomas Mitchell (The Fighting Sullivans) … Mayor Jonas Henderson
- Lloyd Bridges (Sahara) … Deputy Marshal Harvey Pell
- Katy Jurado … Helen Ramírez
- Grace Kelly (Dial M for Murder) … Amy Fowler Kane
- Otto Kruger (Dracula’s Daughter) … Judge Percy Mettrick
- Lon Chaney Jr. (Of Mice and Men) … Martin Howe (as Lon Chaney)
- Harry Morgan (The Apple Dumpling Gang) … Sam Fuller
- Ian MacDonald … Frank Miller
- Eve McVeagh … Mildred Fuller
- Morgan Farley … Dr. Mahin – Minister
- Harry Shannon The Mummy’s Ghost [1944] … Cooper
- Lee Van Cleef (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral) … Jack Colby
- Robert J. Wilke (The Magnificent Seven) … Jim Pierce
- Sheb Wooley … Ben Miller