High Noon

High Noon is the latest film I've seen as part of my project to see every film from the AFI top 100/Best Picture Academy Award winner that I haven't seen before. It is a western starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lon Chaney, and Lloyd Bridges in the first role I've ever seen him in that wasn't a spoof. Like The Crucible, this film is an allogory for the McCarthy era senate hearings on UnAmerican Activities. It is a western that plays in real time as the aging town marshall awaits the noon train that will mark the arrival of a pardoned killer he put away looking for revenge. He spends the hour and a half trying to find anyone in town to help him face the killer and his posse, but no one seems to want to step up in the marshall's time of need. This is one of the later Gary Cooper films and seems to be one of his best. He won the Oscar for best actor and very well deserved it. He finds a way to convey courage and fear and determination and desperation all at once. It was remade about 10 years ago and will no doubt be remade again someday soon, but I don't believe the mix of acting, story, photography, and that catchy/annoying Tex Ritter song can be recaptured. This isnow one of my favorite westerns