Western film, directed by
Fred Zinnemann and written by
Carl Foreman, based on a story by
John W. Cunningham. It was released in 1952.
Gary Cooper plays
Will Kane, a
sheriff in a small town. He's just gotten married to a
Quaker woman (played by
Grace Kelly) and is about to leave on his
honeymoon, when he learns that a gang of thugs are coming to town to kill him. While he was prepared to retire to make his
pacifist wife happy, he nevertheless decides that he has to
defend his town.
Unfortunately, absolutely
no one is willing to help him, and most reveal themselves as
craven cowards who would prefer to leave Kane to fight and die
alone rather than stick their necks out and offer him any assistance.
The movie takes place in
real time, and the
tension and
suspense mounts steadily as
12 o'clock -- the noon train is carrying the gang's
leader -- grows closer and closer.
Cooper delivers a
tense and brutally
realistic performance as a man who knows he's going to be killed defending a bunch of
spineless worms, but knows that he has to do it anyway because it's his job.
For many movie fans, this is one of the best Westerns ever made, rivaling or exceeding many of
John Ford's classics.
The title theme, highly recommended by
kthejoker and heard throughout the movie, is
Tex Ritter's "
Do Not Forsake Me: The Ballad of High Noon."