High Noon (1952)

On his last day in office, a U.S. Marshal (Gary Cooper) has just gotten married. But when he hears that a man (Ian MacDonald) who has vowed to kill him has just been given parole from a state prison, he is torn between staying and doing his duty and leaving with his Quaker bride (Grace Kelly), who abhors violence. Based on the short story THE TIN STAR by John W. Cunningham and directed by Fred Zinnemann (FROM HERE TO ETERNITY). This is one of the great westerns! With the assistance of a superb editor (Elmo Williams), Zinnemann has given us a tight and compact western played out in real time. For years since its release, its political subtext has been hotly debated but whether or not Carl Foreman intended the film as an allegory on the current (at the time) HUAC witch hunts, it works either with such a subtext or as a straight western. Dimitri Tiomkin's superb Oscar winning underscore is one of those rare film scores that are such a very part of the film's fabric that it's impossible to imagine the film's impact without it. The large cast includes Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Thomas Mitchell, Lee Van Cleef, Lon Chaney Jr., Otto Kruger and Robert J. Wilke.