On Marshal Gary Cooper's wedding day to Grace Kelly, Lee Van Cleef, Sheb Woolley, and Robert J. Wilkie wait at the train station for the noon arriving train. It will be carrying their former gang leader, Ian McDonald who Cooper sent to prison and who's vowing vengeance.

From the gitgo it's made abundantly clear that these are four nasty dudes who the town ought to deal with expeditiously. But the good elements of the town have grown fat and lazy and content to throw the responsibility of law and order on Cooper's shoulders. And he's quitting anyway, going on his honeymoon with his Quaker bride. A new marshal is going to arrive the next day. Why get involved. They want Cooper to just take his problem elsewhere. That view is probably best expressed by Thomas Mitchell in the scene at the church.

Speaking of the scene in the church my favorite business in High Noon is when preacher Morgan Farley tells Cooper how dare he come into the church because a few hours earlier he didn't see fit to get married in that church. What a set of priorities.

Grace Kelly had her breakthrough role in High Noon. She's a Quaker with deeply held pacifist principles. She's marrying a lawman, but one who's quitting that life. Her best scene in the film is with Katy Jurado who is Cooper's former gal pal. Katy explains the facts of life to Grace about marriage and the duty of standing by your man, long before Tammy Wynette ever sung about it. When the time comes, Grace does the right thing.

Like his rival in western films, John Wayne, Gary Cooper had one of the great faces for movie closeups. Back in the day it used to be a running joke about how Cooper's dialog used to be just "yep" and "nope." It was a good deal more than that. But High Noon's plot is carried quite a bit by the many closeup shots of Cooper. His face tells more than ten pages of speech and it keeps the tension of the film going. Man did not win two Academy Awards for nothing.

Of course the theme of High Noon is also expressed in Dimitri Tiomkin and Ned Washington's Academy Award winning song, sung at times during the film by Tex Ritter. However the big hit record of the film was from Frankie Laine. I doubt there has ever been a movie theme song that expressed everything you needed to know about the motivation of the central character in the film. I don't think High Noon would have attained the classic status it has without that song.

Another great performance in the film is Lon Chaney, Jr. as the former town marshal, old and cynical, who'd like to help Cooper out, but at his age and health realizes he'd be more of a hindrance. He's the only one that Cooper understands and forgives.

The final gun battle is choreographed like a ballet, it's that good. Maybe the best ever filmed. Can't describe it, you got to see it.

The interaction of the town's responsibilities for maintaining law and order and Cooper's personal pride and integrity have been dealt with in various ways in other films. I'd check out Rio Bravo, Warlock, Death of a Gunfighter, Welcome to Hard Times, all of these take a different slant on the same themes.

But personally I've always liked what the townspeople did in a Frank Sinatra film, Johnny Concho. That's what the people of Hadleyville should have done right at the start.

No seriously, I was surprised at how much I loved High Noon. It is intelligent. It is tense. It is suspenseful. It is taut. And it is exciting. Exactly what a psychological western should be like. The cinematography is beautiful and the costumes and sets are wonderful. The story is marvellously suspenseful in structure and mood, and is this movie controversial? Yes it is, but that is by no means a bad thing, if anything I admire an ambitious movie and High Noon is that. The writing is nothing less than intelligent and smart, and even better than that are the sterling performances and the rock solid direction. Gary Cooper gives a superb and powerful performance, Grace Kelly is luminous, Lloyd Bridges is brilliant as the deputy, Katy Jurado is suitably fiery and Thomas Mitchell is great in one of his better performances. The film also has the benefit of being richly scored, the music here is a delight to the ears and perfectly placed. Overall, a masterpiece of a film and of its genre. 10/10 Bethany Cox

This is a perfect example of a great movie that can say a lot in well under two hours. Unlike some incredibly overlong and overrated films (such as THE LAST EMPEROR and THE English PATIENT), the people responsible for HIGH NOON managed to create a great work of art in only 85 minutes! Now I am not saying this is the best Western ever made--I can think of a select few that I actually think are a tiny bit better--but only by a hair's breadth. I do prefer my favorite short Western still is THE OX-BOW INCIDENT and the long but very satisfying BIG COUNTRY is an amazing and under-appreciated film that might also be better. However, what makes all three films so great is that they provide wonderful sociological lessons that are timeless and transcend the genre. The OX-BOW INCIDENT confronts mob mentality, THE BIG COUNTRY addresses what it's like to be a REAL man (not a cartoon cowboy) and HIGH NOON combines BOTH plots from these other two films. An exceptionally well-written film with great, great acting and insight into human frailty. About the only negative for me was the ever-present theme sung by Tex Ritter. After a while, it did get on my nerves just a bit!!! A great American film--not to be missed.