'High Noon'

Old westerns have the best movie posters. Always colorful and there were typically a lot of different designs. One always seemed to have some artistic value and the other were just selling the film.

I especially like this one (above).

The story of High Noon is simple: The marshal of a western hamlet is about to quit his job after getting married when a criminal, who the marshal jailed, comes back into town where his gang is already set. There is going to be a gunfight at "high noon," to settle things.

Gary Cooper's Kane feels an obligation to see the thing through. His wife, Grace Kelly, is a Quaker and sees no reason to look back now.

He stays, she stays, kills a guy and the good guys win. However, there is so much more to this film.

It is considered an allegory for individuals not standing up to the House Un-American Activities Committee, which were baiting suspected communists in Hollywood. The film itself was called "un-American" by a number of sources, including John Wayne, who later apparently complained about not getting the role.

The screenwriter Carl Foreman was blacklisted by the committee after the film was released. Foreman was almost tossed out of the production of the film until several people, including Cooper intervened and kept him on. Cooper also was instrumental in getting Lloyd Bridges a role, despite suspicion of his dealings with the communist party.

The film was a favorite of many presidents, mostly Bill Clinton and Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was also a marquee statement film for workers in Poland, who, after the film was released, plastered Cooper's likeness on posters carrying a ballot. All of this in the 1980s, 30 years after the film was released.

The film also runs in real time. It is set between 10:35 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. That's 100 minutes and the film is 84 minutes long. However, there are a constant flow of clocks and watches throughout the film that shows the real time.