rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 1952
Directed by Fred Zinnemann; produced by Stanley Kramer; screenplay by Carl Foreman
Starring Gary Cooper, Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Grace Kelly, Otto Kruger, Lon Chaney
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
This classic western, that probably works best as a thriller, builds up to a
climax in such a terrific way that the climax itself is a little
disappointing. It is definitely not bad but everything that has happened
before felt a little better. Gary Cooper is ex-Marshal Will Kane. The new
Marshal arrives the day after Will marries Amy (Grace Kelly), the day this
movie takes place. Unfortunately it is the day that Frank Miller is released
from prison and three of his friends arrive in town to wait for him. Frank
Miller (Ian MacDonald) has some unfinished business with Will Kane who
arrested him a couple of years ago. Amy and other people from the town try
to convince Will to leave the place but Will can not do that. He stays
Marshal for one day and hopes his friends will help him, but one after
another lets him down, including Deputy Harvey Pell, played by Lloyd
Bridges.
The first hour of the movie where Kane desperately tries to find support for
his confrontation with Miller is terrific. Miller's train will arrive at
noon and Kane discovers this eighty minutes before that time and the movie
almost plays in real time. The movie builds up suspense by putting a clock
in almost every scene so we count down with the characters. The movie
intercuts between Kane, the three friends of Miller and Amy who does not
agree with Kane's choice to stay and will leave with the noon train.
Sometimes we see another character, Helen Ramirez (Katy Jurado), who is
mainly there to add some melodrama. This is not meant in a negative way
since she also supports the main characters and defines the relations they
all have with each other.
Although the movie looks like a western in every single scene it is a
thriller disguised as a western. Of course the confrontation with a real
hero and a real villain fits perfectly in a western, but every thing that
leads up to the climax is told the way thrillers are told. 'Nick of Time'
starring Johnny Depp is a nice example of a newer film that uses the same
strategy as this one. You can even say that the climax is as disappointing
as in most thrillers. It fits the film and probably should be there but it
comes closer to the kind of ending as in 'Nick of Time' than as in the great
western 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. Still, it is not really bad, the
rest of the film is simply better. So most of the film is terrific, the
ending good enough, and that still makes 'High Noon' a very good classic.