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Playboy Sean Connery John Wayne Sam Peck Biography & Facts

High Noon is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense of duty is tested when he must decide to either face a gang of killers alone, or leave town with his new wife. Though mired in controversy at the time of its release due to its political themes, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four (Actor, Editing, Score and Song) as well as four Golden Globe Awards (Actor, Supporting Actress, Score, and Black and White Cinematography). The award-winning score was written by Ukraine-born composer Dimitri Tiomkin. High Noon was selected by the Library of Congress as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 1989. An iconic film whose story has been partly or completely repeated in later film productions, its ending in particular has inspired numerous later films, including but not just limited to westerns. Plot In Hadleyville, a small town in New Mexico Territory, Marshal Will Kane, newly married to Amy Fowler, prepares to retire. The happy couple will soon depart to raise a family and run a store in another town. However, word arrives that Frank Miller, a vicious outlaw whom Kane sent to prison, has been released and will arrive by the noon train, one day ahead of the new marshal. Miller's gang—his younger brother Ben, Jack Colby, and Jim Pierce—wait at the station. For Amy, a devout Quaker and pacifist, the solution is simple—leave town before Miller arrives—but Kane's sense of duty and honor make him stay. Besides, he says, Miller and his gang would hunt him down anyway. Amy gives Kane an ultimatum: she is leaving on the noon train, with or without him. Kane visits old friends and allies, but none can or will help. Judge Percy Mettrick, who sentenced Miller, flees and urges Kane to do the same. Harvey Pell, Kane's young deputy, is bitter that Kane did not recommend him as his successor; he says he will stand with Kane only if Kane "puts the word in" for him with the city fathers. When Kane refuses, Pell turns in his badge and pistol. Kane's efforts to round up a posse at Ramírez's Saloon and the church are met with fear and hostility. Some townspeople, worried that a gunfight would damage the town's reputation, urge Kane to avoid the confrontation. Some are Miller's friends, but others resent that Kane cleaned up the town in the first place. Others believe that Kane's fight is not the town's responsibility. Sam Fuller hides in his house, forcing his wife Mildred to tell Kane he is not home. Jimmy offers to help, but he is blind in one eye, sweating, and unsteady. The mayor encourages Kane to leave town. Martin Howe, Kane's predecessor, is too old and arthritic. Herb Baker agrees to be deputized, but backs out when he realizes he is the only volunteer. Kane admires 14-year-old Johnny's courage, but refuses his help. While waiting at the hotel for the train, Amy confronts Helen Ramírez, who was once Miller's lover, then Kane's, then Pell's. Amy believes the reason Kane refuses to leave town is because he wants to protect her, but Helen reveals there is no lingering attachment on Kane's part and she, too, is leaving. When Helen questions why Amy will not stay with Kane, she explains that both her brother and father were gunned down by criminals, a tragedy that converted her to Quakerism. Helen nonetheless chides Amy for not standing by her husband in his hour of need, saying that if she was in Amy's place, she would take up a gun and fight alongside Kane. Pell saddles a horse and tries to persuade Kane to take it. They end up in a fist fight. After knocking Pell senseless, Kane returns to his office to write out his will. As the clock ticks toward noon, Kane goes into the street to face Miller and his gang. Amy and Ramirez ride by on a wagon, bound for the train. The train arrives, and Miller steps off as the two ladies board. Kane walks down the deserted main street alone. He manages to kill Ben Miller in the opening salvo. Just before the train departs, Amy hears the gunfire and runs back to town. Kane takes refuge in a stable, and Colby is killed when he comes in after him. Miller sets fire to the stable to flush him out. Kane frees the horses and tries to escape on one, only to be shot off and cornered. Despite her religious beliefs, Amy picks up Pell's pistol and shoots Pierce from behind, leaving only Frank Miller, who grabs Amy as a human shield to force Kane into the open. When Amy claws Miller's face, he pushes her to the ground and Kane shoots him dead. The couple embrace. As the townspeople emerge, Kane smiles at Johnny, but looks angrily at the rest of the crowd. He throws his marshal's star in the dirt and departs with Amy. Cast Main cast Uncredited Production According to Darkness at High Noon: The Carl Foreman Documents—a 2002 documentary based in part on a lengthy 1952 letter from screenwriter Carl Foreman to film critic Bosley Crowther—Foreman's role in the creation and production of High Noon has been unfairly downplayed over the years in favor of producer Stanley Kramer's. Foreman told Crowther that the film originated from a four-page plot outline he wrote that turned out to be very similar to a short story by John W. Cunningham entitled "The Tin Star". Foreman purchased the film rights to Cunningham's story and wrote the screenplay. By the time the documentary aired, most of the principals were dead, including Kramer, Foreman, Zinnemann, and Cooper. Victor Navasky, author of Naming Names, an authoritative account of the Hollywood blacklist, told a reporter that, based on his interviews with Kramer's widow and others, the documentary seemed "one-sided, and the problem is it makes a villain out of Stanley Kramer, when it was more complicated than that". Years later, director Richard Fleischer claimed that he helped Foreman develop the story of High Noon over the course of eight weeks while driving to and from the set of the 1949 film The Clay Pigeon, which they were making together. Fleischer said that his RKO contract prevented him from directing High Noon. There is a description of an incident very similar to the central plotline of High Noon in Chapter XXXV of The Virginian, by Owen Wister, in which Trampas (a villain) calls out The Virginian, who has a new bride waiting whom he might lose if he engages in a gunfight. High Noon has even been described as a "straight remake" of the 1929 film version of The Virginian, which also featured Gary Cooper in a starring role. The production and release of High Noon intersected with the Second Red Scare in the United States and the Korean War. In 1951, during production of the film, screenwriter Carl Foreman was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during its inv.... Discover the Playboy Sean Connery John Wayne Sam Peck popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Playboy Sean Connery John Wayne Sam Peck books.