Will Kane (Gary Cooper) is marrying a peace-loving Quaker (Grace Kelly), when news arrives that Frank Miller (Ian McDonald) – the murderer Kane sent to jail – has been pardoned and is due in on the noon train. As Miller’s accomplices (including a young, silent Lee Van Cleef in his first film) wait at the station, Kane appeals for help. But the townspeople refuse to risk their lives by standing by him against the outlaw who wants revenge. They urge Kane to leave town, but the Marshall must face his responsibilities.The film plays out (more or less) in real-time. This creates suspense and tension very effectively as various clocks and mentions of passing time reveal the deadline ticking closer. Meanwhile, the film’s Oscar-winning theme song (“Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling”) insists on the situation with its driving, heart-beat like rhythms. The abrupt start and short (85 minute) running-time of the film, together with the temporal continuity maintained from having the film in real-time, also act to give us the sensation of discovering lives that existed before the film, in a town with a complex past.
High Noon is a simple but very well acted and well directed suspense Western. Its finale, when Kane is left alone against four villains, is a powerful precursor of the one-man-against-an-army action movies that would follow.
