Gary Cooper is Hollywood's perfect hero, the very embodiment of integrity and grace in this greatest of Westerns. As a newly married town marshal, he must balance an innate sense of justice and duty with loyalty to his beautiful new--and pacifist--bride when he is left by an ungrateful town to face a gang of deadly outlaws alone. As we watch spellbound, film time is real time as the showdown grows ever closer. HIGH NOON is a masterpiece that is frequently interpreted as a parable about artists left to "stand alone" and face persecution during the HUAC Hollywood blacklisting. However, Howard Hawks allegedly devised RIO BRAVO as an answer to the film's "wimpiness," and John Wayne once declared HIGH NOON as un-American--he was apparently offended by the ending of the film, which shows Sheriff Kane removing his badge and tossing it in the dirt.

As Sheriff Will Kane prepares to retire from his law-making, gun-fighting duties and marry his pacifist girlfriend, he receives word that a man he sent to prison has been pardoned. Kane initially escapes, but returns to protect the town from this killer and his band of outlaws only to find hostility and resentment among the uncooperative townsfolk.

HIGH NOON was an original selection to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1989.

The New York Film Critics chose HIGH NOON as Best Film of 1952 and named Fred Zinnemann Best Director of 1952.

Jack Elam, who would make a career out of being an often drunk minor character in Westerns, is the man in the drunk tank in HIGH NOON.

A made-for-TV sequel was aired in 1980. "High Noon Part II: Return of Will Kane" starred Lee Majors in the Gary Cooper role, joined by David Carradine, J. A. Preston, Pernell Roberts, and M. Emmet Walsh.

Academy Award Nominations: 7, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay.

DVD Features:

Region 1
Keep Case
Full Frame - 1.33
Audio:
Dolby Digital Mono - English
Disc: THX
Additional Release Material:
Audio Commentary: Maria Cooper-Janis, Jonathan Foreman, Tim Zinneman, John Ritter
Trailers: Original Theatrical Trailer
Documentary:
1. THE MAKING OF HIGH NOON - Leonard Maltin - Host
2. BEHIND HIGH NOON
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Track Access:
1. DO NOT FORSAKE ME, OH MY DARLIN'
Text/Photo Galleries:
Production Stills

Gary Cooper: Oscar-winning actor, HIGH NOON, SERGEANT YORK
Grace Kelly: Oscar winning American actress, THE COUNTRY GIRL, MOGAMBO
Thomas Mitchell: Oscar-winning actor, STAGECOACH, GONE WITH THE WIND
Lloyd Bridges: American Actor
Katy Jurado: Mexican Supporting Actress
Otto Kruger: American Actor
Lon Chaney: American actor, THE WOLFMAN (1941)
Harry Morgan: American Actor, M*A*S*H TV Series
Ian MacDonald: American Character Actor
Eve McVeagh: 

Fred Zinnemann: Director/producer

Stanley Kramer: American Producer/Director
Elmo Williams: Editor/Director/Producer; Producer, ERNEST GOES TO CAMP

Carl Foreman: Screenwriter, BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI

Dimitri Tiomkin: Composer

Harry Gerstad: American Editor

"...Filmdom's definitive dusty-street shootout..."
"...A classic Western..."
"...Gary Cooper forged a new kind of hero as a lawman left swinging in the wind. Also innovative was its use of real time..."
"[A] new kind of American fable: the socially conscious western..."
"Director Fred Zinnemann's iconic Western plays like a Johnny Cash song..." -- Grade: B
"...The almost silent final 15 minutes have more excitement than most of today's volume-cranked blockbusters can even dream of..."