High Noon (1952)

High Noon (1952) is a renowned suspense classic Western that is not in any sense of the term a film noir, although it yet reflects many film noir values, and was made by many film makers associated by the style, while at the same time being a product of its exact age, and so reflects many of the concerns social and political of the film noir style, while remaining faithful to its own underlying genre. That of the Western.

Not even in this sense then can High Noon (1952) be quantified as a film noir western, like many movies of the period may be. And yet there are so many minute noir markers placed within, and a certain sensitivity to the ailing male and some more complex female relations, as well as commentary on the public body politic, and the influence on community of criminal fear, direct from the government as much as from the villains in our midst, those determined unto lawlessness. 

As with any classic movie, that classic status afford and the catch-all idiot convenience of the term classic, does imply a flexibility of interpretation and a certain inscrutable ability to be read multiply, and to imply much about the culture which produced it, and so for example here within High Noon (1952) it is not uncommon for those within the culture of commentary to find echoes of the HUAC process and system, which made efforts to purge the beautiful film industry of its liberal leanings, as the century's structural obsession with fighting communism moved into high, high gear.

Thus, this now refers you to a the book High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic (Bloomsbury), by Glenn Frankel. 

This book describes how Stanley Kramer and Carl Foreman were two Jewish intellectuals from New York and Chicago, both sons or grandsons of Eastern European immigrants. Kramer, born in Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan, was raised by a single mother after his father left. He graduated from NYU at 19 and began his career in Hollywood with a screenwriting fellowship at Twentieth Century Fox, later working at Republic, United Artists, and MGM. Known for his disdain for authority, Kramer quickly made a name for himself.

Carl Foreman, whose parents owned a millinery shop in Chicago, initially struggled in Hollywood. After a year of sleeping on rooftops and eating peanuts, he returned to Chicago, worked as a carnival barker, and then went back to Hollywood in 1938. This time, he found work as an MGM script doctor.

The two met during World War II while serving in U.S. Army film units, making documentaries and shorts in Queens. They bonded over their shared ambition, social conscience, and contempt for the studio system.

After the war, Foreman returned to screenwriting, while Kramer bought the film rights to Taylor Caldwell’s This Side of Innocence. Although he was squeezed out of the deal, he used the proceeds to start Screen Plays Incorporated, focusing on stories rather than stars. He enlisted Foreman to help, along with a Hollywood law firm and publicist George Glass.

They set up their company in a warehouse on North Cahuenga Boulevard, now known as RED Studios Hollywood. With funds from a wealthy friend, they bought the rights to Ring Lardner’s novel “The Big Town” and produced the comedy “So This Is New York” in 1948, which was a failure.

During this time, Hollywood faced significant challenges. People were moving to the suburbs, and the Supreme Court was about to force studios to divest their theater chains. Television was also on the rise. Darryl F. Zanuck of Fox warned that returning soldiers would demand films that reflected their new perspectives. This led to a wave of socially conscious films like “Gentleman’s Agreement” and “Crossfire,” which tackled anti-Semitism, and “The Best Years of Our Lives,” which addressed post-war adjustments.

The return of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) to Hollywood marked a significant shift in American politics and culture following the death of Franklin Roosevelt and the end of World War II. The coalition that Roosevelt had built, united by economic hardship and the war effort, began to unravel. Although the economy was booming for many, it was also plagued by strikes from trade unions and shortages of consumer goods as the country transitioned from a wartime to a peacetime economy. The victory over the Axis powers was overshadowed by new fears as relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated, highlighted by Winston Churchill’s “Iron Curtain” speech in 1946, which expressed the growing concern over Soviet expansion in Eastern Europe.

The political right, which had opposed the New Deal and the war against Fascism, began to resurface, seeking to reclaim their influence and expose those they saw as subversives. This resurgence was evident in the 1946 midterm elections, where Republicans gained control of both houses of Congress for the first time since the Hoover administration. In response, President Truman issued Executive Order No. 9835, mandating loyalty screenings for all federal employees. Attorney General Tom C. Clark compiled a list of organizations deemed “totalitarian, Fascist, Communist, or subversive,” signaling official support for the backlash against perceived disloyalty.

Katy Jurado in High Noon (1952)

Howard Chamberlain in High Noon (1952)

High Noon (1952) is no film noir, and nor is it easy to find much in way of noir theme and content, although there are a few markers, in the manner of the paranoia and indecision and weakness felt by the male lead.

Otherwise, there is not a lot of cross-current here between the mighty genre of the Western and the film noir style.

Of course many actors seemed to specialise in both, but there are a few like Gary Cooper who could only do the Westerns, possessing goodness in manner, and a more sure capacity for the easy morality of the Westerns.

Thomas Mitchell in High Noon (1952)

Lon Chaney Jr. in High Noon (1952)

Lloyd Bridges in in High Noon (1952)

So many of our favourite actors worked between the two, however as good and bad and crazed and demure were all required of each medium.

It's that Post-War atmosphere that gives High Noon (1952) its slight noir flavour however. The paranoia and public fear as well as the ticking clock to doomsday. And that divisive for and against us manner that persisted in Hollywood in the era, when the power of the movies was at its most dangerous and expressive, combining post war technological vision with threats of socialistic mood and tone, a kind of wrestling for power, the power in question being the power of the medium.

Jack Elam in High Noon (1952)

Grace Kelly and Katy Jurado in High Noon (1952)

Ian MacDonald in High Noon (1952)

State and local governments quickly followed suit, adopting similar disloyalty orders. Historian Henry Steele Commager described this period as a revival of the Red hysteria of the early 1920s, one of the shabbiest chapters in American democracy. In Hollywood, screenwriters James K. McGuinness and Jack C. Moffitt, founders of the Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, led a parade of friendly witnesses who testified before HUAC. Jack Warner, head of Warner Bros., was the only major studio executive to appear. Known for its liberal stance, Warner Bros. had produced “Mission to Moscow,” a pro-Stalin film, making Warner feel particularly vulnerable during the Red Scare. In his testimony, Warner named sixteen screenwriters as Communists, including non-Communists like Julius and Philip Epstein, Sheridan Gibney, Emmet Lavery, and Howard Koch. Warner later admitted his mistake, but the damage was done.

The HUAC sessions were held behind closed doors, but Chairman Thomas and his chief investigator, Stripling, regularly briefed reporters on the testimony. Actor Robert Taylor testified that government officials had prevented him from joining the Navy in 1943 until he completed his role in Song of Russia, supporting the committee’s theory that secret Communists in the government were promoting pro-Soviet propaganda.

This period of intense scrutiny and fear, known as the Red Scare, had a profound impact on Hollywood and American society. It led to the blacklisting of many industry professionals, damaging careers and lives. The political and cultural shifts of the post-war era, driven by fear of Communist influence, reshaped the landscape of American democracy and the entertainment industry.

Kramer and Foreman’s partnership was part of this shift towards more thought-provoking cinema. Despite early setbacks, their collaboration laid the groundwork for influential films that resonated with the changing American audience.

High Noon (1952)

Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Genres - Drama, Thriller, Western  |   Sub-Genres - Western Film  |   Release Date - Jun 9, 1952