12 Timely Facts About “High Noon”

Eric D. Snider and Mental_Floss present  12 Timely Facts About High Noon.  Here are three of my favorites…

4. IT’S (BASICALLY) IN REAL TIME, BUT THE TERM “REAL TIME” DIDN’T EXIST YET.
Foreman wrote that he was interested “in telling a motion picture story in the exact time required for the events of the story itself.” Today we call that “real time,” but according to Webster’s, the term wasn’t coined till 1953. (By the way, the movie is 84 minutes long but covers about 100 minutes of time. The many clocks we see on the walls must move a little bit faster than real ones do.)

7. RIO BRAVO  WAS MADE IN RESPONSE TO IT. 
Among the Hollywood types who hated High Noon were John Wayne (he called it “the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life”) and Howard Hawks, director of classics like His Girl Friday and The Big Sleep. Hawks and Wayne teamed up for Rio Bravo, a similar story to High Noon, but one where the sheriff never shows fear or self-doubt. Hawks said, “I made Rio Bravo because I didn’t like High Noon … I didn’t think a good town marshal was going to run around town like a chicken with his head cut off asking everyone to help. And who saves him? His Quaker wife. That isn’t my idea of a good Western.” Sick burn, Hawks.

9. THE PAINED LOOK ON GARY COOPER’S FACE DIDN’T REQUIRE MUCH ACTING.
The veteran actor was 51 when the film was shot, and he looked every bit of it (and then some). Stomach ulcers and back problems plagued him, and he was in particular distress the day they shot the wedding scene, where he has to pick up Grace Kelly. His personal life was a mess, too, as he was separated from his wife and his very public affair with Patricia Neal was coming to an end. No wonder he looks so haggard and weary.