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SPOILERS.
I heard about this classic western movie my entire life and only tonight did I watch it in its entirety. It's possible that I may have seen the movie as a child but had forgotten it.
Most reviewers describe the movie as a courageous, lonely town marshal standing up to a gang of four thugs, the leader of which is a vengeful gunman who was inexplicably pardoned while serving a life sentence for murder; returning to wreak revenge upon the marshal who arrested him. In the course of the movie, the townspeople, meaning the men, are described as cowardly and refusing to stand with the marshal.
When I watched the movie tonight, it's not that simple a case of outright collective citizenry cowardice as most reviews describe.
The men in the saloon are largely low-caliber men to begin with, many of which bore grudges against Marshal Kane in the past. One interprets that once upon a time gunman Frank Miller and his gang ran the town with lawlessness but with vice and excitement, probably gambling and other unmentionable pleasures. Marshal Kane cleaned up the town with the help of several citizen deputies and indicted Miller for murder. But the cleaned up town didn't sit well with citizens who previously benefited from Frank Miller's lawless, free-for-all town. Kane would get no help from the saloon's good-for-nothing patrons.
It's the church scene which proves the historic explanation of the townsmen's cowardice is not cut and dried.
When Marshal Kane first implores the congregation for help, about six to seven men stand up and walk-forward, ready to help Kane.
However, bickering breaks out among the congregation. One of the more eloquent town leaders calls for order and helps lead a open forum discussion of the town's citizens sitting in the pews. It appears the congregation is split almost evenly between helping Kane and not.
It is the eloquent town leader who tilts the balance. He launches into what seems to be praise and support for Marshal Kane but suddenly his speech turns on a dime where he convinces the good townspeople in the congregation to sit tight and do nothing. If Marshal Kane agrees to leave town, there will be no violence and no negative publicity about the town to ruin its chances of progress and advancement. Kane is stunned, taken by surprise at the sudden change of the town leader's support, and he is unable to respond to it other than leave the church in disgust.
Others back away from helping Kane. The ambitious young deputy quits when Kane refuses to name him as successor marshal. Kane's mentor, a retired marshal pleads convincingly that he is too old and decrepit to help him. The one deputy who did show up at the marshal's office, gets cold feet when he discovers no one else is helping and it will be only two against four, ruthless gunmen. He backs out.
Others who want to help Kane are useless. One is a town drunk and the other an earnest but too young, 14-year old boy.
Kane is at the point of despair but he musters his final courage and goes out to wait for the four gunmen striding into town. Kane is walking straight into the four men around the corner. By a stroke of luck, one of the gunmen breaks a store window to pilfer a woman's hat. The sound of breaking glass alerts Kane in time and he manages to conceal himself. This allows Kane to flank the four men and in a quick shootout kills one, lowering the odds, three-to-one.
Using his intelligence, Kane takes the high ground by climbing up into the hayloft of a public horse stable. When one of the gunmen charges in shooting (the young Lee Van Cleef), Kane has the superior tactical position of height and shoots him dead.
While the odds are down to two-against-one, it is no time for marshal Kane to celebrate. The two remaining gunmen include the leader.
Both gunmen eventually corner Kane in a saddle sales and repair shop, covering the entrance from opposite sides, trapping Kane there.
In a twist of the plot which has been greatly uncredited all these decades, marshal Kane's devout, reluctant Quaker wife, Amy, who had initially intended to leave him realizes her love for her new husband overshadows her devout, non-violence Quaker beliefs. She runs back into the town and hides in the marshal's empty office. From there she sees and shoots one of the two remaining gunmen in the back at near point blank range.
Alone now, the last gunman, the leader Frank Miller, is not deterred. He seizes Ann and forces Kane to exit the saddlery shop. Amy claws Frank's face, distracting him long enough for Kane to get in several shots, killing Frank immediately.
Marshal Kane knows his ultimate salvation has been through the help of his newlywed wife, who among everyone else, came through for him in the nick of time, killing one of the remaining two thugs. Kane passionately embraces Amy, who reciprocates.
As the townspeople come out to gawk at the dead Frank Miller laying on the dirt street just feet away from Kane and Amy, Kane pulls his marshal's badge from his shirt and throws it to the dirt, his job is now finished.
It turns out the 14-year old stable hand boy did not load Amy's baggage onto the departed train but kept it on the horse wagon. He brings the wagon up the the couple. They board the wagon with Kane at the reins and depart the town, this time finally for good.
My explanation shows that the plot was more nuanced than reviewers gave it credit for the last 69 years since the movie's debut. Very little was spoken or written about the marshal's wife, Amy, as if she was minimal to the storyline. As it turns out, Amy, played by the legendary Hollywood beauty, Grace Kelly, had a far more significant role in the storyline than publicly admitted. Perhaps at the time in 1952 she might have been credited but over the decades her role had been forgotten or minimized in the reviews.
When you include Mrs. Amy Kane, the movie's storyline takes on new dimension, one of selfless love triumphing over fear and reticence. Amy Kane acted against her newfound Quaker beliefs of absolute non-violence when her woman's instincts intuited that saving someone you love from evil men is greater than unquestioning conformance to religious belief and indeed she is proven morally and ethically correct in the end.
Without the good townspeople in the church convincing themselves it was better to do nothing, things might have turned out differently. Certainly it did not help that an influential town leader ended up speaking up persuasively against aiding marshal Kane. Had he not done so, Kane might have walked outside the church with six to eight men willing to help him, plus the one deputy waiting in the office.
The movie would have then turned into a simple Western shootout in the streets film, with Kane most likely prevailing through superior numbers. Nothing to it.
But then we wouldn't have the classic Hollywood Western, HIGH NOON, as it was and still is today.
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Customer reviews
The movie was great, but no English sub title
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2017
My husband has hard hearing. I buy movies to watch them at home and put on a sub title. The movie was great, but no English sub title. So, as you see, he could not enjoy it. First time I ordered the movie, I got a book. Will read it, when we have some time. So, this was a disappointment.
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2017
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Top reviews from other countries
rob stirling
Still grips and entertains.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 27, 2020
Rich Thwaites
For a 1952 movie this 2008 DVD Cinema Universal Classic print of High Noon is terrific.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 27, 2016
rbmusicman/and/movie-fan'
'IS THIS A TOWN REALLY WORTH DYING FOR ?'
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 14, 2013
Victor
High Noon, 1952 (2008 Republic Pictures release) - THE classic Western
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 12, 2010
