February 27, 2018 (XXXVI:5) Fred Zinnemann HIGH NOON (1952), 85 Min
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February 27, 2018 (XXXVI:5) Fred Zinnemann HIGH NOON (1952), 85 min. DIRECTOR Fred Zinnemann WRITER Carl Foreman (screenplay), John W. Cunningham (from “The Tin Star”) PRODUCER Stanley Kramer MUSIC Dimitri Tiomkin CINEMATOGRAPHY Floyd Crosby EDITOR Elmo Williams SINGER Tex Ritter LYRICIST Ned Washington CAST FRED ZINNEMANN (b. April 29, 1907, Vienna, Austria—d. Gary Cooper…Will Kane March 14, 1997, London, England) was considered for several Thomas Mitchell…Jonas Henderson years, along with William Wyler and George Stevens, one of the Lloyd Bridges…Harvey Pell three directorial “intellectuals” in Hollywood. Initially, Katy Jurado…Helen Ramirez Zinnemann planned to become a lawyer until he saw three films Grace Kelly…Amy Kane that forever changed his future: Greed (1924), The Big Parade Otto Kruger…Percy Mettrick (1925) and Battleship Potemkin (1925). After college, he Lon Chaney Jr….Martin Howe become an assistant cameraman in Berlin, where, in the company Harry Morgan…Sam Fuller of such future Hollywood filmmakers as Robert Siodmak, Billy Ian MacDonald…Frank Miller Wilder and Edgar G. Ulmer, he would collaborate on the Eve McVeagh…Mildred Fuller celebrated documentary, People on a Sunday (1929). In 1929, he Morgan Farley…Minister emigrated to Hollywood where he was hired as an extra on Lewis Harry Shannon…Cooper Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). Following Lee Van Cleef…Jack Colby years directing now forgotten B-movies, Zinnemann eventually Robert J. Wilke…James Pierce established a name for himself in 1948 with The Search, a film Sheb Wooley…Ben Miller following the growing friendship between a GI (Montgomery Jack Elam…Charlie Clift) and a young concentration camp survivor. In an era when many of the greatest Hollywood directors were politically National Film Preservation Board, USA 1989 conservative—if not reactionary—Zinnemann was a liberal humanist and a social realist, with a natural inclination to Academy Awards, USA 1953 addressing the burning issues of the day: disability [The Men 4 Wins: Best Actor in a Leading Role, Gary Cooper (Cooper was (1950)]; anti-Semitism [From Here to Eternity (1953) and Julia not present at the awards ceremony. John Wayne accepted on his (1977)]; heroin addiction [A Hatful of Rain (1957)]; heroic behalf.); Best Film Editing, Elmo Williams & Harry W. Gerstad; individualism from moral cowardice [High Noon (1952), A Man Best Music, Original Song, Dimitri Tiomkin (music) & Ned for All Seasons (1966)]. In his later years, the director’s Washington (lyrics) for the song “High Noon (Do Not Forsake reputation began to dwindle as critical taste changed. Ignored in Me, Oh My Darlin’)”; Best Score, Dimitri Tiomkin the ‘60s, when the auteur theory became the dominant methodology of film criticism, Zinnemann suffered a reversal of 3 Nominations: Best Picture, Stanley Kramer; Best Director; fortune from which his reputation never recovered. Yet, Fred Zinnemann; Best Writing, Screenplay, Carl Foreman Zinnemann was never one to fall back on tropes or bend to current trends. In his obituary, The Independent wrote, “And even when he made a genre movie—the western High Noon, the ZInnemann—HIGH NOON—2 musical comedy Oklahoma!—he seemed temperamentally knew, writing an original story about individual responsibility incapable of exulting in the simple, incorruptible poetry of and its relation to the community at large. It was not until a generic myths and conventions, of either cunningly or gruffly routine copyright-infringement search had taken place that John transcending those conventions from within in the manner of a W. Cunningham's short story “The Tin Star” (1947) surfaced and Hitchcock, Hawks or Ford. What concerned him, rather, was the “[a]ll concerned felt it necessary to purchase screen rights to the degree to which their sometimes resistant themes and textures title to avoid a lawsuit.” Ultimately Cunningham was given would lend themselves to the moral gravitas of his trademark screen credit as the creator of the story, although Foreman was brand of humanistic editorializing.” High Noon may be never convinced that the story lines had much in common apart Zinnemann's best-loved film, but the most vividly remembered from their common plot including an aging lawman who is single sequence in his entire oeuvre is without doubt the sexy, stalked by killers. Prior to tonight’s film, Foreman worked with wetly glistening encounter on a Hawaiian beach between Burt Zinnemann on The Men (1950), where in preparation for the Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in From Here to Eternity, a scene film, director and writer spent a month in a veteran’s hospital which set the style in romantic soft-core eroticism for many years researching, while star Marlon Brando lived in its paraplegic to come (as numerous parodies bear witness). Zimmermann was unit. Foreman also wrote the original draft of Brando’s nominated for eight best director Academy Awards: Julia (1977), motorcycle film, The Wild One (1953). The script fell afoul with A Man for All Seasons (1966, won); The Sundowner (1961), The the censors—supposedly because it sought to explain the Nun’s Story (1959), From Here to Eternity (195, won), High motorcyclists’ sense of frustration instead of just portraying them Noon (1952), Benjy (1951), and The Search (1948). Some of his as crazed, violent outlaws. Because of this, Foreman’s original other films are The Day of the Jackal (1973), A Hatful of Rain draft was re-written, to Brando’s bitter disappointment. In the (1957), Oklahoma! (1955), While America Sleeps (1939), and 1950s Foreman has more trouble than failing scripts: He was Tracking the Sleeping Death (1938). blacklisted in the film industry during the “Red Scare”. He was only reinstated in October 1997 along with other blacklisted JOHN W. CUNNINGHAM (b. July 28, 1915—d. June 4, 2002, victims--a bit too late for him, as he died in 1984. Some of his age 86, in Lafayette, California) wrote many Western novels, other films are Young Winston (1972), Mackenna's Gold (1969), occasionally under the name John M. Cunningham. His most The Guns of Navarone (1961), A Hatful of Rain (1957), The famous work, was “The Tin Star”, a short story which appeared Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) (originally uncredited), The in Collier's Magazine in 1947 and is the basis for tonight’s film. Sleeping Tiger (1954), The Men (1950), Young Man with a Horn However, he almost didn’t receive writing credit. According to (1950) and Champion (1949). He was nominated for 5 Academy Rudy Behlmer’s Behind the Scenes, in 1948 screenplay writer Awards (Champion, High Noon, The Men, The Guns of Carl Foreman wrote what he thought was an original story Navarone), and Young Winston and he won the Award for The outline, but his agent noticed a significant resemblance to Bridge on the River Kwai, one of the films on which his name Cunningham’s story. Foreman, unsure whether he had read the could not be used. Both writers Foreman and Michael Wilson story or not, feared that he had unintentionally plagiarized were blacklisted at the time and received no screen credit. They Cunningham and so the production company acquired the film were posthumously awarded Oscars in 1984. rights to solve the problem. Some of Cunningham’s novels include Warhorse (1956), Starfall (1960) and his final output DIMITRI TIOMKIN (b. May 10, 1894 in Kremenchuk, Poltava Rainbow Runner (1992). In addition he wrote the short stories Governorate, Russian Empire [now Ukraine]—d. November 11, “Yankee Gold” (1953) and “Day of the Bad Man” (1958). After 1979, age 85, in London, England) was one of the most versatile the success of High Noon, Cunningham also wrote for a few composers in Hollywood. Whether the genre was Westerns, episodes for TV series including Tales of Wells Fargo (1959), drama, comedy, film noir, adventure, or war documentary, Day of the Badman (1958) and Studio 57 (1957). Tiomkin’s visceral, dramatic underscores helped bring more than 100 feature films to life. The list of respected directors who continuously called on his services is impressive: Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, and Alfred Hitchcock among them. Tiomkin developed his love of music early and was taught by his mother who was herself an accomplished pianist. Tiomkin appeared on Russian stages as a child prodigy and continued to develop into a virtuoso pianist. As a teenager he also gained a keen interest in American music, including the works of Irving Berlin, ragtime, blues, and early jazz. Tiomkin started his music career as a piano accompanist for Russian and French silent films in movie houses in St. Petersburg. When the famous comedian Max Linder toured in Russia, he hired Tiomkin to play piano improvisations for the Max Linder Show. From 1917 to 1921 Tiomkin was a Red Army staff composer, writing scores for revolutionary mass spectacles at the Palace Square involving 500 musicians and 8000 extras. In 1921 he emigrated to Germany, finding work with the Berlin CARL FOREMAN (b. July 23, 1914—d. June 26, 1984, Philharmonic. By 1925, Tiomkin moved again, this time to the Beverly Hills, CA) was a well-respected Hollywood screenwriter US working as the main pianist on Broadway. In 1929, MGM when he was hired to write High Noon (1952). He was, for all he offered him a contract to score music for five films. After these ZInnemann—HIGH NOON—3 films, he returned to New York to premiere his first play on best remembered for his haunting vocalization in tonight’s Broadway. However, the play was a terrible flop and Tiomkin Oscar-winning song. Ritter was known in the ‘30s and ‘40s as once again returned to Hollywood. By that time Tiomkin was the singing-cowboy star of “B” Westerns and later became a disillusioned with the intrigue and politics inside the Hollywood successful country-music recording star.