High Noon High Noon High Noon is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, depicted in real time, centers around a town marshal who is torn between his sense of duty and love for his new bride and who must face a gang of killers alone. Though mired in controversy with political overtones at the time of its release, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four (Actor, Editing, Music-Score, and Music-Song) as well as four Golden Globe Awards (Actor, Supporting
The Ballad of High Noon his new wife, Amy Fowler Kane (played by Grace Kelly), abandoning (or "forsaking") him because he chooses to stay and fight (and risk being killed) instead of running away with her after their wedding. The song refers to how he can't have a safe life with her until he has eliminated the threats that face him, and he wants her to stay with him just a while longer until it's all over and not give up on him for good. The song's lyrics significantly foreshadow the final set-piece of the film, in which Amy returns to help save Will, though