Cited as their favourite film by Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan and Clinton, “High Noon” is a powerful Western movie. It stars Gary Cooper (“Mr. Deeds Goes To Town”, “Meet John Doe”) in his most famous role and makes for a fine viewing experience.

On the day that he hands in his tin star and gets married, Marshal Will Kane (Cooper) learns that a deadly outlaw has been released and is heading back into town. His wife (Grace Kelly “Rear Window”) and the townsfolk urge him to leave but Kane feels a duty to stay. He tries to muster up some support but with or without help, he will face the villain and his gang.

Gary Cooper does a terrific job as a good man that might be the only one brave enough to try and protect his town from tyranny. Grace Kelly is great as Amy. You see very little of the villain and that makes the movie all the more suspenseful because you hear so much about him before he finally arrives. There are some other big names in here such as Lon Chaney Jr. (“The Wolf Man”), Lloyd Bridges (“Airplane!”) and Lee Van Cleef (“For A Few Dollars More”).

“High Noon” is rather brilliant in the way that it keeps building up tension as the minutes until noon just seem to slip away and Cooper’s character still has not recruited any of the townsfolk to join the fight. Some audiences may view the film as rather slow and dull but I think it manages to do a substantial amount with very little actually happening until near the end. Fans of the Western genre need to see “High Noon” because it is really good. Even if you do not care much for films about cowboys, you still might want to check out “High Noon”.