The Talking Pictures Film Club: *DOUBLE FEATURE* High Noon (1952) & Rio Bravo (1959)
What is The Talking Pictures Film Club?
We're a group who gather together over our shared love of movies to discuss our favorites, the themes, genres, and performances of each month's picks. Films will be available to borrow in DVD format at the circulation desk and, when available, we will also let you know where you can stream the films at home. After we've watched the movie, we'll meet on the second Thursday morning of each month for friendly conversation.
This month's pick: High Noon (1952) & Rio Bravo (1959)
Genre: Western
Streaming options:
Plot Summary:
This groundbreaking western was voted at the 33rd greatest film of all time by the AFI (100 Years 100 Movies). Gary Cooper won the Oscar for Best Actor in this classic tale of a lawman who stands alone to defend a town of cowardly citizens against a gang of killers seeking revenge. In one of the greatest showdowns in cinema history, Coopers Sheriff Will Kane stands to lose not only the town, but also his bride, Grace Kelly. The stellar cast includes Lloyd Bridges, Thomas Mitchell, Katy Jurado, Otto Kruger, Lon Chaney, Henry Morgan, Jack Elam and Lee Van Cleef.
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, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense of duty is tested when he must decide to either face a gang of killers alone, or leave town with his new wife.
Though mired in controversy at the time of its release due to its political themes, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four as well as four Golden Globe Awards. The award-winning score was written by Ukraine-born composer Dimitri Tiomkin. High Noon was selected by the Library of Congress as one of the first 25 films for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" in 1989. An iconic film whose story has been partly or completely repeated in later film productions, its ending in particular has inspired numerous later films, including but not just limited to westerns.
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John Wayne and Dean Martin star as a Western sheriff and his recovering alcoholic deputy who, along with a small ragtag group of men and women, refuse to release a suspected murderer from jail, even though they are surrounded and greatly outnumbered by gunmen.
Rio Bravo is a 1959 American Western film directed and produced by Howard Hawks and starring John Wayne, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, Angie Dickinson, Walter Brennan, and Ward Bond. Written by Jules Furthman and Leigh Brackett, based on the short story "Rio Bravo" by B.H. McCampbell, the film stars Wayne as a Texan sheriff who arrests the brother of a powerful local rancher for murder and then has to hold the man in jail until a U.S. Marshal can arrive. With the help of a lame old man, a drunk, and a young gunfighter, they hold off the rancher's gang. Rio Bravo was filmed on location at Old Tucson Studios outside Tucson, Arizona, in Eastmancolor, with film processing provided by Technicolor. In 2014, Rio Bravo was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.
