INSIDE HIGH NOON explores both the landmark 1952 film High Noon starring Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Lloyd Bridges, and Katy Jurado, and the gripping story behind its troubled production.
NEW YORK – Oct. 27, 2022 – PRLog — (New York, NY) Writer, director and film historian John Mulholland’s newest documentary Inside High Noon: Director’s Cut premieres on PBS stations across the U.S. on November 1.
Inside High Noon goes behind the scenes to reveal how many of the studios passed on the project and major Hollywood actors turned it down before Gary Cooper accepted the lead role. When it was ultimately released, High Noon was seen by some as an attack on the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) — the US government’s investigation into subversive activities by citizens who were accused of having fascist or communist ties.
“High Noon was an independent, low budget, black and white movie that became engulfed in the blacklist,” Mulholland says about what interested him in making the documentary. “I found it fascinating that this conservative movie star Gary Cooper publicly stood up for the blacklisted screenwriter Carl Foreman. He refused to cave to John Wayne and the other anti-Communists.”
Learn more about the film here: http://insidehighnoon.com/
Inside High Noon delves into that history, and also explores the film itself: why it has aroused controversy among critics, how its treatment of women and masculinity was ahead of its time, and why High Noon has come to be seen as a masterpiece of American cinema.
The film also touches on the parallels between High Noon and modern American politics. “I find that America has a civic complacency going on,” writer-director Mulholland says. “Democracy is so fragile. It’s merely words on paper unless people stand up to defend it. To me, so many Republicans in the House and Senate are like the citizens of Hadleyville. They are looking the other way, backing away, refusing to acknowledge the dangers of the moment.”
Narrated by award-winning actor Matthew Rhys (The Americans), the documentary weaves together clips from High Noon and analysis and commentary from Tim Zinneman (son of director Fred Zinneman), Jonathan Foreman (son of screenwriter Carl Foreman), Crown Prince Albert of Monaco (Grace Kelly’s son), Maria Cooper (Gary Cooper’s daughter), President Bill Clinton, and many film critics and historians.
Inside High Noon was edited and produced by Richard Zampella.
About John Mulholland
John Mulholland is a film historian and an American writer and director, specializing in documentaries. His documentaries include: the NY Times Critic’s Pick, Cooper & Hemingway: The True Gen, a documentary exploring the friendship of two-time Academy Award-winning actor Gary Cooper and Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway, narrated by Sam Waterston. But Don’t Try To Write on Hollywood’s favorite author, Elmore Leonard, narrated by Campbell Scott. Sergeant York: Of God & Country narrated by Liam Neeson, which explores the making of the film and how the isolationist fervor sweeping America at the time worked to derail the film.