September 13, 2002

Western Drama, Cold-War Allegory

By THOMAS DOHERTY

On first viewing, John Wayne hated High Noon (1952), the social-problem film in Western garb produced by the orthodox liberal Stanley Kramer, directed by the Vienna-born immigrant Fred Zinnemann, and written by the blacklisted ex-Communist Carl Foreman. It wasn't just the people behind the scenes, or the slanderous central conceit -- that the Old West was packed with no-account yellow-bellies -- but the ending. "It's the most un-American thing I've ever seen in my whole life," snarled Wayne

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