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High Noon: Collector's Edition
Fred Zinnemann's classic 1952 western High Noon stars Gary Cooper as Will Kane, a small-town marshal forced to face an outlaw gang with no support — and at the protest of his stubborn pacifist wife (Grace Kelly). Timelessly relevant, the film serves not only as a cautionary tale about the indecisive path of moral equivocation and relativism, but Cooper's Kane has also come to represent a sadly antiquated model of the stoic, principled American man. Technically, the film is also masterful: ravishingly stark as shot by Floyd Crosby and presented on Republic/Artisan's terrific Collector's Edition in a strikingly clean full-frame (1.33:1) transfer. Dmitri Tiomkin's popular score (with its haunting, Oscar-winning theme song, "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling," sung by Tex Ritter) sounds terrific in both the restored original audio mix (DD 1.0) and the enhanced version (DD 3.0). Includes a commentary with Maria Cooper-Janis, Jonathan Foreman, Tim Zinnemann and John Ritter; two featurettes; and a "Radio Broadcast with Tex Ritter." Keep-case in paperboard slipcover.
—Gregory P. Dorr
