Frank Cooper was born to prosperous English parents in Montana and had the unusual experience of being an outdoorsman and westerner who attended prep school in England and college at Grinnell in Iowa. When he was 23, he moved to LA, got a job in the movies because he could ride a horse and was soon getting roles with his new name, Gary Cooper. Within a decade, he was Paramount's biggest male star, a rich man and the archetypical American hero. By the beginning of WW2, he was, perhaps, the biggest star Hollywood would ever see. Irving Berlin revised the words to 'Puttin On The Ritz' to fit Coop into the lyrics. While doing a USO tour during the war, he was asked on the first night to repeat the Luckiest Man Alive speech from 'Pride Of The Yankees', which he did, and then reprised on every other night of the tour.
The man who would write the screenplay for Coop's second Oscar-winnning role (the first was 'Sergeant York') was a Chicagoan, Carl Foreman, the ambitious son of Russian Jewish immigrants and already leaning communist when he arrived in Hollywood in the late thirties. Foreman met Stanley Kramer during the war and joined Kramer's fledgling independent movie company when he returned to LA. Later, the director Fred Zinnemann, part of the Viennese diaspora in Hollywood, also joined Kramer's company.
In 1947, the HUAC came to town, focused on exploring the industry's left-leaning tendencies. Red-baiting anti-semitism was at the core the committee's soul. Its leaders believed "that large parts of the New Deal had been a communist plot and that the federal government was riddled with reds." At public hearings later in the year, the committee castigated the Hollywood Ten, seven of whom were writers and all known members of the Party. In response, the industry, which was under severe economic stress as the post-war era movie viewing habits declined significantly, began firing and blacklisting its people.
Foreman conceived of the plot for 'High Noon' as a parable about "the climate of fear that took hold in Hollywood." He finished the script, and he and Kramer set out to cast it. Coop, by then over 50 and desperate for a decent role, signed on for $100,000, significantly below his usual $250,000. That left Kramer and Foreman with $35,000 for everybody else. They had to sign most of the actors to a one week schedule on a thirty-two day shoot. Twenty-year-old Grace Kelley came for $750 per week. Foreman received a HUAC subpoena while they were filming. His testimony did not lead to an indictment, but he was blacklisted and fired by Kramer. With a rare solid financial settlement, he decamped for England. The score added by Dimitri Tiomkin is considered a key element to the movie's success, on par with the screenplay, the direction by Zinnemann and Cooper's understated brilliant portrayal of Sheriff Will Kane. Released in August of 1952, it was an immediate success and was nominated for seven Oscars. The politics of the era prevented all but Cooper and Tiomkin from winning. Indeed, the American Legion lobbied against all the nominees.
Carl Foreman was the exception to the rule amongst the blacklisted because he succeeded in England, where he prospered for twenty years. He wrote, produced, accumulated wealth and enjoyed his time overseas. His two most successful films were 'The Bridge On The River Kwai' and 'The Guns Of Navarone'. He returned to Hollywood in the seventies to close out his career. Gary Cooper continued to work throughout his fifties, but never again reached the heights of his early years in Hollywood. He died at sixty of prostate cancer.
The movie, of course, lives on. In 1989, a graphic designer for Solidarity in Poland published an image of Sheriff Will Kane with a ballot in his right hand and a a Solidarity badge on his vest. The message said: High Noon 4 June 1989. The film has been screened at the White House more than any other. Bill Clinton watched it twenty times.
This book is mostly a telling of the blacklist story and the trials and tribulations of Carl Foreman . 'High Noon' is merely the background. Nonetheless, it's been a good read, and my fascinating takeaway is Coop reciting the Luckiest Man Alive speech in the Pacific while on that USO tour. Also, I've never been much of a fan of John Wayne. I didn't think much of his acting and didn't like his enthusiastic support of the Vietnam War. I learned here that he was an active supporter of HUAC and its all but semi-official affiliate, The Motion Picture Alliance. The McCarthy era was an unpleasant time in America, one best left in the rear view mirror.
John Wayne hated this movie so much that apparently he made Rio Bravo to show that a true blue, red blooded American, wouldn't be wining about bad guys and looking for help from his Quaker wife.
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