High Noon: "When the hand points up - the excitment starts!"

Gary Cooper plays the main role as Will Kane, a popular small-town sheriff whose wedding to a beautiful young gal (Grace Kelly) on the day of his retirement. But then Kane learns that an old enemy, Frank Miller, who has sworn revenge has been released from prison, and that his old gang members are awaiting him on the noon train.

High Noon generates suspense in many ways. Kane’s increasingly tense, pained expression makes the viewer question how dangerous Frank Miller is. Everyone in the town believes that Kane stands no chance against the fearless Miller which makes the audience question Kane's safety and future. The villainous Frank Miller was known only through dialogue but he did not actually appear until the end of the film. Not seeing what the villain, Miller, actually looked like made him seem more dangerous and added to the suspense. Even when Miller finally arrived on the noon train, we didn't actually see his face for a full two or three minutes, showing him strapping on his guns from behind and talking to his gang.

There are continual shots of Miller's three gang mates sitting maliciously by the empty train track awaiting the noon train. This created a great amount of intense suspense because it was a constant reminder that Kane's archenemy, Miller, would be arriving soon. There was no violent action between Kane and the gang members until the end of the film which built to a suspenseful finale.

The use of music was unique but still contributed to the amount of suspense throughout the movie. Rather than having heart pounding adventure music, there was a simple ballad featuring the calm voice of the country singer, Tex Ritter. This haunting tune contains the plot outline within its lyrics and emphasizes the danger of the daunting task Kane has accepted.

The method that I feel was the most successful in creating suspense was the ticking clocks counting down the minutes toward noon. In the beginning of the film, they were small clocks in the background that had short pendulums that swung quickly. The movie is shot in "real time" which means that the duration of the movie is equal the actual time that the events in the movie occur. This is suspenseful because the audience knows the train will arrives at noon with Miller on it. As the clock approached noon, they got bigger and the pendulums swung more slowly making them more menacing. At noon, the clock took up the entire screen as we waited for the last tick and the train's whistle.