High Noon

The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic

By: Glenn Frankel

Narrated by: Allan Robertson

It's one of the most revered movies of Hollywood's golden era. Starring screen legend Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly in her first significant film role, High Noon was shot on a lean budget over just 32 days but achieved instant box-office and critical success. It won four Academy Awards in 1953, including a best actor win for Cooper. And it became a cultural touchstone, often cited by politicians as a favourite film, celebrating moral fortitude.

Yet what has been often overlooked is that High Noon was made during the height of the Hollywood blacklist, a time of political inquisition and personal betrayal. In the middle of the film shoot, screenwriter Carl Foreman was forced to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities about his former membership in the Communist Party. Refusing to name names, he was eventually blacklisted and fled the United States. (His coauthored screenplay for another classic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, went uncredited in 1957.) Examined in light of Foreman's testimony, High Noon's emphasis on courage and loyalty takes on deeper meaning and importance.

In this book, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Frankel tells the story of the making of a great American Western, exploring how Carl Foreman's concept of High Noon evolved from idea to first draft to final script, taking on allegorical weight. Both the classic film and its turbulent political times emerge newly illuminated.

©2017 Bloomsbury US (P)2017 Audible, Ltd

Outstanding!

The book was well-paced, interweaving the primary stories of Carl Foreman and Gary Cooper as well as many others involved in and subjecting to the blacklisting. My interest was kept from beginning to end. Much has been written about this period in our history but setting it against the back drop of "High Noon" made the subject more engaging. Franker does an excellent job in delving into Cooper and Foreman's backgrounds, careers and personalities so that the reader can better understand their actions and motivation. Excellent narration. Normally I only listen while driving but I couldn't wait to finish the book and listened to it constantly for a couple of days.

Great listen

I was very surprised what an easy listen this turned out to be. I knew some about the blacklist but this really showed me a lot more. Unfortunately this book mirrors a lot of what this country is going through right now. Another book that covers the same topic is Spartacus by Kirk Douglas another great listen.

American history

An interesting story about a time the red scare ran rampant. Seems incredibly relevant today as far as where we are as a nation. Blacklisting is now done by social media. Would definitely recommend this Audible book. The movie still holds up but this book really adds to the narrative.

Not a simpler time.

What did you love best about High Noon?

Unfolding of what the entertainment world was. As complicated, and strange as it is today, with strange rules and clear winners and losers, a great story well told.

What did you like best about this story?

Pulling the narrative of High Noon in with the Blacklist was brilliant.

Which scene was your favorite?

All of the details, but big fan of Michael Wilson, he makes an odd footnote.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

How to say help while being entertained.

Any additional comments?

Could have been a clunker, man it shined.

great book about classic movie and more

loved seeing how this classic movie was made, and learning more about the infamous blacklist.

The Blacklist

The award winning western movie has been considered a morality play or a masterpiece of the psychological western. Frankel tells the story of the conflict intertwined with screenwriter Carl Foreman who was under fire for not “playing ball” with the McCarthy committee and later blacklisted, and director Fred Zimmermann. Frankel also goes into depth about the acrimonious split with producer (and owner of United Artists) Stanley Kramer and Foreman. Frankel tells of the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the industry politics that made the blacklist possible and its effect on the making of the movie “High Noon”. Frankel provides a most interesting background history of the innerworkings and politics of the movie industry particularly during the change over from silent to talking movies. The author paints a devastating picture of a powerful force crumbling under oppression. Kramer also hints that it was not only communism the committee was targeting but it was riddled with anti-Semitism.

Frankel makes extensive parallels of then and now particularly when he lays the blame at the feet of the press for their willingness to print the phony or exaggerated allegations of public officials and friendly witnesses without holding them up to scrutiny or challenging the assumptions. The author claims this gave Senator McCarthy a veneer of legitimacy. He then goes on to demonstrate how this effected Hollywood and the making of this movie.

The book is well written and meticulously researched. Frankel combed through the vast amount of testimony, depositions, and correspondence to document his findings. The author also describes the decades long battle for credit in the movie resulting from the effects of the McCarthy committee. This book is made more interesting considering today’s political activities.

The book is about fourteen and half hours long. Allan Robertson is a new narrator for me. He does a good job narrating the book.

Republicans' Evil Blacklist of the 1950's

This is a fine history of the Hollywood Blacklists and the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) that ruined the lives of talented people making motion pictures. It was all under the false pretense that Communists controlled the movie industry and was the equivalent of traitors trying to take over the United States. It worked all too well and launched the political careers of, among others, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. There are enemies galore: John Wayne, Hedda Hopper, the American Legion, Joseph McCarthy, Walter Winchell and J. Edgar Hoover to name a few. There were also the heroes: Dalton Trumbo, Kirk Douglas, Carl Foreman, Danny Kaye, Stanley Kramer and the Committee for the First Amendment. It is woven well with the story of the film High Noon whose screenwriter Carl Foreman was once a member of the Communist Party. It resonates with the current Republican Party seeking enemies in Muslims, Mexicans, transgendered people, blacks, Africans and Puerto Ricans among others.

Pretty good story, with way too much exposition.

Gary Cooper seems like an actor who deserves a good bio. Combining this work with a story of the creation of the "iconic" (by far the most overused word in the English language today; so abused that it is truly meaningless by now) movie High Noon, along with the story of the Hollywood blacklist and the McCarthy era witch-hunts: this blend of historical information appears to have enough natural interest to support a full-length novel. However, the book could use some cutting. There is way too much detail about any topic that the author covers. The titillating story of Cooper's sexual conquests, the "ice queen" Grace Kelly's alleged nymphomania, Stanley Kramer's monomania about every little detail in his self-created empire: these details plus much more tend to weigh down the book so that it reads more like pure history than like an interesting story about the people and the settings and the work that they do. Making movies is not a romantic enterprise, as we know. The stars hide in their trailers and come out only to do their scenes over and over in order to satisfy their many masters: writers, directors, producers, investors, and so forth. It must be drudgery, but of course the hero worship must make up for the repetition. The December-April relationship between Coop and Kelly is so obvious on screen that it is just not credible. He is about fifty-five and she is nineteen or so. When you look at the film, the age difference between them stands out like a sore thumb. BTW, you can watch a fairly long clip of High Noon on YouTube, and if you do that you will find, IMHO, that the movie does not age well. It is very old, and it's filled with cliches of Westerns. Likewise, the score, by the famously lauded Dmitri Tiomkin, is so loud that it is harshly invasive. Plus, Tiomkin steals from himself so much that you get thoroughly sick of the first few bars of Please don't forsake me oh my darling, or whatever the lyrics are. I mean, he repeats this musical phrase so many times, with absolutely no connection whatsoever with what is happening in the plot at the moment: I got to the point at which I wanted to mute the damned thing over and over. It adds nothing to the drama. Just play it louder, must be what Tiomkin thought. Not me. The improbably ludicrous setup at the climax of the film is more fodder for hero worship in the absence of reason. A man of Cooper's age shoots down four much younger men (all right, three; I won't spoil that part of the plot any further): this situation is so unlikely that one almost laughs. And of course during the fight Coop is wounded. The things they did to put their stars on pedestals!
Cooper's personal history and the revolting specifics of the McCarthy period, one of the ugliest of all American episodes since the Salem Witch Hunt, that was three hundred years ago: these stories are well worth reading about. They, too are weighed down by over-elaboration. The author appears to have spent a decade researching the book, and he needs to show us exactly how hard he worked to produce it. I agree that the time of the blacklist is well worth reading about, for its own sake, and for the utter ruthlessness of the tyrants who were responsible for the disgusting disaster. It reminds me of what some wise person said: that history does not repeat itself; it paraphrases. The current administration, not to wander off into the political, is a harsh reminder of how easy it is to demonize a minority group, to capitalize on the very worst qualities of the American people. This behavior is so deeply cynical and so ruthlessly self-serving that it almost makes me vomit just to think about it. My family has made a pact to never even bring up the bastard's name, as that moment serves to lower the IQ of the discussion to unacceptable levels. Ugh. Those who say that we have become the laughingstock of the world: not to overstate that, but they have a very good point. The 19th century was the British time; the 20th century was the American chance to lead the world; the 21st century belongs to China and some of the rest of Asia. We have blown it, as all empire-makers eventually do. The results of these debacles are not pretty to observe.
Sorry for the tangent. I apologize. Last time I will veer into the "real" world.

Page turner for the ears

Extremely interesting to anyone who loves movies. Shameful time in our history highlighted. Highly recommend

Relevant and interesting for every word

The story of the making of "High Noon" and the faith of it's makers, is an important and relevant story and it's put together in a way that gives the story of events from that time new meaning. GREAT WORK AS WELL AS IMPORTANT WORK!! Thanks to everyone that made it.