I’m not a big fan of High Noon. I think John Wayne’s comment nails it for me. (from an interview with Roger Ebert)

“What a piece of you-know-what that was,” he told me. “I think it was popular because of the music. Think about it this way. Here’s a town full of people who have ridden in covered wagons all the way across the plains, fightin’ off Indians and drought and wild animals in order to settle down and make themselves a homestead. And then when three no-good bad guys walk into town and the marshal asks for a little help, everybody in town gets shy. If I’d been the marshal, I would have been so goddamned disgusted with those chicken-livered yellow sons of bitches that I would have just taken my wife and saddled up and rode out of there.”

Especially if my wife was Grace Kelly.

I came across this while reading Roger’s comments on Rio Bravo, a movie I watched again recently (and watch whenever it’s broadcast). I have to say that The Searchers is my favorite John Wayne movie, and one of my overall favorites.