Floyd Crosby recounted a different version of the camera versus the train. He said the camera was placed in a hole dug between the tracks because they wanted the angle to be upward as the train stopped at the station. The train missed its mark and annihilated the camera. The film, however, survived. Mr. Crosby said he always thought they should have used the footage.
Floyd Crosby, the film's cinematographer, is the father of David Crosby of Crosby Stills Nash & Young.
A comic relief scene involving town drunk Jack Elam and an entire subplot with James Brown playing another marshal didn't make it into the final cut.
Although John Wayne often complained that the film was "un-American", when he collected Gary Cooper's Best Actor Oscar on his behalf at the The 25th Annual Academy Awards he complained that he wasn't offered the part himself, so he could have made it more like one of his own westerns. He later teamed up with director Howard Hawks to make Rio Bravo as a counter-response.
Although the film takes place between 10:35 a.m. and 12:15 p.m, you would need to start watching the film at 10:50 a.m. in order for Noon in real life to synchronize with the "High Noon" of the film.
Although the picture takes place between 10:35 a.m. and 12:15 p.m.. slightly longer than the 84-minute running time, this was due to the re-editing ordered by Stanley Kramer and Fred Zinnemann, both of whom were unhappy over the first assemblage. Editor Elmo Williams experimented by using the final portion of the material shot and condensed it to exactly 60 minutes of footage timed to real-time in the film. Thus the film we see is Williams' experimental version, which met with both Kramer's and Zinnemann's approval.
Among other accomplishments, the film was a milestone in scoring. It introduced the idea of a theme song to be marketed separately from the movie, and to be a motif for the instrumental score throughout the movie. Tex Ritter--John Ritter's father--sang the song "Do Not Foresake Me", whose lyrics are from the point of view of the hero appealing to his new wife, Amy, to stay with him.
As Carl Foreman's script bore certain similarities to John W. Cunningham's story "The Tin Star", producer Stanley Kramer bought the rights to Cunningham's novel to protect the production against accusations of plagiarism.
Between takes Gary Cooper would chat with the crew or snooze underneath a tree.
Director Fred Zinnemann said that the black smoke billowing from the train is a sign that the brakes were failing. He and the cameraman didn't know it at the time, and barely got out of the way. The camera tripod snagged itself on the track and fell over, smashing the camera, but the film survived and is in the movie.
Film debut of Lee Van Cleef, who does not have a word of dialogue.
Hadleyville is the name of the town. It is never spoken but is clearly visible on the train station wall. Hadleyville was also the name of the town in Gung Ho but was placed in the northeast U.S. In the west, there is a real Hadleyville, in Oregon.
In 1951, after 25 years in show business, Gary Cooper's professional reputation declined, and he was dropped from the Motion Picture Herald's list of the top 10 Box Office performers. In the following year he made a big comeback at the age of 51 with this film.
In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #27 Greatest Movie of All Time.
In the fight scene involving Gary Cooper and Lloyd Bridges, Lloyd's son Beau Bridges, then a youngster, was in the hayloft watching the filming. When water was thrown on his father after the fight, Beau could not help laughing, requiring the scene to be shot a second time. Cooper was not well and in pain but was gracious and understanding, according to Lloyd.
In the showdown scenes, western film trivia buffs may notice a store called "Boyd's Hardware", apparently a reference to actor William Boyd, who played "Hopalong Cassidy" on TV. The years 1951-1952 were the height of Boyd's TV career as Hopalong Cassidy.
It took 28 days to shoot the film, after 10 days of rehearsal.
Its loss in the Best Picture category to the much-derided The Greatest Show on Earth, by Cecil B. DeMille, is usually cited as one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Academy Awards. This loss is often seen as an effort to satisfy Senator Joseph McCarthy, as DeMille was one of his biggest supporters.
Much of the film was filmed in the gold rush town of Columbia, CA. Today it is a state park right by Sonora on Highway 49.
Producer Stanley Kramer first offered the leading role of Will Kane to Gregory Peck, who turned it down because he felt it was too similar to The Gunfighter. Other actors who turned down the role of Will Kane included Charlton Heston, Marlon Brando, Kirk Douglas, and Montgomery Clift.