John Wayne famously called High Noon “the most un-American thing I’ve seen in my whole life”



The film, written and co-produced by Carl Foreman, premiered on July 24, 1952 in New York City. Foreman was  called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during production., admitting being a  member of the Communist Party in the early 1940s,  but refused to provide names of other members and then fled to England (where he wrote The Bridge on the River Kwai).
High Noon was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, and received 4 (Best Actor, Best Editing, Best Score, Best Song). John Wayne accepted the Best Actor Award for the absent Gary Cooper and said that he was going to ask his “business manager, agent, and producer and writers” and find out why “I didn’t get High Noon and Coop did.” In fact, Wayne was offered the film first, but refused, as he believed “Foreman’s story was an obvious allegory against blacklisting.”