Director Fred Zinnemann made only one western during his career, but what a western! An excruciatingly simple and straight-forward tale, High Noon has become so iconic as to have become part of the English lexicon:

high noon

noun

1 midday.

2 an event or confrontation that is likely to decide the final outcome of a situation : the high noon of his quest for the presidential nomination. [ORIGIN: popularized by the film High Noon (1952).]

Much like The Misfits, this film features a great movie star in the autumn of his career, giving one of the best performances of his life!