High Noon is a
1952 American Western film directed by
Fred Zinnemann and starring
Gary Cooper. In nearly real time, the film tells the story of a town marshal forced to face a gang of killers by himself. The screenplay was written by
Carl Foreman. The film won four
Academy Awards (
Actor, Editing, Music-Score, Music-Song) and four
Golden Globe Awards (Actor, Supporting
Actress,
Score, Cinematography-Black and
White). The award-winning score was written by Russian-born composer
Dimitri Tiomkin.
In
1989, High Noon was selected for preservation in the
United States National Film Registry by the
Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", entering the registry during the
NFR's first year of existence.
Frankie Laine (30 Mar 1913 – 6 Feb,
2007), born
Francesco Paolo LoVecchio, was a successful American singer, songwriter, and actor whose career spanned 75 years, from his first concerts in
1930 with a marathon dance company to his final performance of "
That's My Desire" in
2005. Often billed as "
America's
Number One Song Stylist", his other nicknames include "Mr.
Rhythm", "Old Leather
Lungs", and "Mr.
Steel Tonsils". His hits included "That's My Desire", "
That Lucky Old Sun", "
Mule Train", "
Cry of the Wild Goose" "
Jezebel", "High Noon", "
I Believe", "
Hey Joe!", "
The Kid's Last Fight", "
Cool Water", "
Moonlight Gambler," "
Love Is a
Golden Ring," "
Rawhide", and "
Lord,
You Gave Me a Mountain."
He sang well-known theme songs for many movie
Western soundtracks, including
3:10 To Yuma, Gunfight at the
O.K. Corral, and
Blazing Saddles, although he was not a country & western singer. Laine sang an eclectic variety of song styles and genres, stretching from big band crooning to pop, western-themed songs, gospel, rock, folk, jazz, and blues. He did not sing the soundtrack song for High Noon, which was sung by
Tex Ritter, but his own version (with somewhat altered lyrics, omitting the name of the antagonist,
Frank Miller) was the one that became a bigger hit, nor did he sing the theme to another show he is commonly associated with—
Champion the Wonder Horse (sung by
Mike Stewart)—but released his own, subsequently more popular, version.
Laine's enduring popularity was illustrated in June
2011, when a TV-advertised compilation called
Hits reached No. 16 on the
British chart. The accomplishment was achieved nearly 60 years after his debut on the UK chart, 64 years after his first major
U.S. hit and four years after his death.
- published: 01 Jun 2015
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