Disgusted by Gary Cooper throwing down his sheriff’s badge at the end of High Noon (1952) – after the community has failed to help him in his hour of need – Howard Hawks determined to make a riposte. Here Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) turns down offers of assistance when the dastardly Burdette family rides into town to free one of their kin from the jailhouse.
In Hawks’ world, facing up to responsibility is key, and Chance depends only on his deputies, the boozy Dude (Dean Martin) and decrepit Stumpy (Walter Brennan). An hour longer than High Noon, the result is a leisurely meditation on ageing and companionship that finds time for romance with saloon girl Feathers (Angie Dickinson) and a jailhouse singsong with young gun Ricky Nelson.
