In 1952, Fred Zinnemann made one of the great Westerns: High Noon, a multi-Oscared Cold War parable widely praised for its real-time suspense and psychological heft. But one man just didn’t buy it: Howard Hawks. Dismayed to see Gary Cooper’s beleaguered lawman scrabble around for support “like a wet chicken”, the director responded with Rio Bravo: a paean to professionalism in which the heroes don’t plead for the townspeople’s help. Hell, they turn it down. “Well-meaning amateurs,” drawls sheriff John T Chance (John Wayne), “most of ’em worried about their wives and kids...”
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