And Let’s Get All The Children out of The building.

The character of Marshall Will Kane in High Noon is autobiographical, based on screenwriter 

Carl Foreman. 

Foreman was in the process of being blacklisted by Hollywood due to his previous Communist sympathies 

and his refusal to "name names" 

of others he knew who were also Communists . 

When he sought help from colleagues 

in the hope that they would vouch for him, 

most refused or had a long list of conditions. 

Foreman based many of the conversations that Will Kane has in the movie on his own experiences of being 

turned down for help.

Malachi 

Chapter 4 :

1

For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble : 

and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the LORD of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch.

2

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

3

And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the LORD of hosts.

4

Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

5

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD :

6

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

The Parson :

Our text today is from Malachi,

Chapter Four.

"For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be..."

Yes?

Cain :

I'm sorry, Parson.

I don't want to disturb the services.

You already have.

You don't come to this church very often, Marshal.

And when you got married today, you didn't see fit to be married here.

What could be so important to bring you here now?

Cain :

I need help.

It's True, I haven't been a church-going man.

And maybe that's a bad thing.

And I didn't get married here today because my wife's a Quaker.

But I came here for help 

because there are people here.

I'm sorry, Marshal.

Say what you have to say.

Cain :

Maybe some of you already know it, but if you don't, it looks like Frank Miller's coming back on The Noon Train.

I need all the special deputies I can get.

Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go.

Hold it a minute. Hold it.

Before we go rushing out into something that ain't gonna be so pleasant, 

let's be sure we know what this is all about.

What I want to know is this :

Ain't it True that Kane ain't no longer Marshal?

And ain't it True there's Personal Trouble between him and Miller?

All right, all right. 

Quiet, everybody!

If there's a difference of opinion, let everybody have a say.

But let's do it like grown-up people.

And let's get all the kids out of the building.

I say it don't really matter if there's anything personal between Miller and The Marshal here.

We all know Who Miller Is 

and what Miller is.

What's more, we're wasting time.

All right. Coy.

Mr. COY :

Yes, we all know who Miller is.

But we put him away once.

And who saved him from hanging?

The politicians up north.

I say this is their mess.

Let them take care of it.

Sawyer.

Mr. SAWYER :

Well, I say this.

We've been paying good money right along for a marshal and deputies.

Now the first time there's any Trouble,

we're supposed to take care of it ourselves.

Well, what have we been paying for all this time?

I say we're not peace officers.

This ain't our job.

I've been saying right along, we ought to have more deputies.

If we did, we wouldn't be facing this thing now.

Just a minute. Just a minute.

Everybody, quiet!

Keep it orderly.

You had your hand up, Ezra.

I can't believe I've heard some of the things that have been said here --

You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves.

Sure, we paid this man 

and he wasthe best marshal this town ever had.

It ain't his Trouble, it's ours.

I tell you, if we don't Do What's Right,

we're gonna have plenty more Trouble.

So there ain't but one thing to do now.

And you all know what that is.

Go ahead, Kibbee.

This whole thing's been handled wrong.

Here's those three killers walking the streets bold as brass.

Why didn't you arrest them, Marshal?

Why didn't you put them in jail where they ought to be?

Then we'd only have Miller to worry about instead of the four of them.

I haven't anything to arrest them for, Mr Trumbull.

They haven't done anything.

There's no law against them sitting on a bench at the depot.

I can't listen to any more of this.

What's the matter with you people?

Don't you remember when a decent woman couldn't walk down the street in broad daylight?

Don't you remember when this wasn't a fit place to bring up a child?

How can you sit here and talk and talk and talk like this?

What are we all getting so excited about?

How do we know Miller's on that train, anyway?

Well, we can be pretty sure he's on it.

Time's getting short.

Parson, you got anything to say?

I don't know. The Commandments say,

"Thou shalt not kill."

But we hire men to go out and do it for us.

The right and the wrong seem pretty clear here.

But if you're asking me to tell my people to go out and kill and maybe get themselves killed, I'm sorry, I don't know what to say.

I'm sorry.

All right. I'll say this, what this town owes Will Kane here,

it can never pay with money.

And don't ever forget it.

He's the best marshal we ever had,

maybe the best marshal we'll ever have.

So if Miller comes back here today,

it's Our Problem, not his.

It's Our Problem 

because This is Our Town.

We made it with our own hands out of nothing.

And if we want to keep it decent,

keep it growing,

we've got to think mighty clear

here today.

And we've got to have the courage to do what we think is right, no matter how hard it is. All right.

There's gonna be fighting when Kane and Miller meet.

And somebody's going to get hurt, that's for sure. 

Now, people up North are thinking about this town.

Thinking mighty hard, thinking about sending money down here to put up stores and to build factories.

It'll mean a lot to this town. An awful lot.

But if they're gonna read about shooting and killing 

in the streets, what are they gonna think then?

I'll tell you. They're gonna think this is just another wide-open town, and everything we worked for will be wiped out.

In one day, this town will be set back five years.

And I don't think we can let that happen.

Mind you, you all know how I feel about this man.

He's a mighty brave man. 

A Good Man.

He didn't have to come back here today.

And for his sake and the sake of this town, I wish he hadn't.

Because if he's not here when Miller comes, my hunch is there won't be any trouble.

Not one bit.

Tomorrow we'll have a new marshal, and if we can all agree here to offer him our services,

I think we can handle anything that comes along.

Now, to me, that makes sense.

To me, that's the only way out of this.

Will, I think you better go while there's still time.

It's better for you, 

and it's better for us.

Thanks.