Directed by: Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Lloyd Bridges, Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, Katy Jurado, Thomas Mitchell
Factual error: After Gary Cooper writes his last will and testament, he puts it into an envelope and licks it shut. Those kind of envelopes were invented about thirty years after the film takes place. (01:06:45)
Factual error: During the gun battle, Gary Cooper runs behind a building that has an air-conditioner or swamp cooler installed in a second-floor window. (01:17:30)
Plot hole: Frank Miller sets fire to the stable Kane is hiding in; when he leaves it, you can see the large column of smoke. But the fire is ignored after that. In an age of wooden buildings and poor fire equipment, that could have burned down the whole town. Even assuming that people wouldn't come out to fight the fire during the gun battle, you'd think that when they all came out at the end, someone would have pointed out they had a major fire to deal with. (01:16:40)
Judge: This is just a dirty little village in the middle of nowhere. Nothing that happens here is really important.
Trivia: Released during the height of Communist hysteria, the film is a thinly disguised indictment of McCarthyism. The cowardice of the townspeople represents the blacklisting that ruined careers and lives, particularly in Hollywood, all the while supposedly good people were afraid to do the right thing and stand up for those singled out for persecution.
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