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Martin: You risk your skin catching killers and the juries turn them loose so they can come back and shoot at you again. If you're honest you're poor your whole life and in the end you wind up dying all alone on some dirty street. For what? For nothing. For a tin star.
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Will: I've got to, that's the whole thing.
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Helen: What kind of woman are you? How can you leave him like this? Does the sound of guns frighten you that much?
Amy: I've heard guns. My father and my brother were killed by guns. They were on the right side but that didn't help them any when the shooting started. My brother was nineteen. I watched him die. That's when I became a Quaker. I don't care who's right or who's wrong. There's got to be some better way for people to live. Will knows how I feel about it.
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Helen: You're a good-looking boy: you've big, broad shoulders. But he's a man. And it takes more than big, broad shoulders to make a man.
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Judge: This is just a dirty little village in the middle of nowhere. Nothing that happens here is really important.
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Helen: I don't understand you. No matter what you say. If Kane was my man, I'd never leave him like this. I'd get a gun. I'd fight.
Amy: Why don't you?
Helen: He is not my man. He's yours.
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Helen: Kane will be a dead man in half an hour and nobody's gonna do anything about it. And when he dies, this town dies too. I can feel it. I am all alone in the world. I have to make a living. So I'm going someplace else. That's all.
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Dr. Mahin, Minister: 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.
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Martin: People gotta talk themselves into law and order before they do anything about it. Maybe because down deep they don't care. They just don't care.
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[to his wife]
Sam: Well, whaddya want? Do you want me to get killed? Do you want to be a widow, is that what you want?
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[to Deputy Harvey Pell]
Joe: I knew you had guts but I never figured you for brains. It takes a pretty smart man to know when to back away.
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Will: Don't shove me Harv. I'm tired of being shoved.
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Amy: Don't try to be a hero! You don't have to be a hero, not for me!
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Will: Stay at the hotel until it's over.
Amy: No, I won't be here when it's over. You're asking me to wait an hour to find out if I'm going to be a wife or a widow. I say it's too long to wait! I won't do it!
Will: Amy!
Amy: I mean it! If you won't go with me now, I'll be on that train when it leaves here.
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Hotel Clerk: You're Mrs. Kane, ain't you?
Amy: Yes.
Hotel Clerk: You're leaving on the noon train?
Amy: Yes.
Hotel Clerk: But your husband ain't?
Amy: No, why?
Hotel Clerk: No reason, but it's mighty interesting. Now, me, I wouldn't leave this town at noon for all the tea in China. No, sir, it's going to be quite a sight to see!
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[when his Deputy Sheriff, his last hope of help, deserts him]
Will: Go on home to your kids, Herb.
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Deputy Sheriff Herb Baker: [when Herb volunteer's to be Will's first and only Deputy Sheriff for posse, Herb remarks to Will] I'll be back in ten minutes, loaded for bear.
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Will: [initially leaving town] This is crazy, I don't even have any guns.
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Will: [Sees a teenage boy loafing near a storefront] Johnny, why aren't you in church?
Johnny - Town Boy: Why aren't you?
[Will raises his hand as if to slap the boy for being disrespectful]
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Joe: I've got no use for Kane, but he's got guts.
Bar Patron: You're mighty broadminded, Joe.
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Deputy Sheriff Herb Baker: [to Marshal Will Kane] You cleaned this town up. You made it fit for women and kids to live in.
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[Johnny peers from the back room into Marshal Kane's office. He sees the marshal slumped over at his desk. Muffled sobs can be heard coming from Kane. The marshal hears Johnny come in and looks up at him]
Will: What do you want?
Johnny - Town Boy: I found them, all but Mr Henderson.
Will: I found him, thanks.
Johnny - Town Boy: You're welcome. Marshal, let me fight with you. I ain't afraid.
Will: No.
Johnny - Town Boy: Please, let me, Marshal!
Will: You're a kid! You're a baby!
Johnny - Town Boy: I'm sixteen! I can handle a gun, too!
Will: You're fourteen. What do you wanna lie for?
Johnny - Town Boy: I'm big for my age! Please, Marshal!
Will: Well, you're big for your age, but no, go on, get out of here.
-
[Ben Miller, Jim Pearce and Jack Colby passes by the saloon, as Gillis is attending to his customer. The clock on the wall shows 10:33 AM]
Man: Man, it sure is hot.
Barber: Hot? You call this hot?
[the Barber looks up and notices the three horsemen offscreen. Walks to the front door]
Barber: Well, I'll be...
Man: What's the matter?
Barber: I thought I saw Ben Miller!
Man: Oh, he's down in Texas somewhere.
Barber: I know...
[the Barber walks back to tend to the customer]
Barber: Looked like Pierce and Colby, too.
[Doubtfully]
Barber: No, it couldn't be, though.
-
Will: Hey, Charlie. You can go home now.
[Charlie, a tall, gangly, unkempt young man, lumbers out of the jail cell, hungover]
Charlie - Drunk in Jail: Thanks, Marshal! Sure appreciate it, certainly do. You don't happen to know if the saloon's open?
Will: I said, go home, Charlie.
[He shoves Charlie's jacket and bowler hat into his arms]
Charlie - Drunk in Jail: Yes, sir.
[Charlie darts out the jail door]
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Helen: [in Spanish] One year without seeing you.
Will: [in Spanish] Yes, I know.
-
Helen: You're a good-looking boy: you have big, broad shoulders. But he's a man. And it takes more than big, broad shoulders to make a man. And do you know what? I don't think you are going to make it.
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[first lines]
Gillis - Saloon Owner: Did you see what I saw?
High Noon Quotes
Extended Reading
