Released at the height of the Cold War, which 1952 Western earned Gary Cooper an Oscar for Best Actor?

High Noon tells the story of a town Marshall torn between duty and love. John Wayne got the first offer to play the lead, but turned it down for political reasons: Carl Foreman's screenplay was an obvious allegory for McCarthyist blacklisting, for which Wayne was a gung-ho advocate. Despite being a close friend of Wayne's who also shared his anti-communist views, Gary Cooper accepted the role (but later disavowed McCarthyism entirely). In an interesting twist of fate, Cooper won the Academy Award but was working in Europe at the time and asked Wayne to accept the accolade in his place.

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