Katy was better than Grace in High Noon
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BoyWiththeGreenHair — 12 years ago(July 07, 2013 05:00 AM)
Jurado also didn't lose her presence after her sex appeal went. Can you imagine a middle-aged Grace Kelly, forty pounds heavier and wielding pistols, holding her own in a film like ONE-EYED JACK? I can't even see her teaching her daughter how to drive.
Thing is that I have nothing against Grace, but this was her first "majo5b4r" production, and it kind of shows. She had been in Hollywood before, but hadn't worked with the likes of Cooper and Zinneman, and you get the sense she's intimidated. She does fine considering who she's working with, but it's nothing remarkable, and she definitely hasn't reached her full form, yet.
She really required the likes of someone like Alfred Hitchcock to breed her into the type of "starlet" whose physical control and screen presence dominated the room, as in TO CATCH A THIEF. In HIGH NOON, its definitely clear that she hasn't come into her own yet. Kelly is good, but the performance is interchangeable - Amy very well could have been portrayed by Cooper's old squeeze Patricia Neale (arguably more effectively). Likewise, I can't see anyone other than Jurado playing Helen Ramirez. Maybe Dolores Del Rio, but even that's a stretch.
It might have been the demands for the character that Amy appear awkward. She is, after all, a young Quaker woman in a very tense situation. Still, just look at how Helen brushes Harvey's cheek in their first scene as Will and Amy are seen riding away, as if to imply they had just finished being intimate with each other (to be frank). You just don't get those type of spontaneous moments from Kelly, honestly.