Fred Zinnemann has had an outstanding career spanning six decades, during which he has directed 22 features, 19 short subjects and won three Oscars. Perhaps his best-known work is "High Noon" (1952), one of the first 25 American film classics chosen in 1989 for the National Film Registry. With its psychological and moral examinations of its lawman hero, played by Gary Cooper, its allegorical political commentary (on McCarthy-era witch-hunting) and its innovative chronology whereby screen time approximated the tense 80-minute countdown to the confrontational hour, "High Noon" shattered the mold