High Noon?

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I'm almost positive David Merrill is a fictional character. Though, during the trial, there were references to two or three different blacklisted Hollywood people/suspected Communists who were called to meet in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC).

The Western which was being shot was indeed High Noon. I watched this as part of my Cold War Era/Film course at my high school, and High Noon was part of the course. Frank Miller was a character in High Noon, and the famous final scene where the Sheriff threw his badge to the ground and rode off was the actual ending scene to High Noon.

In the real filming of High Noon, I'm almost positive there was a change in directors because the original director was in question by HUAC, so he was quickly done away with. The same thing happened to Merrill in Guilty By Suspicion. Therefore, there is surely some correlation between the two.

The original screenplay was greatly changed by director/writer Irwin Winkler. The original writer (can't recall his name) wanted his name removed from the film credits due to the changes. One of the significant changes was that David Merril was indeed a member of the communist party although not a subversive in any way as the government wanted people to think in those days. This was more to the point of what many innocent citizens went through at the time such as academy award screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo and many, many other innocent people.

I did hear a rumor that David Merril's role was partly based on the director Edward Dymitrik (directed "The Young Lions" with Brando and Clift). I don't know if this is true as I believe that Dymitrik actually named names.

The western looks like "High Noon" but my guess is that it is either an homage to "High Noon" by director/writer Winkler or in the storyline this was intended as a low-budget rip-off by the schlock producer that hires Merril. The lead actor was clearly portrayed as a young up and comer and not a long time star like Gary Cooper, so my best guess is that it was either one of the other two and not meant to be the actual "High Noon".