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Gary Cooper ~ 51 Films

Frank James (later Gary) Cooper was born on 7 in Helena, Montana. From the silent era through to 1961, Cooper built a solid reputation by playing strong, manly, distinctly American roles in a natural, understated manner. The son of English parents who had settled in Montana, in the years 1909-12 he lived and was educated in , England. Otherwise, from the age of five, he spent his summers on his father's ranch in northern Montana and his winters in Helena, where for some time he was a near neighbour of Myrna Williams (later Loy). After finishing school he worked on the family ranch until 1922, when he enrolled at , Iowa to study art. After eighteen months of that, and some time in and Helena, fortune took his parents (and so him) to . After weeks of struggling to find gainful employment, he met two Montana friends, Jim Galeen and Jim Calloway, who were working as film extras and stunt riders in low-budget Westerns. They introduced him to another Montana cowboy, rodeo champion Jay "Slim" Talbot, who hooked Cooper up with a casting director. (Talbot later worked as Cooper's stuntman and stand-in for over thirty years, becoming a close friend and hunting companion in the process.) Cooper accepted work as a film extra for five dollars a day and a stunt rider for twice that amount with the intention of saving enough money to pay for a professional art course. But his appearance in 1926 The Winning Of Barbara Worth attracted sufficient notice that his acting career began to take off. He starred opposite silent movie star in Children Of Divorce (1927) and earned praise in the title role of (1929), one of his early sound films. Throughout

the , he turned in a number of strong performances in such films as A Farewell To Arms with (1934), with (1935) and 's Mr. Deeds Goes To Town with (1936). Mr. Deeds earned him a first Best Actor Academy Award nomination.

Cooper continued to excel on the big screen, tackling several fact-based dramas. In Sergeant York (1941), his portrayal of World War I hero won him a first coveted Best Actor Oscar. His next two films, playing baseball great in then appearing in a film adaptation of Hemingway's opposite resulted in two more nominations. In 1952, Cooper took on what is now considered his signature role: that of sheriff Will Kane in . The film won four , including a second Best Actor win for its male lead. At the time of the presentation ceremony, Cooper was out of the country, so the Oscar was accepted on his behalf by , who said of Coop: "He's one of the nicest fellows I know. I don't know anybody any nicer."

Cooper's social life generally centred on sports, outdoor activities and dinner parties with his family and friends from the film industry, including directors , , William Wellman and and actors Joel McCrea, , and Robert Taylor. As well as hunting, Cooper enjoyed riding, fishing, skiing and, later in life, scuba diving. He never abandoned his early love for art and drawing and, over the years, he and his wife acquired a private collection of paintings including works

by Renoir and Gauguin. Cooper owned several works by Picasso, whom he met in 1956. Cooper had a lifelong passion for automobiles with a collection that included a 1930 . Naturally reserved and introspective, he loved the solitude of outdoor activities. Not unlike his screen persona, his commun- ication style frequently consisted of long silences with an occasional "yup" and "shucks". He once said: "If others have more interesting things to say than I have, I keep quiet." According to his friends, Cooper could also be an articulate, well-informed conversationalist on topics ranging from horses, guns, and Western history to film production, sports cars and modern art. He was modest and unpretentious, frequently downplaying his acting abilities and career accomplishments. His friends and colleagues described him as charming, well- mannered and thoughtful, with a lively, boyish sense of humour. He maintained a sense of propriety throughout his career and never misused his movie star status - never sought special treatment or refused to work with a director or leading lady. His close friend Joel McCrea recalled, "Coop never fought, he never got mad, he never told anybody off that I know of. Everybody that worked with him liked him."

Twice in 1960, Cooper underwent surgery made necessary by metastasising prostate cancer. On 9 January 1961, he attended a Friars Club dinner given in his honour, hosted by and and attended by many of his industry friends. Cooper told them: "The only achievement I'm proud of is the friends I've made in this community." In mid-January, he took his family to Sun Valley for their last vacation together. He hiked with Hemingway through the snow for the last time. On 27 February, after returning to Los Angeles, Cooper learned he was dying. He later told his family: "We'll pray for a miracle, but if not, and that's God's will, that's all right too." In March he travelled to to record off-camera narration for NBC documentary The Real West - his last work as an actor. On 17 April, he watched the Academy Awards ceremony on TV and saw his good friend James Stewart, who had presented Cooper with his first Oscar in 1942, accept on Cooper's behalf an honorary award for lifetime achievement - his third Oscar. The dedication read: "To for his many memorable screen performances and the international recognition he, as an individual, has gained for the motion picture industry." Speaking to Cooper, an emotional Stewart said: "Coop, I want you to know I'll get it to you right away. With it goes all the friendship and affection and the admiration and deep respect of all of us. We're very, very proud of you, Coop." The following day, newspapers around the world announced that Cooper was dying. In the coming days he received numerous messages of appreciation and encouragement, including telegrams from the Pope and Queen Elizabeth and a phone call from President Kennedy. On 4 May, Cooper, in his last public statement, said: "I know that what is happening is God's will. I am not afraid of the future." He received the last rites on 12 May and died on Saturday 13 May 1961 at 12:47 pm, less than a week after his sixtieth birthday.

The Man Who Was America's Hero

Once upon a time, in a little period of history called World War II, America was sorely in need of heroes, specifically heroes who personified the ideals by which America defined itself: courage, humility, toughness and the chance to start small and end up big. Gary Cooper was that hero. Perhaps his friend John Wayne fit that mould too, but in a larger, more mythical way. Coop was quieter, more deliberate and unassuming, but no less powerful. If they'd made a movie in the thirties about Charles Lindbergh, surely Gary Cooper would have played him. [James Stewart finally did in 1957.]

Cooper grew up on a ranch in Montana and knew early on the meaning of hard work. He also knew a thing or two about horses, which came in handy when he first went to and found work as a stuntman in Westerns. But he didn't stay a stuntman for long. This tall, lean, strikingly handsome man had that special "It" quality every producer and director looks for and in no time he was in front of the camera. He would remain there, charming the country and making millions of housewives unsatisfied with their husbands, until his death from cancer in 1961.

To say that Coop was more of a movie star than a versatile actor understates his talent. Yes, his range was somewhat limited, but he certainly knew how to use what he had, most often playing down-home, modest, decent men of few

words. And he made it all look natural and easy, even when it wasn't. In 1933 Coop married a high society lady named Veronica Balfe (known to all as "Rocky") and, unlike so many Hollywood unions, they stayed together, even though his prodigious sex drive had him bedding quite a few of his co-stars along the way. Rocky bore it all with grace, though when Coop fell in love with the much younger , his co-star in (1949), she finally had enough and threw him out.

After a three year separation the couple reunited in 1954. Reportedly, some of his wife's toney friends and family dismissed Gary as dim and unsophisticated. It's likely they weren't just snobby, but jealous - of his looks, inner calm, self- made success and famous friends (most notably, ). Or perhaps of his ability to eat a mountain of food in one sitting (a dozen eggs, a whole cherry pie) without adding a single pound to his lean 6'3” frame. Hell, we'd all be jealous of that.

No one who achieved the sustained success of Gary Cooper can be called stupid. Range and versatility aside, movie actors should be judged by the number of great films they make, and Cooper made plenty. In particular, three heroic roles remain indelible, all recognised by the Academy: World War One hero Alvin York in 1941's Sergeant York (he won an Oscar), Lou Gehrig in 1942's The Pride Of The Yankees (he was nominated) and Marshal Will Kane in 1952's High Noon (his second win.) Playing these parts alone would have ensured screen immortality, but these were three of many, including countless other Westerns (besides the immortal High Noon) which is where he felt most at home. In fact, Coop was credited in close to 100 films. And at the time of his death, he held the record for most years in the top ten list of box office favourites. Not bad for a shy, gangly kid from Montana. Finally, he had that remarkable face, so distinctly American and something to celebrate in and of itself. Happy Birthday, Coop. We miss you.

John Farr, 7 May 2014

* * * * *

HOW DID HE DO IT?

Cooper's ability to project his personality onto his characters played an important part in his appearing natural and authentic on screen. Actor said of Cooper, "This fellow is the world's greatest actor. He does without effort what the rest of us spend our lives trying to learn - namely, to be natural." , who played opposite Cooper in agreed: "In truth, that boy hasn't the least idea how well he acts ... He gets at it from the inside, from his own clear way of looking at life." , who

directed Cooper in two films, called him a "superb actor, a master of movie acting". In his review of Cooper's performance in , wrote, "Sometimes his lean photogenic face seems to leave everything to the lens, but there is no question here of his not acting. Watch him inoculate the girl against cholera - the casual jab of the needle, and the dressing slapped on while he talks, as though a thousand arms had taught him where to stab and he doesn't have to think anymore."

Cooper's style of underplaying before the camera surprised many of his directors and fellow actors. Even in his earliest feature films, he recognised the camera's ability to pick up slight gestures and facial movements. Commenting on Cooper's performance in Sergeant York, director Howard Hawks observed: "He worked very hard and yet he didn't seem to be working. He was a strange actor because you'd look at him during a scene and you'd think ... this isn't going to be any good. But when you saw the rushes in the projection room the next day you could read in his face all the things he'd been thinking." , who directed Cooper in four films, had similar observations about Cooper's performance in The Pride Of The Yankees, noting: "What I thought was underplaying turned out to be just the right approach. On the screen he's perfect, yet on the set you'd swear it's the worst job of acting in the history of motion pictures." His fellow actors also admired his abilities as an actor. Commenting on her two films playing opposite Cooper, actress Ingrid Bergman concluded: "The personality of this man was so enormous, so overpowering - and that expression in his eyes and his face, it was so delicate and so underplayed. You just didn't notice it until you saw it on the screen. I thought he was marvellous; the most underplaying and the most natural actor I ever worked with."

THE WINNING OF BARBARA WORTH (1926)

In this surprisingly proficient 1926 silent, Cooper was third-billed below (above) and Vilma Banky, the orphan girl both set their heart on. A tale of financial chicanery concerning irrigation of the desert using water diverted from the Colorado turns into a full blown disaster epic when an exciting if rather unrealistic flood sweeps away all in its path (mostly buildings and fleeing settlers). Throw in an ambush in the canyon and a little bit of Romeo and Juliet (really!) for a full house. Cooper comfortably holds his own with Colman, which must have encouraged him greatly. 89 minutes. Good.

IMDb: A special Western and a special movie. The cinematography is breathtaking with some exquisitely composed shots and beautiful use of light and shadow. The special effects are amazing for its time / The first of many great films starring Gary Cooper and it is easy to see why he made it in the acting field. His rival for Barbara's hand is Ronald Colman and what a dashing rival he makes! I was unfamiliar with the heroine but she too was a wonderful actress / A stunning visual masterpiece show- casing images of wagons and people and horses moving against a backdrop of yellow tinted sun-lit desert that looks absolutely gorgeous, not to mention the exciting flood climax featuring a fast-paced race on foot and wagon between the townspeople and the approaching roar of the Colorado river which is expertly brought to life / One of the great epic Westerns of the '20s, along with The Covered Wagon (1923) and The Iron Horse (1924). Neither Colman nor Banky where keen about going to for location shooting and Cooper was only signed for his role a few days before filming began / Cooper steals every scene he's in / Though hardly the classic that many claim, it is still fairly entertaining and worth watching, if only to see a young Gary Cooper in his first big role, playing second banana behind well-established star Ronald Colman.

"IT" (1927)

"It" is sex appeal and Clara Bow has it - indeed, after her success in this fun 76 minute silent, she became known as "The It Girl". For Cooper, after a brief sniff of success with Barbara Worth, this was back to the grind of uncredited bit parts - in this case an unnamed reporter, on screen for under three minutes. During this film or perhaps Wings Cooper began a relationship with Bow - far from his last with a leading lady, though since both were unattached (which would not always be the case with Cooper), good luck to them. The advent of sound did Bow no favours and her time at the top was brief. Cooper's career, in contrast, was about to take wings and soar.

IMDb: The youthful beauty, energy and unique charm of the "It Girl" were never more evident than in this, her signature film. The plot may be simplistic and the dialogue dated, but those are, after all, endearing qualities for most buffs. The rest of the cast, including Gary Cooper in a brief scene, are serviceable and amusing, but everyone else is merely window dressing for Miss Bow's star turn / If there's any question why Clara Bow became one of the top box office stars of the late silent era, "It" answers that question. The film, perhaps the one with which she will always be associated, is indeed a star turn, but a great one / Hollywood popcorn - but Clara is an absolute sensation / A decent made wonderful by the presence of Clara Bow / "It" is not an important movie in the development of cinema, either in terms of technique or theme. Instead, it's an entertaining romantic comedy, largely due to Bow's electrifying screen presence and Austin's satisfying performance. Clara Bow was a huge star, who defined the female sex symbol during the '20s. Even today it's hard to imagine anyone watching her and being able to deny that she does indeed have It / A great showcase for Bow's charm and presence, otherwise underwhelming.

WINGS (aka The Shooting Star) (1927)

Back to silent days, but, still, quite a film - that it won the first ever Best Picture Oscar was no fluke and no more than it deserved. By 1927, Chaplin and others were making relatively sophisticated movies - nonetheless, the battlefield and dogfight footage of Wings is impressive (not to mention, in view of the era, ground-breaking), so hats off to director Wellman, who helmed 83 films in a 35 year career, including Stanwyck vehicles Night Nurse, The Great Man's Lady and Lady Of Burlesque. Incidentally, Wellman (a former WWI aviator), his wife and their young daughter all appear briefly in the film. Wings sets its two-pals- in-love-with-the-same-gal story against the backdrop of The Great War in and sees it through to a suitably poignant end in fine style throughout. The two male lead parts are taken by Charles Rogers (above, left) and (above, centre). Cooper, as Cadet White, has only one short scene before coming to grief in a mid-air crash, but the cameo "effectively made him a star" (IMDb). [Given his much more substantial contribution to Barbara Worth the year before, is that really so?] Excellent; ahead of its time. 124 minutes.

IMDb: You will never see a better World War I film ... The air battles in this film have never been topped anywhere / A timeless triumph of the silent cinema / One hell of a good film. Wellman creates a solid and moving anti-war statement as he shows us the brutality and stupidity of war, its waste of youth and its power to destroy the lives of all involved / Though most of the acting is rather routine, the highlights of Wings come in the battle scenes and, done without computers or other such advantages, they are awfully impressive, exciting and completely realistic. The aerial dogfight scenes are especially dazzling / The best film of the '20s / Brilliant / What a surprise!

THE VIRGINIAN (1929)

In 1902, published The Virginian, an immensely popular novel (his third) said to be "the first true Western ever written". In 1904, in collaboration with Kirke La Shelle, Wister adapted the book into a successful stage play. Silent films based on the play were made in 1914 by Cecil B. DeMille and 1923 by Tom Forman. This 1929 production was the first (but not last) talking film version, and made young Gary Cooper a star. In what may be seen as an early foreshadowing of his famous High Noon role, Cooper plays the laconic, rangy embodiment of courage and integrity as he paces the streets of Medicine Bow awaiting the inevitable face-off with cattle thief and all-round no-good Trampas (, above). The only thing to regret about Huston's suitably dark-toned villain is his iffy moustache. Though the long-running (1961- 72) TV series appropriated the names of the two lead characters, Trampas becomes in that a rowdy but straight-shooting cowhand. In neither the original book nor any of its subsequent adaptations is The Virginian's name ever revealed. What is very familiar to us now must have been much less so back in 1929. 91 minutes. Good.

IMDb: Old but fun / The Virginian is one of the first well-known Western "talkies". Released in 1929 and starring Gary Cooper who later became one of the great heroes of the Western genre, this movie contains all of the archetypal elements of classic Western films. There is a lone hero who answers to his own moral code defined by his environment (the frontier), a "schoolmarm" from out East comes to civilise the West through education, whose values come into conflict with the hero she falls in love with,

and there is a villain, abiding by no moral code, who must be defeated by the hero to uphold his honour and values. The classic representations of good and evil through black and white are used extensively and effectively in this film. Cooper always wears white, the villain (Huston) always wears black. However, the most morally ambiguous character, Cooper's friend Steve, always wears a mixture of the colours, and as he continues down a dark path, his colours become darker and less ambivalent. The Virginian is a pretty good movie, particularly the hanging scene, the shootout at the end and basically any interaction between Cooper and Huston. What makes it even more entertaining and fascinating to watch is its context. This movie is considered to be one of the very first Westerns to represent the classic elements of the genre, and its influence on later Westerns is quite clear. For film students and fans of the Western genre alike, this is a fun film to watch and thoroughly enjoyable. (Note: very interesting comparisons can be made to later Westerns, particularly Shane and another Cooper film, High Noon) / Richard Arlen, who was billed way above Coop in Wings, provides fine support as Steve, a cocky cattle rustler thirsting for adventure in all the wrong places, much different from David Armstrong, his character in Wings. This proves his ability to adapt to different roles, which is to me one of the most important qualities an actor can possess. So too Walter Huston, who doesn't even look or sound like Walter Huston here. Of all the actors in the picture, I think his performance is probably the best; his make-up, voice and devilish smile make him a formidable adversary for Coop / Old-fashioned but charming / You will not be bored for one minute.

A contemporary review:

From the pages of Owen Wister's old Western classic The Virginian, Paramount- Famous-Lasky have produced a noteworthy talking film in which the voices are nicely modulated and the acting pleasingly restrained. The story is cleverly developed by the director, , who deserves great credit for the production and especially for the effective but at the same time gentle humour that pops up periodically. It is also a capitally timed picture, with characters

going here and there with natural movements. Gary Cooper impersonates the Virginian, the cowboy foreman of Medicine Bow Ranch in Wyoming and Walter Huston plays Trampas, the bad man who finds more than his match in the Virginian. Both are believable characters brought to life from the days of half a century ago. There is good suspense when the Virginian gets the drop on Trampas and in the latter stages of this film the glimpses of Trampas looking for the Virginian recall the doings of Wild Bill Hicock, Bret Harte's men and even Buffalo Bill's thrilling encounters. It is a picture with a fine conception of the necessary atmosphere and one in which Mr. Fleming has happily refused to introduce extraneous incidents.

"When you call me that, smile!" (see image above) is filmed in a highly satisfactory fashion, for this famous line occurs a second after the Virginian has his pistol in Trampas's abdomen. That scoundrel is not without a sense of humour, however, and he avers that he will smile any time in such circumstances. The romance between Molly Wood and the Virginian is appealing. Mr. Fleming and those concerned with the adaptation of this tale have shrewdly availed themselves of action and words that build up the characters as well as the plot. The nearest approach to this excellent piece of work, in its own particular line, was 's old silent film The Pony Express. In this present offering it is evident that players called upon to deliver lines give firm, understanding interpretations of their respective roles, far more so than they would ordinarily do in a silent film. The Virginian may not be a yarn jammed with thrills, but it is one that always compels attention. From the moment that Molly Wood, the school teacher, arrives in Medicine Bow, there is good humour in which the lass from the East clashes with the lads from the West. There are some adroitly sketched scenes in Miss Wood's school and Mr. Fleming has reproduced in a merry fashion the incident where the unfortunate Steve and the Virginian mix up the babies at the christening party. This episode elicited uproarious mirth at the theatre yesterday afternoon. The happy-go- lucky Steve comes to a bad end, for he dies with a noose around his neck for cattle rustling - and the Virginian superintends the hanging. Here, again, Mr. Fleming scores, for he leaves enough to the imagination and yet is able to give a clear idea of what cattle stealing meant in those wild days. Aside from the intelligent acting of Mr. Huston and Mr. Cooper, Richard Arlen gives an agreeable portrayal of Steve. does her share to help the picture along, but she might have been more persuasive with less rouge on her lips. The sounds, whether footfalls, horses' hoofs, rumbling wheels or voices, are really remarkably recorded and reproduced. A good deal of this film was made in the open and it would seem that stories of Western life, if pictured in a rational fashion, may prove unusually successful, for they are aided immeasurably by the audibility of the screen.

Mordaunt Hall, , 23 December 1929

SEVEN DAYS LEAVE (1930)

J. M. Barrie's play The Old Lady Shows Her Medals premiered in New York in 1917 with Beryl Mercer (above) in the title role she reprises in this touching 1930 screen adaptation. As in Lives Of A Bengal Lancer, the Scottish lineage of Cooper's character becomes Canadian to explain away his transatlantic accent. Filmed before though released after The Virginian. 81 minutes. Good.

IMDb: Seven Days Leave, which could have become dangerously bathetic, works better than I expected thanks largely to Cooper's splendid performance, though the dilution of Barrie's tweeness by Farrow and Totheroh also helps. Beryl Mercer gives (by her standards) a surprisingly restrained performance and Daisy Belmore is quite good as one of her sister charwomen / Writing about someone who most of us wouldn't separate from the scenery, author Barrie does a good job in giving his lead character a heart and soul. Mercer is an actress best taken in small doses, but her usual cloying personality is well suited to this kind of role. Seven Days Leave, like the play it's based on, is a two-hander in which the other characters don't really register. Though inevitably dated, it still tells sadly and tenderly of two lonely people connecting in WWI Great Britain. And you get to see Cooper in a kilt / The film is remarkable for a superbly authentic performance by tiny Beryl Mercer. Although only 47 here, she was made up to look much older and more pitiful. She had played the part on stage and so learned how to inhabit the character to an uncanny degree. It is hard to believe she is acting. This is a deeply moving film, played with such honesty and innocence by Mercer and directness by Cooper that it transcends sentimentality and becomes something much more than that. It is a forgotten gem. It is also a record of a time and a place and a mood which need always to be kept in memory, the early days of that terrible First World War, one of the greatest tragedies of the human race.

A contemporary review:

Tender, charming and whimsical is the audible pictorial version of Sir James M. Barrie's unforgettable playlet The Old Lady Shows Her Medals which is now at the Paramount Theatre under the changed title of Seven Days Leave. What is significant in this sensitive production is that Beryl Mercer, who played the part of the elderly charwoman in the original New York stage contribution in 1917, also appears in the same role on the screen. The gaunt kilted soldier is impersonated by Gary Cooper, who was last seen in the shadow conception of The Virginian.

Here is a picture that is a picture. No golden-haired girl adorns the cast and most of the action is interpreted by Miss Mercer and Mr. Cooper, and wherever they go, while Private Dowey, now of the Canadian Black Watch, is on leave in , is intensely interesting.

Richard Wallace, who brought to the screen a year ago that clever silent film, , directed this offering. He shares the credit for this worthy adaptation of Sir James's work with Miss Mercer and Mr. Cooper, and while he is the guiding spirit of the film, there's no denying that he is fortunate in having these two players. Miss Mercer's performance is faultless. It is an achievement of the audible screen. She wins one's heart by her restrained and natural acting. She arouses smiles by Mrs. Dowey's guileless speech and by her timidity as she casts an eye on the brawny fighter, who towers above her.

And there is no failing to find with Mr. Cooper's impersonation, for, as in his other films, he lends a life-like quality to the role. Physically, he is just the man for Private Dowey. The crispness of his speech also helps.

Mr. Wallace has endowed his scenes with effective suggestions of London. The charwomen are typical of their kind, especially one who adorns her head with a quartered cricket cap and who winks to herself as she uses her pocket bottle of "mother's ruin." The intonation of the others rings true. In fact only winkles are lacking in these scenes - winkles being picked out of their shells with a pin! Failing this delicacy of Blighty's East End, Mr. Wallace compromises by per- mitting the goddesses of the pail and scrubbing brush to consume watercress with their bread and butter and tea.

Whatever may be said concerning the intelligence of audiences, the throng yesterday afternoon at the Paramount laughed and applauded several of the incidents in this Seven Days Leave and an episode that elicited both tears and smiles was when the great big Scot took his adopted mother to the dancing floor of the Imperial restaurant. Another excellent touch is where the two are at the theatre, chuckling and laughing at the acts. And still another incident

that clicked was the drinking of champagne by Private Dowey and the char- woman.

John Farrow and Dan Totheroh are credited with the adaptation, and they have done a capital piece of work in blending the Barrie lines with scenes that were left to the imagination in the play.

As may be recalled, the narrative tells of a charwoman who finds she is the only one of four female friends who has no son on the fighting front. She sees a mention in a newspaper of a Private K. Dowey, and as her own name is Dowey, she decides not only to pretend that she is receiving letters from a son at the front, but she further complicates matters by sending cakes to Private Dowey with a letter signed "Lady Dolly Kanister", a name she selects from society gossip.

By a fortuitous circumstance, the Rev. Mr. Willings one day decides that he has found Sarah Ann Dowey's soldier son on leave in London and he escorts Private Dowey to the woman he believes to be the tall fighter's mother. Private Dowey wishes to give his correspondent a piece of his mind and he does so. The letters she had boasted of as beginning "Dearest Mother" are nothing but blank paper, and then Dowey through a glimpse of a cake finds out that it was not Lady Dolly Kanister who had taken an interest in him, but merely Sarah Ann Dowey. A cup of tea and a piece of bread and butter, followed by a lump of cake, make Dowey more complacent. Mrs. Dowey calls him Kenneth and looks away. The roaring lion becomes amenable, aye, sympathetic, and he thinks of taking Sarah Ann Dowey to dinner. But what would she look like? Quick as a flash Mrs. Dowey produces her "merino gown laced up the back and the very latest."

After the theatre, supper with wine, a dance, thoughts of desertion and a scuffle with sailors, Dowey makes caustic comments on soldiering and Mrs. Dowey voices her keen disappointment in him. Eventually she succeeds in causing him to abandon the idea of deserting and the big Scot goes back to war. He had told his adopted mother that he was a farmer in Canada and in the trenches one hears him asking another soldier how he could learn to become a farmer. Then comes the call for volunteers to silence two enemy machine guns and Private Dowey meets a valorous end.

Dowey's medals are sent by the War Office to Mrs. Dowey and in the last scenes of the film she is going over the decorations and souvenirs of Dowey's seven days' leave. The time comes for her to go to work and once again Mrs. Dowey is perceived with the three other charwomen, pails and brooms in their hands, going forth to their sixpence an hour jobs.

Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times, 25 January 1930

MOROCCO (1930)

Adapted from the play Amy Jolly, Morocco is an atmospheric film concerning the love of two men for one woman. In her first English speaking film, gives an Oscar nominated performance as nightclub singer Amy and is also good as the suave but unfavoured suitor La Bessiere. The weak link is Cooper, who shows too little sign of the passion he is supposed to feel and invoke - or perhaps the script or director offered him too little chance to express himself with more conviction. Menjou (A Farewell To Arms) and Dietrich (Desire) will both soon be back and the Foreign Legion hasn't seen the last of Coop yet, either. Unusual and enjoyable. 92 minutes.

IMDb: Forget Cooper's most lame acting ever. The ten-minute nightclub scene packs more unabashed eroticism with Marlene fully clothed, than any two hours of Demi Moore completely undressed / Full of light and shadow, layers of fabric and screen space that combine to create a dreamlike atmosphere set in a surreal place. Marlene is gorgeous, Cooper is handsome but kind of out of place - the ? But, after all, it's a dream. Cooper and Dietrich sizzle in the sexual attraction arena. A fabulous film with a completely unexpected ending! / One of Marlene's best works. Cooper seems like somewhat of a hack, but that is easily forgotten when Dietrich is in the picture. She is never better than when working for von Sternberg. He creates probably the single most beautiful and stunning final sequence that has ever been put on film - a scene that I know will stay with me for a long time / One of the worst "classics" I've ever seen. Cooper is embarrassingly bad, and Best Actress nomination for Dietrich? For what??? She speaks nothing but a few lines of mangled English in the

whole picture / This is the film got women all over America jumping into their husbands' suits / Marlene's best film. Most of her acting is done without even using words. She didn't have to. Her mannerisms and facial expressions say it all. Everything about this movie just falls into place. An overlooked classic / Pure atmosphere - a reverie with a stunning ending, visually brilliant and sexy on so many levels / Whether you're a man or a woman, you'll fall for Amy Jolly (in French-speaking Morocco, ami joli = beautiful friend) / The only rescuable parts of this dated film are the cabaret scenes in which Dietrich dresses up like a man, while captivating her audiences with her mere presence. See it only if you like a sentimental story of love done in a grand nineteenth century style all but alien to our contemporary sensibilities / Give yourself a huge wink, watch Morocco and savour its seductive lenswork, its atmospheric sets, costumes and lighting and its timeless classical themes that remind us, even after all these years, that "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose."

One contemporary and one latter day review:

(1) Strange things happen in most Foreign Legion stories after they have undergone a major operation in a film studio, and Morocco, an audible pictorial adaptation of Amy Jolly, a play by Benno Vigny, is no exception. Aside from some expertly directed scenes and effective staging, this production is chiefly interesting because it served to introduce the attractive German film favourite, Marlene Dietrich (below). This player won favour abroad in a picture called The Blue Angel, which was directed by , who is also responsible for this current presentation. Miss Dietrich bears a resemblance to , but her acting hardly rivals that of the Swedish star. She has, however, an ingratiating personality and one might be justified in presuming that if she had been given more rein by Mr. von Sternberg her work might have been more satisfactory, for her gamut of emotions here consists only of gazing intently, smiling and looking languid. She, like the other players in this film, is handicapped by the economy in dialogue, which results in many an uncomfortable pause between two performers. Mr. von Sternberg evidently knows his camera, and he has done very well so far as the recording of voices is concerned, but he is far from efficient in directing the spoken lines. He accepts absurdly improbable situations, and he is often guilty of extraordinarily abrupt happenings and inconsistent characterisations. Adolphe Menjou (below) is one of the actors in this film, and he also appears at a disadvantage. He impersonates M. La Bessiere, who falls in love with Amy Jolly (Miss Dietrich). During one stage of the proceedings La Bessiere presents Amy, a notorious person, with an emerald and diamond bracelet, and she, probably for the first time in her life, refuses the gift. This is one of those things that could only happen in Northern Africa when such a girl is in love with a private in the Foreign Legion! Amy is evidently a woman who makes up her mind on the spur of the moment, if the way she becomes infatuated with Legionnaire Tom Brown is any criterion. She offers to give him one of her apples that fetch big prices from the civilians in the cabaret audience, and Brown, impersonated by

Gary Cooper, decides to part with twenty francs for it. Amy gives him one of her languid looks and then hands him the key to her apartment, saying as she does so: "Here's your change." Brown tells Amy that he will desert if she will accompany him to Europe and Amy agrees to do so. Then, a little later, Tom writes on a mirror in Amy's room that he has changed his mind. Amy is thus left to forget her infatuation by promising to marry La Bessiere; but she also changes her mind and in the closing scene she decides to "follow the drum," going forth on the scorching sands with other women in the wake of the troops. She takes off her shoes and plods along, it being evident that, if she lasts an hour, it will be all. Paul Porcasi is clever as the music hall manager. Ullrich Haupt plays quite well the part of an officer and husband of a faithless wife whose life is conveniently snuffed out by Riffian bullets. Mr. Cooper is efficient, but, admitting his good looks, it is doubtful if a woman of Amy's stripe would fall in love so suddenly with him or decide to abandon luxury and comfort for this private in the Foreign Legion.

Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times, 17 November 1930

(2) Morocco is quite the perfect title for a Marlene Dietrich film, suggesting a mix of glamour, sensuality and eroticism. Tangiers has long drawn writers and artists to its steamy mix of anything-goes sexuality and North African exoticism - William Burroughs was a long-time resident of the city. The sight of Dietrich, on stage in a Moroccan theatre dressed in trousers, and tails and kissing a female member of the audience squarely on the lips confirms everything that one might expect of the film.

Indeed, it confirms everything that one might expect of Dietrich. Her entrance in the film is a lonely one, on board a ferry bound for Morocco, travelling through the fog and with her heavily-lidded eyes partially obscured behind a

veil. We're led to believe, wrongly as it turns out, that Dietrich's Amy Jolly is something of a lost soul, a tender-hearted, innocent young girl who's making a grave mistake travelling to the lusty heat of Morocco. As she tears up a note passed to her by La Bessiere (Adolphe Menjou), we see her as she really is, a strong-willed, sexually confident woman who explains her travelling to Morocco with: "There's a foreign legion of women, too, but we have ... no medals when we are brave."

From looking lost in the fog aboard the ferry to Morocco, Dietrich comes alive on stage, suggesting that her early sadness came about as a result of her running away from someone. On stage, dressed in formal wear beautifully cut for her figure, Dietrich is a star with an innate knowledge of what makes her so desirable. Her kissing of a woman, if unnecessary, is her reply to being laughed at, the best response being a matter-of-fact kiss on the lips in acknowledge- ment of her own sexuality, her androgynous eroticism and of the ease with which she can have others fall in love with her. This is made even more suggestive in her next appearance onstage when, dressed only in lingerie and carrying a basket of apples, she teases the audience with the sexually alluring

The fruit that made Adam so wise / On the historic night / That he took a bite / He discovered a new paradise

The apple that she tosses Tom Brown (Gary Cooper) is all that is needed to leave him smitten.

Dietrich's role in Morocco is one of the two that made her name. Born Maria Magdalena Dietrich in 1901, the daughter of a member of the Royal Prussian Police, she featured in her first film in 1923, appearing intermittently in films and on stage thereafter, where she became a cabaret star. Director Josef von Sternberg claimed to have seen Dietrich in the stage show Zwei Kravatten, after which he cast her in his 1930 film Der Blaue Engel (The Blue Angel) but even before that film's release, Paramount, seeing a rough cut of it, signed Sternberg and Dietrich to make Morocco. The two films opened soon after one another and Dietrich was a star. It's not entirely surprising that the public took to her as effortlessly as they did. Her relationship with Brown is a typically tempestuous one, neither quite in command of the other, but it's a more flattering one to them both than one might expect from the era. When Brown is posted to the Sahara, both are distraught. When word comes that he is injured, she begs La Bessiere to drive to the hospital, reaching a decision on her future when she sees her name carved into a table in a bar next to the hospital. It's a typically impulsive moment in a film that makes a virtue of them, with love, when at last it comes, being something that one is unable to resist.

Eamonn McCusker, The Digital Fix, 16 April 2006

FIGHTING CARAVANS (1931)

From a novel. For caravan read wagon train. This early 81 minute Western - big cast, big budget and ambitious in scope - is (making due allow- ance for its vintage) lots of fun, with plenty of tongue-in-cheek humour to offset the romance, panorama and drama, all somewhat underpowered. As scouts Bill Jackson and Jim Bridger, Ernest Torrance and Tully Marshall (above, left) make a colourful and wholly effective double act, with their exit scene (no "gay subtext" in my eyes) particularly nicely done. Cooper's love interest Lily Damita (above, right) was married briefly in the mid-twenties to and from 1935 to 1942 to Errol Flynn, with whom she had a son. Eugene Pallette, who played Sergeant Heath in all four of 's Philo Vance films and Honey in The Virginian is back again here as lovelorn Seth Higgins. Though Cooper would go on to do better work than this, still is worth searching out.

IMDb: To fully appreciate Fighting Caravans, one must know a little about The Covered Wagon, released in 1923 and the first Western epic. For decades this silent movie was hailed as the finest Western ever, and even in 1968, 's popular book The Great Films listed it as one of fifty greatest motion pictures. Few would claim that today, although it is still an entertaining silent. What remains undeniable is The Covered Wagon's influence. Other big-budget Westerns soon followed and, by the talking era, Fox released (a virtual remake of The Covered Wagon) and Paramount released Fighting Caravans (a virtual sequel). Those of us who love The Covered Wagon adore the two lead supporting characters: trackers Bill Jackson and Jim Bridger, played by Ernest Torrence and Tully Marshall. They play them again in this film, only now they're older, because Fighting Caravans was filmed eight years after, and their increased age actually adds a curious poignancy. Slightly different from the plot conflicts in The Covered Wagon, this sequel hinges on whether Jackson and Bridger can both persuade their new, handsome protégé to continue tracking with them and not settle down to marry. However, just as the two have aged, so has the West. With the coming of the railroads, it is obvious that the trackers will no longer be needed. Not surprisingly for a Western with this sort of elegiac theme, both Jackson and Bridger die in the film's climax, fighting renegades and Indians. (This, of

course, was not how the actual Jim Bridger ended his days, and the film's portrayal of Native Americans is not accurate either) / This film, originally titled Blazing Arrows, is the first of several based upon a Zane Grey novel published only two years prior, and the version that is most faithful to the book, while being one of the largest budgeted Westerns of the early sound era, with the viewer advised to remember that the period of the narrative (1862) antedated its audience only to the extent that the does to spectators today. The story tells of a caravan of freight wagons journeying from Independence, Missouri, to the West Coast during a pre-railroad time, with settlers accompanying, and the procession's four month struggle with hostile Indians, very harsh winter weather, forbidding terrain and renegade betrayal, and is particularly full of interesting detail as to the methods of the freightmen and their metier. The work's most serious failing is a lack of a consistent point of view, as it is essentially a comedy, due largely to a highly effectual performance from Torrence, here permitted to utilise his native Scottish burr to its fullest, and is somewhat reduced in impact during scenes of action and romance as a result of only cursory emphasis upon each / Let's weigh the merits of this film: (1) a strikingly handsome, youthful (and tall) Gary Cooper - this is the opportunity to see a giant screen legend when he was a vibrant young newcomer! This alone merits seeing this movie. (2) The dialogue is witty, pithy and fun - in fact, give me the from 1931 over most of them today! (3) There is plenty of fast-paced and exciting Western action (and the stunt work is just plain fun to watch). Yes, this was relatively early movie making, and in some ways it shows, but that also provides tremendous enjoyment for the film buff. Watch it with a light heart, but with reverence for the old films, and I think you can't help but enjoy it / A all the way, and not that entertaining either. The humour is obnoxious at times and the acting, even Cooper's, is noticeably weak during some scenes. This movie tries to be several different types of film all rolled in to one and it doesn't pull it off. There are moments where it is evident that the style of acting and camera work from silent films is still being used. Watchable, but just barely / The story is stunningly trite, which is not unusual for Zane Gray novels, and depends on several stupid premises: Clint must grow up and settle down, because the old West is finished (especially when his two mentors die) and, after a while, he accepts it. Worse yet, the assumptions made by the story and especially the summary titles all rest grotesquely on the doctrine of manifest destiny, which renders Indians savage killers struggling futilely against inevitable progress, and the "pioneers" are heroes, of course. Still, the movie is worth seeing as a curiosity, a slightly embarrassing statement of thirties' values / Stealing their every scene are a pair of old pros from the Silent days: Ernest Torrence and Tully Marshall. Playing a couple of grizzled, drunken, women-hating trail guides - as well as Coop's best buddies - they are very amusing in their attempts to break up the budding romance between their protégé and the troubling Miss Damita / Cooper, Torrence and Marshall play the parts of three scouts. The latter two try to prevent Cooper from falling in love with Damita, who, as she is on her own, is constantly needing help. The acting of all four is superb. Torrence has the best part and turns in the best performance - head and shoulders above anybody else / Not a great film, but an entertaining one. It was remade in 1934 as Wagon Wheels starring , with that film using all kinds of stock footage from this one / Highly reminiscent of John Wayne's the early films / The main flaw of this film is a not-yet- mature Gary Cooper / Quick and amusing dialogue, fun characters, great location shooting and high production values for the time, I was very happy to stumble upon this wonderful old film. I found it thoroughly entertaining.

THE STOLEN JOOLS (aka The Slippery Pearls) (1931)

The Stolen Jools, listed on IMDb as The Slippery Pearls, is a star-packed promo short, sponsored by Chesterfield Cigarettes, released in 1931 and distributed free to cinemas to raise funds for the National Variety Artists TB sanatorium. (After each showing, a live speaker would come out and request donations.) The plot, such as it is, involves an investigation into the reported theft of 's jewellery, though the fun lies not in the tale but in trying to put names to numerous then-famous faces: Wally Beery, Jr., , Keaton, Edward G. Robinson, a young Cooper (the tall one above), , , and, though so early in her career, Stanwyck alongside first husband Frank Fay. Cooper, playing a newspaper editor, has half a dozen lines and a minute on screen in an amusing four-handed sketch. Slight (just 19 minutes) but significant.

IMDb: some of the stars are embarrassingly bad in their tiny roles. The comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey come off best, although it would have been nice to see more of Maurice Chevalier, Laurel and Hardy and the kids / Fascinating for the star cameos - and not much else! / This simple movie with almost no story is really just a lame excuse to show off all of the stars that are present. Most of them play themselves and some are only on screen for about five seconds. It's ridiculous! But it also makes the movie irresistible to watch to see who you can spot - Joan Crawford, Edward G. Robinson, , Dunne, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Fay Wray, among others. Amazing the amount of celebrities present in this movie, yet only the comic actors feel "right" in it. An uneven treat.

CITY STREETS (1931)

This first Dashiel Hammett screen adaptation (though far from the last - see The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon et al.) results in an excellent, gritty gangster flick artfully shot and well acted, with Coop in good form and as his moll (above) equally effective in her third film and first lead role. A splendid 81 minutes of proto-noir that should have been called No Hard Feelings.

IMDb: A solid and stylish early talkie with Mamoulian's usual polish. Cooper is at his most handsome here and his youthful face is beautifully lit. He shows all the mastery of facial expression that made him a consummate silent film actor. He is totally believable in the role and does an excellent job. Effective and classy / Great acting, direction and photography, this has it all. A must for genre fans / Dark-toned and unconventional, City Streets is more than worth the watch / I saw this last night at a "pre-Code" festival and when Cooper turned his head for his first close-up, the entire audience gasped. He was just that beautiful / The plot is elaborate but clear. The scenarios and decor are exceptional in every detail. All the actors are above average. I keep wondering how the director and his staff, including editing, sound, lighting and photography, could have been so brilliant. All in all, superb and so alive thanks to Cooper's charisma / Some genuine thrills and surprises here, thanks to the inventively forceful direction by Mamoulian, the atmospheric photography by Lee Garmes, plus remarkably sharp film editing and flawless special effects. Brilliant acting helps too. Coop gives one of his most convincing performances as the reticent hayseed turned fearless bootlegger (the sort of character progression he was to repeat in other roles such as Sergeant York). Miss Sidney in her first major role is also an eye-opener. The principals receive great support from , Wynne Gibson and Stanley Fields as the heavies and even from Robert Homans' hard-as-nails detective. The movie has obviously been realised on an extensive budget which is brilliantly deployed in its realistic, crowd-filled sets.

HIS WOMAN (1931)

An enjoyable tale of a merchant captain who, when landed with an abandoned baby, wants to find a "decent" woman to care for it. The problem is, he's in a flea-bitten Caribbean banana port and sailing on the next tide. (above) is a girl with a past in need of a free passage back to New York. She bluffs her way into the job and things play out in a conventional but pleasantly watchable way. Dated but worth finding. 75 minutes.

IMDb: No matter what film Cooper is in, he always acts and looks the same. His tall, gangling figure makes him look clumsy and awkward and his monotone voice has no variety, range or depth of emotion / A clichéd , sentimental but effective / A respectable B-movie / Romance takes second place to scenes stolen by the engagingly vivacious and good-natured baby and by the ship's African-American stewards, played in Amos and Andy cross-talk style by Hamtree Harrington and Sidney Easton / This movie is certainly something - I'm just not sure what. Whole chunks are composed of nothing more than a baby crying. In addition, it is very static, paced so leisurely that it appears to be out for a Sunday drive. Cooper can do little to save it. His character is a vapid sort and it's obvious he had a hard time reckoning the polar characteristics with which he's been foisted: we're supposed to believe he's a no-nonsense sea captain who commands the respect of his grizzled crew, yet is at the same time naïve enough to swallow without question Colbert's obviously fake background story. Claudette's role offers her a bit more room and she does a good job portraying the whole "bad girl goes good" angle. This early in her career she still has that waiflike look - big eyes, fragile body. Production-wise the movie is underwhelming, with most of the sets either Spartan cabins aboard ship or the equally austere deck. Once the ship gets back to New York we're only graced with a few stock shots of the city before moving on to a nondescript office for Cooper's trial. The direction, too, offers little to appreciate; the whole thing, from beginning to end, is as basic as bread. As for the two racial stereotype crew members, I have a theory that Malcolm X saw this film as a boy and it set him on his way. I'm open-minded and don't get offended easily, but the script goes out of its way to shoehorn every black stereotype into the characters of Aloysius and Mark. They are presented as incompetent nitwits who exist only to bulge their eyes and mutter banalities. In this regard, His Woman is offensive.

A contemporary review:

Adapted from Dale Collins' story, The Sentimentalist and directed by Edward Sloman, His Woman was known during most of its journey through the studied mills in Astoria as Sal Of Singapore. It opens in one of those cinematic hell-holes in the Caribbean, where the sailors order gin straight and the dancing girls draw red roses across their lips to show the devil in them. Into this maelstrom of dank passions stalks honest Sam Whalan, skipper of a tramp freighter. He pushes a Spaniard. The Spaniard pushes back. Sam is a little tight, so he picks up a chair and dashes madly about in all directions. Maybe it is the camera, but Sam seems to be giving an imitation of an old woman stirring pudding as he swings his chair. That is only the beginning of Sam's adventures. There are many more laughs later on; some of them intentional. As melodrama, His Woman never manages to be convincing, or even very interesting. Its humour is a little better. When Sam staggers back to his ship and finds a baby outside his cabin, life becomes complex. He learns to like the little vagrant and he fumbles with milk bottles while his crew shakes its collective head. When he brings Sally Clark on board to give the baby a woman's care, trouble starts all over again. Sally claims to be a missionary's daughter, but the first mate knows better. He leers evilly at her, and Sam, who is better with his fists than with chairs, knocks him overboard. That is murder. It takes His Woman a half hour more to clear the decks for the wedding. The most effective member of the cast is the baby, a rather remarkable infant who is complete master of his limited emotional equipment. Gary Cooper and Claudette Colbert give their usual competent performances in the leading roles, but they are beaten down by the general burlesque qualities of the story. When Mr. Cooper drinks frantically to forget his sorrow, the audience snickered. When Miss Colbert has a hysterical fit and announces shrilly that she is going back to her old life, the audience turned around and smiled at its neighbour.

Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times, 5 December 1931

DEVIL AND THE DEEP (1932)

A strong cast in the hands of a capable director put across a brisk, feverish look at suspicion and madness with some panache. Cooper is second billed behind stage-success, screen-flop (above), young has a small part and the film introduces "the eminent English character actor Charles Laughton" (above, left). While Cooper is at his most stiff and unpersuasive, Laughton, in a much more flamboyant role, mugs and swaggers his way through what amounts to a dry run for his Captain Bligh to come. Some exotic North African settings and a claustrophobic finale aboard a stricken sub add value. Adapted from Maurice Larrouy novel Sirenes et Tritons. 76 minutes. Good.

IMDb: In his Paramount debut, Laughton steals the film / Bankhead gives a crash course in how to hold a melodrama together, commanding every scene, inflecting every line with subtle nuances. When she must deal with menacing Laughton, the air between them vibrates with tension. He does his share as well, but seems mannered in a familiar way. Only the radiant young Cary Grant in a dazzling naval uniform steals attention from the leading lady in a brief appearance. Cooper, though persuasive as the romantic hero, soon gets submerged in a disappointingly shallow character. The eye is seduced by cameraman 's repertoire of shadows, the heart is stirred by a star performance, but in the end the head may resist: the terse dialogue tries for Heming- way but remains stubbornly pedestrian and remarkably humourless. The devil is in the dialogue! / Cooper is wooden, awkward and handsome as usual and Grant does well in a smallish supporting role / Starts slowly but turns out dandy / Enormous fun. Charles Lang's expert cinematography is a master class in how to get major effect from minor effort but, even if less than high art, Devil And The Deep is most worth seeking for Bankhead shining, simmering, sulking, seducing, sinking and swimming / Laughton's performance reaches hysterical heights. This film should be better known.

A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1932)

On its publication in 1929 The New York Times described Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell To Arms as "a moving and beautiful book". A stage adaptation was produced in 1930 followed by screen versions in 1932 and 1957. After leading here, Cooper would go on to front a second Hemingway screen adaptation (For Whom The Bell Tolls) in 1943. By then, the two men had established a firm and lifelong friendship. Some like this tiresome and undistinguished effort - but Cooper, perhaps uncomfortable in his part, is somewhat wooden and he and Helen Hayes (above) make an unconvincing pair. 78 minutes. Disappointing.

IMDb: A Farewell To Arms is surely exclusively a traditional woman's picture, classy soap in fact / Movieland has some sacred cows and highly overrated soap opera A Farewell To Arms is one such. Cooper struts through the film like a tall, lanky, slow- talking, goofy string bean with an amoral attitude towards women, the army and life in general. He chooses to desert his comrades to run back to a woman he impregnated in a night of passion. Helen Hayes is the love interest, whose acting resembles nothing so much as a cut-out paper doll in a puppet show. Her cardboard expression and lifeless lines are so two-dimensional it was painful to watch. Olive Oyl has more sex appeal. There was no chemistry between her and Cooper. How could there be? He was over six feet tall and she was so short he had to lift her up in order not to stoop to kiss her in one scene / Doesn't feel like a classic. The romance seems trite and contrived. Overly schmaltzy and sometimes just plain dull. The acting is patchy. Cooper is okay but Helen Hayes' performance is quite flat. Adolphe Menjou as Rinaldi gives the film's most entertaining performance. Probably quite good in its time and might well be regarded as one of the first anti-war movies, but now feels quite dated.

TODAY WE LIVE (1933)

An adaptation of 's Turn About, set in England and on the European channel coast during the latter stages of WWI, smoulders promisingly without ever quite catching fire. Amiable Coop reprises his intrepid Wings flier, this time managing to survive more than two minutes. Joan Crawford (above) has little to do except look sad or lovelorn, but does it nicely, and (Bengal Lancers, Mutiny On The Bounty) is always good value. Lots of rain and some diverting air and sea action, but all a bit soft and soapy. Howard Hawks (Sergeant York, ) directs. 113 minutes.

IMDb: Crawford and Franchot Tone fell in love and started their romance, leading to marriage, while making this film. Since their characters are brother and sister; it's very interesting to watch the passion and "familial" kisses between them that are a lot more potent than between Joan and her other two leading men, who were supposed to be the love interests. Although the script was based on a Faulkner story, it did not stick closely to its text, which includes no female character like Joan's. MGM wanted to use Crawford and had Faulkner add a character to the screenplay to accommodate a role for her. Trouper that she was, she does a good job, but this basic WWI "men's" story is very strange due to the newly added love triangle. Crawford manages to look great and has some good close-ups but she is not believable as a Brit or in her supposed love for Cooper. Her suffering and caring towards are very touching, though / If you can get past the accents and the costumes, there's good stuff here / Cooper is always pleasant to watch but this does nothing for his resume / Dreadful when it's not laughable / A film generic as its title. Very dated / A glossy train wreck / Leaden / This shows that Faulkner, though a great novelist, was not a great screenwriter.

A contemporary review:

Today We Live is the first of William Faulkner's literary efforts to reach the screen. It is said to have been derived chiefly from a short story called Turn About, which is understood to have been amplified in the studio by the author. Although it is more than slightly different from the general run of cinematic works, it is at times vague and cumbersome. It possesses, however, the spark of sincerity, and its lack of clarity might be ascribed either to Howard Hawks' direction or to the script contributed by Edith Fitzgerald and Dwight Taylor, for there are sequences that are far too lengthy and others that would be considerably improved by more detail. As a drama of the war it is not precisely convincing, for coincidences play an important part in its arrangement. It is also anachronistic, particularly as regard the costumes worn by Joan Crawford. The narrative begins in London, but most of the action occurs in and around Boulogne. Diana Boyce-Smith, an English girl, played by Miss Crawford, is in love with Claude Hope, but after she encounters an American named Richard Bogard her affections sway to him. Subsequently she hears that Bogard has met death as an aviator and she continues her affair with Hope without benefit of clergy. Her brother, Ronnie, is always in her confidence, but he sympathises with Hope, for he and Hope are both officers in the British Navy and on the same craft. Judging by what happens during one prolonged episode, Bogard, who is another of those fliers who is thought dead but eventually is found alive, scoffs at sea warfare as it is carried on by Ronnie and Hope, and he gives the latter a taste of fighting in the clouds. They return safely and Ronnie in turn dares Bogard to come out in his motor launch, which is equipped with a single torpedo. Bogard thus learns that there is as much excitement on the water as in the air, and, in the course of the daring attack on enemy vessels, Hope is blinded by a missile. The rivalry between the aviator and the naval officer persists to the end, when, after hearing that Bogard has volunteered to sacrifice his life to sink an enemy ship, Ronnie and the sightless Claude Hope speed out in their craft and succeed in accomplishing the desired task at the cost of their lives, before Bogard has a chance to swoop down from the air. So there are three heroes in this story. The romance between Bogard and Diana is set forth so abruptly that it is apt to seem absurd. The constant meeting of the four characters in France scarcely adds to the credibility of the story, and the activities supposed to be in the North Sea give the impression that German vessels were either hovering around or anchored somewhere in the vicinity of Boulogne. The producers could not possibly mean that the attacks were on Zeebrugge, for there is nothing that bears a semblance of the famous mole. Miss Crawford, although she never impresses one as being English, gives a steadfast and earnest portrayal. Robert Young is excellent as Hope, Franchot Tone does well as Ronnie and Gary Cooper is quite believable as Bogard.

Mordaunt Hall, The New York Times, 15 April 1933

ALICE IN WONDERLAND (1933)

A pleasant though uneven trip with Alice (Charlotte Henry, above) through her looking glass and into Wonderland, where we meet Ned Sparks as Caterpillar, as The Mad Hatter, W.C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty and a great value Cary Grant (below) as The Mock Turtle (in a part allegedly turned down by as beneath his dignity). Cooper's casting probably had much to do with his character, The White Knight, being required to ride - and repeatedly fall off - a horse, although the tender six minute scene he plays with Henry works well enough. Though it will surely not be everyone's cup of tea and was a box-office flop, the film must be considered a success. 76 minutes.

IMDb: In a role difficult by any stretch of the imagination, young Charlotte Henry does very well as Alice, utilising the character's spunk and determination in holding her own against a supporting cast of seasoned veterans and inveterate scene stealers. Spirited and charming, with few hints visible of Victorian decorum, she is never boring. W.C. Fields has received much acclaim for his performance as Humpty Dumpty, and, indeed, his raspy voice and personality fit the character perfectly, but Edward Everett Horton's Mad Hatter and May Robson's Queen of Hearts are equally enjoyable - perhaps more so, as we can see their facial expressions / This film comes closer than any other version to capturing the look of Tenniel's drawings and the quirkiness of Carroll's off- centre whimsy. It deftly weaves the two halves of the story (Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and Through The Looking-Glass) into a coherent whole. True to the sensibility of many early Paramount comedies, this Alice mingles giddy humour with a touch of lyricism, never cloying or saccharine, just endearingly sweet / I stopped with my head in my upturned palms to stare hard only three times: at W.C. Fields to try and

figure if it really was him I was seeing, at Grant to try and figure if it really was him I was hearing and at Cooper because his character was the best portrayal - the only one to seem to care for Alice, he was funny, gentle and oh, all those falls! / It's sad that so many dislike this astonishing movie. Misunderstanding the source material isn't much of a criticism. Other Alices exist, but all fall short of the original stories. Paramount's faithfully adapted Christmas treat is still savoury after all these years.

DESIGN FOR LIVING (1933)

This free adaptation of Noel Coward's play, with Cooper, (above, right), (centre) and Edward Everett Horton is mildly amusing and spiffily packaged, but struggles in vain to compel. 87 minutes.

IMDb: The wit of the script and the appeal of the performers pull the film through its occasional rough spots, and the second half is just about perfect. All of the leading players are quite wonderful: Miriam Hopkins, one of Lubitsch's favourite actresses, has the best role and gives a marvellously energetic performance as the flighty, pretentious free spirit who tries to substitute art for sex. Gary Cooper, at the height of his youthful charm, has a surprisingly light comic touch and great teamwork with Fredric March. March, who can often be heavy-handed in film comedy, is here charming and funny - it's a tribute to Lubitsch that he got such a genial performance out of him. And, of course, there's Edward Everett Horton, one of Hollywood's finest character actors in one of his finest roles / Cooper is sublime. A great comedian, he was equally good in Desire, the delightful movie with Dietrich that Lubitsch produced and supposedly had a big hand in directing. Too bad he changed gears so drastically and became the strong, silent Western hero he's known for today / Hopkins could do no wrong in a Lubitsch film, and her work here is brilliant. She's intelligent and uncompromisingly honest. Her leading men, Cooper and March, are both sexy and hilarious. Cooper is a particular revelation, displaying a flair for comedy that is quite unexpected / Amusing here and there but my patience was tried throughout as I waited in vain anticipation of something funny / I enjoyed Horton's character and performance very much. However, the rest of the actors and the script didn't live up to him / The premise is not funny, and while this may have had some shock value in its day, because Hopkins certainly played it brazen, it is very hard to find cute / A must / Lubitsch at his delightful best / A gem.

NOW AND FOREVER (1934)

Cooper plays a widowed con man moving from country to country with his loving partner Toni (, above, centre) one step ahead of the law. When he takes custody of his five year old daughter (, above, right) a change of lifestyle is called for - but fellow swindler Felix (the excellent Guy Standing, who turns up again as Colonel Stone in Lives Of A Bengal Lancer) won't let him forget his past. This is the first Shirley Temple film I've seen and I expected something repellently saccharine with Little Miss Sunshine as the main "attraction". What a pleasant surprise, then, to find her merely another cast member, playing her part to put over the tale and doing it well. Aged just six, this was already her 26th screen appearance. The story goes that, having learned the entire script, she would prompt Cooper (and probably others too) whenever he forgot or fumbled his lines, which mildly irritated him. But they bonded well - during setups he taught her to draw with a box of coloured pencils - and this closeness is piquantly captured on screen. The plot is strong enough to grip and the whole most enjoyable. 82 minutes.

IMDb: A Shirley vehicle without the standard story. It is an awkward position for any movie, but this impressive, talented cast makes it work / Not great, and not the best of Cooper, Lombard, Temple or Hathaway, but there is a lot of talent here and the film is enjoyable most of the time / This rather odd movie, which can't quite make up its mind what to be, includes a decidedly downbeat ending and a series of rather improbable con jobs that are not dramatically convincing. However, it's a treat to see the incredibly talented Temple, the skilful Carole Lombard and the totally charming Gary Cooper. Watch with a "willing suspension of disbelief" and you'll enjoy this movie as a blast from the long-ago past / There's a lot of sentimentality in this drama, one of two

pictures Temple made on loan to Paramount at the start of her major stardom years. Though she shows some adult cynicism when she first meets the pretty Lombard, you know that they will open their hearts to one another. Actors are warned about dramatic focus being stolen by dogs and children, but what about spunky old ladies? Charlotte Granville, playing a wealthy widow, comes off the champion here, her acidic delivery (mixed with love) the highlight of the film / Q: Temple and nineteen year old Dorothy Dell acted together in Shirley's previous film Little Miss Marker. In Now And Forever, the child was told of Dell's death (in a car crash) just before her crying scene. I've read that some directors believe in using real life experiences to draw genuine responses from their actors, but it seems very cruel to me to spring the sad news on the little girl just to make the scene "real." Anyone agree? A: Yes, it was cruel and manipulative but directors in that time period weren't known for treating children well on set. Some just assumed that child actors couldn't cry on cue so had to be manipulated. One scared Shirley by telling her that her mother (who had stepped off set) had been kidnapped by a green man with red eyes. It worked. Jackie Cooper was told his dog would be shot if he didn't cry for a scene. His tears were real too.

Excerpts from one contemporary and one latter day review:

... There is one thing that must definitely be said for this less than striking example of the drama of regeneration. The enormous charm of Shirley Temple is potent enough to make almost any character do almost anything. The little girl has lost none of her obvious delight in her work during her rise to fame. In Now And Forever she is, if possible, even more devastating in her unspoiled freshness of manner than she has been in the past. She pursues her sober dialogues with Mr. Cosgrove, her teddy bear, with a total absence of self- consciousness. She is completely endearing in a variety of moods and her helpless collapse into tears when she learns that her daddy stole the necklace provides Now And Forever with the authentic pathos for which it strives less successfully in other episodes. The is visually handsome and it is attractively played by Mr. Cooper and Miss Lombard. With Shirley's assistance it becomes, despite its violent assaults upon the spectator's credulity, a pleasant enough entertainment. There are good subsidiary performances by Sir Guy Standing, Charlotte Granville and .

... This isn't a Shirley Temple vehicle, but the six year old does an excellent job. She looks truly embarrassed and ashamed when her father discovers her swindling a kid out of his skates with some nuggets of "gold" and she gives a heart-wrenching performance when she discovers that her father really did steal a necklace after he promised her he didn't. Now And Forever, though very good, might not be the type of film that Temple fans are expecting. The little moppet only sings a single song, cross cut with another scene, and the tone of the movie is much more serious than most of her films.

(Andre Sennwald, The New York Times, 13 October 1934 / John Sinnott, DVD Talk, 6 May 2005)

THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (1935)

Adapted from a novel by Francis Yeats-Brown, this stirring tale from the Indian Northwest Frontier in the time of the British Raj gets the full four stars from and, while I wouldn't go that far, I enjoyed it thoroughly too. C. Aubrey Smith's name in the credits is always a good sign and, shortly before his memorable turn as Byam in Mutiny On The Bounty, Franchot Tone bobs up here (see also Today We Live) playing the same kind of genial good egg. Cooper as a Canadian officer in a British regiment seems slightly miscast but holds his own, both ahorse and afoot. 109 minutes. Recommended.

IMDb: Clever dialogue, complex relationships and rousing battle scenes. A pleasant surprise / Sir Guy Standing is tremendous here as the Regimental Colonel. Sir Guy was a distinguished stage actor from London, who, like many other British theatrical performers, came to Hollywood to make a living in the movie business. At Paramount Studios he quickly established himself as a very fine character actor and, from 1933, appeared in eighteen films. Tragically, all came to an end in 1937 when he died in the Hollywood Hills, victim of a rattlesnake bite / The British institution that is C. Aubrey Smith makes a wonderful patriotic speech from under his formidably bristling eyebrows that brings the house down / If grand adventure with an emphasis on style is your idea of a good time, you'd be hard put to find a better example than this / Predictable, boring and historically inaccurate, this story is so full of holes I could barely watch it through to the end. If you're looking for a movie that has stood the test of time, keep looking, because this isn't it / One of the great films / Nothing beats Gary Cooper, and this is his film / A truly entertaining film for people of all ages, it has laughs, plenty of action and surprising emotion. Check it out / Was there ever a better movie actor than

Gary Cooper? In Lives Of A Bengal Lancer he shows the natural talent, the effortless pretence that few others could match - well, or Ingrid Bergman, maybe. Franchot Tone plays the best-friend part to a tee / Holds up very well for a movie made in 1935, largely due to the lack of any melodramatic romantic subplots, which have permanently marred other adventure films of the period. This is a man's film about men in desperate situations - about being willing to die for your country or your friends at a moment's notice / Excellent and engaging / 10 out of 10. Don't miss it.

British imperial adventure stories like and Gunga Din now represent a defunct genre, but many of the movies and books of that genre retain their initial appeal much in the way of Arthurian legends: seeking adventure, brotherhood and an overarching ideal. We know it's not real, but it's such a lovely thought. The Lives Of The Bengal Lancers was released in 1935 and although then quite popular, lies somewhat under the shadow of the more well-known Beau Geste and Gunga Din. Starring Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone and as three friends in the 41st Bengal Lancers, it differs from other films in that it is not just a buddy movie. It is also about the 41st Bengal Lancers, with the emphasis on the three friends. Lieutenant Alan McGregor (Cooper with a moustache) is a hot-headed Scotch-Canadian who is frustrated with his commanding officer, Colonel Stone (Guy Standing), whom he calls Ramrod and thinks is a stickler for regulations, too inflexible and lacking in compassion. But Major Hamilton (C. Aubrey Smith - the quintessential British officer) knows that Stone will be retiring soon and also knows that he has not seen his son in years. Thinking that it would comfort Stone to know that his son is following in his footsteps, and also to provide an opportunity for father and son to reunite, Hamilton has the son assigned from Sandhurst to the 41st Bengal Lancers.

McGregor is sent to pick up two new soldiers - Stone's son, Donald (Richard Cromwell) and Lieutenant Forsythe (Franchot Tone). McGregor and Forsythe instantly exchange manly insults, but McGregor soon develops a soft spot for Donald, who is frustrated at the reception he receives from his father and the kind of jobs he is set to do, like overseeing the mucking out of the stables. But while the three begin to form a bond - in between McGregor and Forsythe generally irking one another and engaging in a semi-friendly rivalry - Colonel Stone is in the midst of trying to catch Mohamed Khan ( - somewhat improbably cast, though suitably suave and villainous), who is trying to unite various tribes under one banner to oust the British. Khan and Stone are old enemies, circling each other for fifteen years now, both seasoned and clever. One of the things I appreciated about this film is that the leaders are not total idiots, which seems to happen a lot in films, presumably to boost the heroism of the lead characters. But in The Lives Of A Bengal Lancer, Colonel Stone is a wily old soul. Despite their frustration, it is the three younger men who do not see the bigger picture or understand why Stone is doing what he does. The only one who understands Stone is Major Hamilton.

Likewise, there is no one hero who personifies all the positive attributes. McGregor is a hot-headed, impatient, brave man with an average education and intellect and a caring heart. It's a slightly different role for Cooper than I am used to. Usually the strong, laconic type, in this film he's a bit more chatty and loses his cool more often than his characters usually do, which was fun to see. Initially, McGregor does not respect Forsythe because he arrives with tons of baggage and a supercilious playboy attitude. But Forsythe is more erudite, mentally quicker and turns out to be just as game, though he masks his own good heart with sardonic comments about McGregor's soft-heartedness. Richard Cromwell's Donald is less interesting than the other two. He goes from a likable callow youth eager to please his father to resentful, rebellious and rather whiny. But he looks up to McGregor and McGregor and Forsythe, between them, manage to keep him mostly out of trouble, until the end, that is, when they disobey orders to go rescue him from Khan.

But the most interesting character by far is Guy Standing as Colonel Stone. McGregor calls him Ramrod and assumes that he has no heart. But it's extremely clear that he does care, he just can't express it very well and goes from Commanding Officer to tongue-tied man when he tries. But it is also clear in his actions that he is not as unyielding as McGregor says. He's simply a man who chose his profession years ago, even over his wife, and he gives his all to it. But on several occasions, it is shown that his bark is worse than his bite. His son doesn't initially understand that and thinks his father doesn't care. Stone's only great fear is of retirement, where he poignantly imagines being put out to pasture, sitting in a club, a tepid ending to a forceful career. Mercifully, there is no romance forced into the film. They do manage to briefly get a woman in the story, but she has a very specific purpose. The film also has a considerable amount of real footage from India, filmed by Ernest Schoedsack (who co- directed King Kong) and although it is obvious when they are using stock footage, it is woven seamlessly into the film. The poem that Forsythe recites near the end is a bit much (they liked poems in these kinds of stories: The Charge Of The Light Brigade, Gunga Din). The message is that what Stone is doing is more important than anything. He's one of a few special men who has what it takes to rule 30 million people (though the 30 million people are never in evidence).

At its core, The Lives Of A Bengal Lancer is a fun , with pig hunting, travelling in disguise and an epic final battle in Khan's fortress. There's not quite as much action as one would suppose, though. Gunga Din has much more, but what I especially enjoyed were the characters' interactions, their imperfections, their misunderstandings, their loyalty and their growing respect for each other.

Christina Wehner, 27 July 2015

THE WEDDING NIGHT (1935)

A poorly scripted piece of fluff in which a miscast Cooper lamely attempts to impersonate a soulful writer helped over his writer's block by Polish-American farm girl Manya (, above). She is pretty and capable; he fails to convince - perhaps, to give him the benefit of the doubt, the weak material set him an impossible task. A forgettable 83 minutes. With .

IMDb: Cooper acts with an open intensity not often available to the clichéd strong but inarticulate American male. If you are bored by his High Noon persona, see this film / Sten deserved an Oscar. She and Cooper are something great here / In which Cooper, in a thinly veiled characterisation of F. Scott Fitzgerald, gets involved with some Polish immigrants. was supposed to launch new Goldwyn discovery Anna Sten. For some reason she didn't catch on with the public, though she does give a fine performance. However the film's best comes from as Cooper's wife / This sweet and simple tale has all the elements of great drama, but never reaches the heights it is trying to attain. The leads are young and attractive and the plot moves briskly, but even with excellent production design and direction by the masterful , it still lacks that magic that could have made it explode into something special. There is no chemistry between Cooper and Sten and their unsympathetic partners, Vinson and Bellamy, are not really fleshed out as characters / The acting is fine, the characters complex and the direction up to Vidor's high standards - though be prepared for a bittersweet ending / A lovely film that I enjoyed tremendously / Not bad, but no more than a time-passer. It's easy to see why it's pretty much forgotten. As for the ending, that would have been dictated by the new Production Code, under which the love between Cooper and Sten could not be allowed to result in happiness / Dated, pathetic soap opera junk. If you shed a tear at the end of this film, it will be because you're so glad it's over / Really good. Deserves a serious look / A solid effort.

PETER IBBETSON (1935)

"The strangest things are true and the truest things are strange." Ann Harding (above) and Cooper star in this luminous, poetic reverie about the unconquer- able strength of the human spirit. contributes a lovely early cameo. Harding, on fine form, draws a solid, responsive performance out of Cooper. During filming, she allegedly told director Hathaway she had difficulty relating to her co-star. Hathaway explained that Cooper's technique only showed "on film." "It's a very strange quality … this man has," he said. "I would suggest that you watch yourself and not worry about him." 85 minutes. Very good.

IMDb: Peter Ibbetson is dated and will be much too slow for many viewers. Its best part is the last third, when suddenly we are in an expressive fantasy, completely grounded in the earlier part, but also completely different. The effects here are not only still magical, reminiscent of Durer etchings, but also overwhelming when you think of how difficult it was to achieve them in 1935. The film's theme is clearly coloured by the "astral body" theories of the Eastern religions that were popular in Hollywood then, having a strong influence on art, architecture and design during this period. A quiet but powerful film (quiet and powerful became Cooper's screen hallmarks), the strength of Peter Ibbetson is its simplicity of message / Although he appears only briefly, Slade, who is blind but can see, is a key character. His words are similar to those of Saint Exupery in Le Petit Prince, published in 1943: It is only with the heart that one can rightly see; what is essential is invisible to the eyes. If the heart can give sight to the blind, then what can true love do? / Cooper really impressed. So early in his career he

was able to handle such a difficult role and give a complex and sensitive performance, conveying his character's ethereal aspects / Cooper excelled in portraying sensitive characters (see Pride Of The Yankees, Sergeant York etc) and Peter Ibbetson was well within his range of projecting an introspective romantic hero whose great love must be found in the world of dreams. He gives a fine, deeply felt performance. Ann Harding, not well known today as a romantic actress, captures the complexity and subtlety of the story. Her ability to will the Cooper character into believing that their love must persist even if it exists only in their own imagination is both powerful and enduring / Seek out Peter Ibbetson. You will be transported to a world that no longer exists, and into a story that requires the viewer to be a real romantic with great imagination. It will reward you with a deeply touching tale where true love finally wins out under the most extraordinary of circumstances. What more need be said?

DESIRE (1936)

A pleasant, lightweight, strikingly photographed film (from a German play called Beautiful Days In Aranjuez) about jewel thief Marlene Dietrich (above) gradually falling for auto engineer Cooper. Worth one viewing, but probably not two. 90 minutes.

IMDb: A stylish concoction of witty dialogue and sophisticated romance sure to please the most discriminating palate. It is a shame that the film is so badly neglected, as it is a joy from start to finish. With impeccable production values, the film is also a study in handsome sets and costumes. Gorgeous Marlene Dietrich ravishes the eye with her sheer physical presence, but her beauty should not detract from her acting ability, which is considerable / Light and breezy most of the way. Cooper and Dietrich do a fine job together / The plot is thin but pleasant and moves at a fast clip with ample

chemistry between Dietrich and Cooper more than making up for the slight story / A good effort hampered only by a few difficult-to-swallow story devices / A sheer delight. Dietrich is alluring and mysterious while Cooper is the naive but charming American . This is perhaps the first time he used the screen persona that would serve him so well in later comedies / Cooper's direct American character, so fitting in or High Noon, could also exude a gentle charm. He and Dietrich had made Morocco six years earlier, but that was a straight drama set in the deserts of North Africa. Here the blend of his American ruggedness and charm and her European sophistication and charm works nicely / Dietrich saves this from disaster but can't quite make it compelling / A delight! / Too goody-goody. Needs more grit.

MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936)

Capra's first Man of the People morality tale - a strong script, sympathetically delivered, elegantly staged and beautifully filmed - is a 111 minute rip-roaring success. Mr. Deeds won for its begetter another Best Director Oscar - his second of three in five golden years. The adaptation by is of a story first serialised in the Saturday Evening Post. Cooper's Oscar-nominated mix of boyish charm and taciturnity is perfect. Jean Arthur (above), a brazen journo forcibly reacquainted with her better self (a role that will be reprised by Barbara Stanwyck in ), matches him scene for scene. Highly recommended.

IMDb: The film still rings true today and I can imagine it must have had an especially good reception with Depression-era audiences getting to see a regular guy stand up and win against rich, corrupt forces / Hilarious, touching and very entertaining. Cooper

and Arthur (above) are wonderful together / Downright hilarious. Incredibly dramatic. Very good / Delightful light entertainment / Similar in many ways to Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Mr. Deeds is one of Capra's most uplifting and exciting films, but also one of his most morally ambiguous ... A film full of stereotypes and goofy plot twists, but blessed with some great acting / A charming, wonderfully directed character piece / Superior to Smith, which is a virtual remake / A fine old film that still has relevance today / Best watched with a mind to the period / Flawless Capra and Cooper / No computer generated images, small 1:33 ratio black and white screen and yet there is nothing in the world that comes close to the intimacy of this experience. Just look at Gary Cooper listening, trying to understand. Look at Jean Arthur falling in love. We have lost something very important along the way and it's not just innocence. How is it possible that nobody can get anywhere near this simple magic trick? They used to call Capra films Capracorn - I wonder what they call Adam Sandler, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewit comedies today? I want to jump into a time machine and go to those days, the days of Mr Deeds, Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur and Frank Capra.

This was the first of several films that Capra would make spotlighting the plight of the common man overcoming the deception and greed of the rich fat cats, a type of film Capra would later speak of with disdain, calling it CapraCorn ... There are a couple of quotes I would like to share with you that I thought especially good. The best is from Deeds, inside his home, coming to grips with the city:

People here are funny. They work so hard at living - they forget how to live. Last night, after I left you, I was walking along and looking at the tall buildings and I got to thinking about what Thoreau said: They created a lot of grand palaces here - but they forgot to create the noblemen to put in them.

I'll also include the poem that Deeds writes for the lady he calls Mary:

I've tramped the earth with hopeless beat, Searching in vain for a glimpse of you. Then heaven thrust you at my very feet, A lovely angel, too lovely to woo. My dream has been answered, but my life's just as bleak. I'm handcuffed and speechless, in your presence divine. For my heart longs to cry out, if it only could speak. I love you, my angel, be mine, be mine.

If you hadn't guessed, I love this movie. I think that it shines a ray of hope into life and tells a great story of common sense and love winning out over greed and malice. I'm sure it meant even more to those people struggling through the Depression, but it still strikes a chord today.

Norman Short, DVD Verdict, 11 February 2000

THE GENERAL DIED AT DAWN (1936)

Watching this film was a trial for a number of reasons - first because the story would have been dull even if better told, second because a significant amount of dialogue was unintelligible, making developments even harder to follow than usual (never easy anyway in situations of bluff, counter-bluff, double dealing, betrayal etc) and third because a key scene appears to have been edited out at the fifteen minute mark - presumably censored because too steamy - which might have explained why Cooper's character willingly boarded a train (so putting himself and his mission in unnecessary jeopardy) after swearing to the rebel leader that he wouldn't. Reminiscent of The Bitter Tea Of General Yen, but not half - indeed, barely a tenth - as rewarding. 98 minutes of tedium.

IMDb: There are better films than - however, there are few films that make so much out of so little / Miss Carroll's character simply made no sense. While she constantly professed that she was a good person, at every turn she behaved otherwise, making her confusing and quite stupid. Another problem, though much smaller, is that Dudley Digges is perhaps the worst cast "Chinese" character in history. Despite decent makeup, his very, very strong English accent made him as laughable as 's Chinese lady in Dragon Seed! / A minor entry in the Gary Cooper canon / A heavy-handed let-down / A pretty confusing film. You have to pay attention to keep up, though it still loses you in parts, especially at the beginning. The cast are nothing special, falling between the extremes of who is

excellent as General Yang and William Frawley who, as Brighton, is dreadful in every scene he appears in. Frawley also has an awful, raspy-throated voice that really invades your brain. He manages to produce a very offensive performance that doesn't help the film at all. After a confusing beginning, the story levels out into semi-tedium with an unbelievability factor of ten. The way Cooper breezes cockily through the film is pure phoniness (he would have been killed at his first meeting with Yang). The plot is also somewhat cheapened by the way Yang meets his death. Frawley's involvement in the final denouement is an outrageous con to those who are looking forward to a good climax. The film preaches to the viewer and its occupation of the moral high ground insults the audience - shut up, Cooper! There is also some really crass dialogue in the love scenes. Overall, a let-down / This 1936 Paramount feature, made and released in an era when Hollywood scriptwriters evidently still believed in the mystery and inscrutability of the Orient, has pretty good cinematography, a fine musical score and, frankly, not much else. That's a fairly damning assessment for a movie that also happens to star Gary Cooper and the lovely , but even those two were unable to bring this turkey to life / Cringe-inducing / Oddly compelling.

In The General Died At Dawn, Gary Cooper is a mercenary delivering money to buy arms for rebel forces to use against their Chinese warlord oppressor. He's betrayed by Madeleine Carroll, who didn't want to do it, and hates herself for doing it, but had to do it to help her sick father (Porter Hall) get money for passage back to the US so he can die at home. Akim Tamiroff plays the ego- maniacal warlord with a cult following, whose proudest achievement seems to be that his soldiers would all gladly kill themselves rather than fail him. He's almost a ridiculous little man but he's so sadistic and brutal that you have to take him seriously. He captures Cooper thanks to Carroll's luring and from there we have many reversals of fortune and funds, the reunion of Cooper and Carroll, their imprisonment, several deaths and an exciting climax with Carroll about to be executed. Whether aboard a train, in a fancy hotel, on a ship, in the rain, or on a balcony overlooking busy and troubled Shanghai, Carroll is dressed to the nines and never looks less than devastatingly beautiful.

Written by and directed by , The General Died At Dawn is generally well paced and interesting. A big flaw of this movie is that, for something that mostly has the energy of a pulpy serial adventure, it goes on way too long and there's a good half hour that could be cut. Much time in the movie's middle part at The Mansion House Hotel is spent waiting, arguing, eavesdropping and double-crossing. Carroll spends sleepless nights regretting her betrayal of Cooper, Dudley Digges speculates on Cooper's whereabouts and ammunitions dealer William Frawley waits, drinks and sings I'll Be Glad When You're Dead, You Rascal You to the stuffed moose head hanging above his table at the hotel bar.

However boring some of those parts may be to me, I will say they are totally watchable because of good dialogue, the stars' beauty and the director's clever

visuals. Milestone does some amazing things here with editing, zooms and tracking shots that really stand out as different for the era, and the whole picture has a rich, glowing silver look that's quite beautiful. In one neat trick, all four corners of the screen peel back to reveal little scenes of what all the other characters are doing at that moment. The opening credit sequence is very nice, with cast and crew names written on the sails of passing boats. Milestone also smartly pulls in extra close to Cooper and Carroll almost every time, having them stand within an inch of each other, embrace and almost kiss very often. With their chemistry it adds heat to the movie and they look so gorgeous you want the slow scenes to go even slower.

Carroll is breathtaking and luminous in this movie, lit so her sharp cheekbones stand out and her eyes are sad and longing. Her look and performance here must be among the best of her career; she's guilty, angry, ladylike and tough (she can beat any man at billiards with the cue behind her back), but when it comes to Cooper she melts and wants him to understand her actions and love her. There's a fun scene where Digges quizzes her on the whereabouts of Cooper because she has his pet monkey Sam (who does some fine acting of his own). Digges knows it's not her monkey and asks her to call it to her. She thinks for a second and makes a pathetic excuse for a whistle, realising that Digges wants her to admit she doesn't even know "her" pet's name. In another great scene she rages at her father, freely telling Hall she hates what he's done and made her do and will kill him with her bare hands if Cooper dies. And you believe her. Cooper makes a great hero, with a fun introduction where he decks a man for laughing at the unfortunate refugees and teaches him a point about how those people were treated. He believes in equal opportunity, punching Carroll just as hard after she sells him out. He brings that stoicism he did so well, but he combines it with a dangerous streak, a deep suspicion, rich sarcasm and high intelligence which make his character fascinating. He finally softens once he believes Carroll loves him and hears she's willing to give her life to save his, and relies on his talent for fast talking when her life depends on him.

There are a few other things to look for in this movie. First a cameo by writer John O'Hara on the train, insulted by Cooper as a journalist who can be bought "for a bag of salt." Right on cue, when the General apprehends Cooper, the real O'Hara (that's also the name of Cooper's character) makes a deal to favourably cover Tamiroff on the front page and gets his freedom, practically skipping off the train with a smile and a wave. The other thing to notice is Cooper's line We could have made beautiful music together, which movie fans have heard in countless variations in the years since. It wasn't wishful thinking; these stars really do make some nice music together.

Kristina, 26 February 2015

THE PLAINSMAN (1936)

A nicely turned but unexceptional tale of frontier derring-do with Cooper, Jean Arthur (above) and as , as Buffalo Bill respectively struggling to subdue natives newly supplied with the white man's thunder-stick by nefarious Hays City gun-runners backed by grasping manufacturers back East. (They, with their ready market having dried up with the ending of the Civil War, were happy to sell to anyone.) Stand by for a brief early Abe Lincoln cameo and a longer mid-film one from General Custer, with both duly meeting their appointed end, and as an unnamed Cheyenne brave. Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. 109 minutes.

IMDb: The film compresses eleven years (1865-76) from the end of the Civil War until Hickok's death in Deadwood into about three months, which I found hard to swallow. But DeMille knew how to fill the screen with slam bang entertainment. Cooper is at his laconic yup-nope best and Arthur is a fine Calamity Jane. The rest of the cast does well also. One tragic note is that Helen Burgess who plays the bride of Buffalo Bill died a year after completing this film at the age of 20. I think a wonderful career was cut short / Ridiculous but great fun and entertaining from start to finish. Jean Arthur, one of the best actresses of this era, shines here / This Western shoots blanks. Head up the pass and watch another / Scripting with forked tongue / Numerous historic anomalies but retains the flavour of legend. Good / Master of movie spectacle DeMille serves up a rip-roaring saga of the West / Arthur as a hysterical, eccentric, incurably amoral but devotedly doting Calamity Jane really pulls it off! Cooper, at his most taciturn, manages some occasional pithy sayings. The story is a pastiche to end all pastiches.

BEAU GESTE (1939)

A stirring adaptation of P. C. Wren's 1924 novel in which the up-front mystery and foreshadowing are resolved and fulfilled in epic storytelling style. By the time the literal meaning of beau geste is revealed, all is clear. Hats off to director Wellman and his cast. 113 minutes. Exceptionally good.

IMDb: Honour, loyalty, bravery, sacrifice - what concepts! Beau Geste has them all in spades. A very interesting story, this movie is as much a mystery as an adventure. Spanning fifteen years, it follows three adopted brothers from their childhood in an English manor house to their membership of the French Foreign Legion and their stationing at a fort in the remote reaches of the Sahara. If you are tired of the paper thin hole-ridden plots of today's action movies that rely on CGI and special effects instead of story, then this film is for you / Oscar-nominated eclipsed three more famous actors with his greatest performance as the villainous but brave Sergeant Markoff, a man who wants promotion so badly that he is willing to die for it. The author of the book actually served in the Legion and knew a lot about it / Director William Wellman gave the film fine atmospherics. Who can forget, in the very first sequence, the quiet ride up to eerie Fort Zinderneuf, manned by its unblinking sentries? / Adventure enough for the most jaded viewer / This fine film wears exceedingly well more than 75 years after it was made. A must see / Blooming wonderful / Epic sweep and magnificent photography. A great movie / This is a terrific picture that gets better with the passage of time, mainly because it's a great movie and also because they don't make 'em like this anymore / Like The Four Feathers, Beau Geste is based on a novel written at the turn of the last century. The world was a different place then, so some aspects of the story might seem somewhat less than politically correct today. If they did a remake now they would undoubtedly add entirely new sub-plots in an effort to make it more politically correct. But it is doubtful that they could possibly improve on Wellman's fabulous 1939 version. Beau Geste is a perfect example of how the old Hollywood was able to combine the right material with the right cast and the right director to achieve a level of filmmaking almost impossible to reproduce today / Slow getting started - we know how playful and loyal the brothers are long before they run off to join the Foreign Legion - but once it achieves flight speed, highly enjoyable / The best and most memorable version of Beau Geste / A gem.

THE REAL GLORY (1939)

An action-packed B-movie adventure yarn set in the Philippines in 1906. Army doctor Coop gets the girl and saves the day. 96 humdrum minutes.

IMDb: An hour and a half of character japery, sinister plots and love interests before the climactic spectacular set-piece, an old-fashioned dam-busting that spurts forth a Wagnerian birth-rush, waking up the cholera-ridden locals / A grand adventure in the classic Hollywood tradition. Perfect Saturday night popcorn / A Boy's Own-style adventure romp through the jungles of the Philippines following the Spanish-American War, The Real Glory is a terrific follow-up to the adventure classic Lives Of A Bengal Lancer, the previous pairing of Cooper with director Henry Hathaway. Cooper leads a small band of American soldiers and medical personnel as they train a local militia to fight back against vicious Moro bandits who terrorise and prey upon the local villagers. Cooper and co-star are the perfect Hollywood mix of heroism, gallantry and self-sacrifice. Hathaway fills The Real Glory to the brim with rousing action sequences, desperate derring-do and the kind of buckle-swashing that heavily influenced modern classics like Spielberg's Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Absolutely top-notch in every department / Escapist? Whew, I should say! But I guess it's the best they could do / Not intellectually challenging, nor does it have a serious message, but 100 per cent pure entertainment / Offensive on so many levels / The sort of adventure film you can enjoy provided you have only modest expectations - in other words, not deep or philosophical, but more like a traditional Cowboys and Indians movie set in a tropical setting / Gunga Din is better because there is more slapstick, more laughs all around and because the characters are a little better developed. But The Real Glory is nothing to be ashamed of - an enjoyable romp by stars wearing colourful uniforms in an exotic location and involved in a conflict nobody ever heard of / Cooper is excellent.

THE WESTERNER (1940)

Above-average Western fun. Cooper is good but Brennan makes the difference with an Oscar-winning turn as Judge , dealing rough justice from behind his bar while helplessly smitten by Lily Langtry. A standard cattlemen v. homesteaders yarn with knobs on. By gobs, that's m' rulin'! 100 minutes.

IMDb: Wonderful photography, terrifically entertaining, but unbelievable / The film would have benefited from a more apt title / This Western isn't full of slam-bang action, but manages something different - the character study of a powerful man who thinks himself above the law. Judge Roy Bean, in the person of Walter Brennan, is a dangerous person in his belief that he is the only one qualified with righteousness to pass judgment on lawbreakers, especially if he can make a buck at the same time. Cooper gives a lot of warmth to his lone cowboy who serves as a catalyst for the film's action. Future stars and are seen as two of the farmers. But Walter Brennan's clever performance is at the heart of this movie. I enjoyed it very much - another gem from director Wyler / Lots of great scenes fail to make up for the weak and overblown ending / Despite all the guns, dust and whiskey, The Westerner doesn't really feel like a Western. It is more in the way of an Old West drama. Yes, it features Judge Roy Bean, iconic figure of the West and star Gary Cooper, iconic actor of the Western, and is even packaged as a "progress" Western about the settling of the land. But the performances are so intense, the relationship between Cooper and Brennan so fully-fleshed, that the context disappears, and the opening spiel about range wars and homesteaders is soon forgotten. What remains is a compelling tale of the battle of wits between two men, one old and experienced but blinded by obsession, the other young and sharp-witted. The legend of Roy Bean and his young nemesis takes on a grand stature here. Either one could be the Westerner of the title.

NORTH WEST MOUNTED POLICE (1940)

Cooper plays a Ranger who tracks a wanted man north into Canada and finds himself embroiled in an uprising in which half-breed and native peoples seek independence from Colonial government. The Mounties, outnumbered and outgunned, sure could use a hand. DeMille's film starts poorly with some indifferent acting and never quite recovers. is back in a part very similar to his Beau Geste Digby. The vixen who leads him to ruin is (another iffy turn), at this time Chaplin's second wife. The Scots scout (Lynne Overman) is good fun. 110 minutes. So-so only.

IMBd: Set in 19th century Quebec, the characters mill around a wilderness fort, chase each other and a Gatling gun, lust after each other and spout ridiculous dialogue. It takes forever and drags a lot, but looks nice for something shot on a soundstage and there are some decent actors like Gary Cooper and Madeline Carroll in it, even if they look kind of embarrassed. Watch out for the wooden Paulette Goddard as a half-breed temptress. (You just know you're in for something bad when you see those words.) We're talking high camp, over-the-top ludicrous, with her silly accent, sillier makeup and supreme overconfidence in her ability to handle a role like this. It's worth tuning it to see her sashay around in her leather-and-feather costumes, chewing the scenery, getting spanked in public and tormenting a bound Robert Preston / This first DeMille colour epic was a sensation in 1940. He wasn't the best director for Cooper, who was allowed to brandish his bizarre mannerisms in a duel to the finish with Paulette Goddard. After a valiant two hour fight, the scenery won. Bonus quote by Lynne Overman: Do they have fast horses in Texas, Mr. Rivers? I'm bettin' they can nae keep up wi' the men / Right from the beginning I found myself positively spellbound by the unabashed hokiness of the plot, characters and dialogue, not to mention the embarrassingly dated costume and production design. Every scene startled me - they'd come out with so many stupid lines, maudlin heroics and old-fashioned clichés that I couldn't stop watching / A good romp / Watch at your own risk / Avoid.

MEET JOHN DOE (1941)

This powerful polemic (its screenplay Oscar nominated) was the first of three films (see also Ball Of Fire and Blowing Wild) to pair Gary Cooper with Capra favourite Barbara Stanwyck (above). Third and least persuasive (after Mr. Deeds Goes To Town - also with Cooper - and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington) of its director's anti-corruption trilogy, Meet John Doe is by turns saccharine, earnest and hectoring, though, whether as hard-nosed journo cynic or chastened, remorseful moll, Stanwyck (reprising the Jean Arthur role of Mr. Deeds) is beguiling as ever. Cooper, again ably supported by the versatile Walter Brennan, punches his weight, though finally the film cloaks its human- itarian, anti-Fascist message too lightly to pass muster as honest, agenda-free entertainment. 122 minutes.

IMDb: A preachy though well-acted drama about the fickle heart of humanity leads to a woebegone conclusion that no one behind the camera was quite satisfied with. Only in the film's vibrant first half do we get a sense of something fresh and exciting. Capra settles once again for sentiment over substance / A pitch-black jeremiad against mani- pulation by the media / Riskin's screenplay is solidly constructed but manipulative. Stanwyck, Cooper et al. add a high gloss to what boils down to little more than a Love Thy Neighbour sampler - but, as someone said, it's not the arrival, it's the journey and this is one swell trip / The film's message is that dreams can never be destroyed. John Doe isn't a nobody, he is a somebody, because he is everybody / Meet John Doe, from Capra's worthwhile second tier, ends up uneasily advocating Christianity as the healer of society's festering wounds / Capra has been called a 20th Century Dickens. Taking into account the quality of the best of his work, with John Doe at its epicentre both temporally and thematically, this "timeless" accolade is richly deserved / Cooper's performance at first seems wooden, but he's an actor whom you need to watch, like a

pond, to see the emotions swimming beneath the surface. Stanwyck never makes a false move and is beautiful to watch from any angle / Cooper delivers a masterful performance, and in keeping with the film, achieves this with a deceptively easy touch. He is supported by a peerless cast which includes Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Brennan, both on top form / Like the equally dark It's A Wonderful Life, Capra's genius is that he knows how to pitch and score the important points when necessary, not only with laughter and tears, but with unyielding hope and, most significantly, with words. It's more than any home crowd can ask for / Profound and moving.

SERGEANT YORK (1941)

Alvin York is a simple but savvy farm boy who starts out as something of a tearaway, then gets religion, then gets called up and, after basic training, is shipped off to France (the film is set in 1917) to become a reluctant war hero. Cooper's hesitant, slightly perplexed style is perfect for the part - and duly won him a first Best Actor Academy Award (of two - the other for High Noon). Walter Brennan (above, with specs), in support, is his usual good value. 129 minutes.

IMDb: It has been over 70 years since Sergeant York was made and it is still a joy to watch / The authentic portrayal of mountain life, an honourable protagonist portrayed by a great actor in his finest role, hard decisions in the time of war mixed with a healthy dose of levity, not to mention an outstanding supporting cast are just a few of the reasons why Sergeant York has always been my favourite movie. I am aware that this was a WWII propaganda film but I'm just idealistic enough that I buy the whole package / One of the most touching films of all time - as much an attention holder

today as it was back in 1941 / Some of the worst war movies were made during the war, but some of the best ones, like Sergeant York, too / Both the story and the technical brilliance on show are truly remarkable / A very stirring, beautiful film, a true no-miss / Time has not been kind to Sergeant York, though Cooper is excellent.

... Later that year, Cooper appeared in Sergeant York as a "natural" marksmen and conscientious objector who, because his religion is that of the Tennessee backwoods, is still forced into the army. After lots of hemming and hawing - at one point, Cooper goes home and begs God for answers; the wind then blows his Bible open to a passage that implies that he must serve his country, and in so doing serve God - Cooper goes to war, still morally conflicted, but when his fellow men are cornered by Germans, proves himself a tremendous hero. The moral: he killed only to end the war more quickly, thereby preventing even more killing.

Sergeant York was based on the story of the real-life Sergeant York, a man so humble he refused the opportunity to adapt his story until the producers agreed to use the money to finance a Bible school. That was the guy Cooper was playing on screen. The specifics of the narrative were particularly salient to a nation that was still oscillating between isolationism and engagement in the current world war. Having seen the ravages of the Great War, how could the nation justify going to war again? How could the "pacifist" be convinced to kill Germans yet again?

Pearl Harbor would make the decision clear just months after Sergeant York's release - and just in time to push Cooper towards an Academy Award for Best Actor. Recall that most Academy Awards do not necessarily go to the best performances; rather, they often go to performances that best embody an ideological moment. See: the post-racism of Crash triumphing over the still- too-transgressive man-love of Brokeback Mountain, or last year's celebration of a certain attitude towards race relations in the nominations for The Help. By awarding Cooper the Oscar for Sergeant York - by then, the best grossing film of 1941 - both the Academy and the nation at large were endorsing a particular attitude toward World War II and war in general: the war might be horrible but it is necessary, and good, solid, Christian men like Cooper would lead the way towards what was right.

Anne Helen Petersen, 6 June 2012

BALL OF FIRE (1941)

Cooper's innocent professor meets Stanwyck's street-smart dancer to produce a movie that looks as if it was a lot of fun to make, and the feeling is infectious. Spangled BS (below) oozes gamine charm. Cooper, bemused head of a group of

dusty academics, is putty in her capable hands, as have been and will continue to be countless viewers through the ages - for, yes, the film plays as well 75 years on as it ever did. For Cooper, the end of a remarkably productive year. 108 minutes. Recommended.

IMDb: What happens to an Ivy Tower atmosphere when it is invaded by a sexually alluring siren? This is the situation of Howard Hawks' Ball Of Fire, the second of two great comedies Stanwyck made at Paramount in 1941 / A riff on Snow White, Ball Of Fire is a high point in , perfectly pairing Cooper as an ingenuous professor out to learn about slang and Stanwyck as a vivacious gangster's moll who, in spite of herself, falls for his awkward charm. While it features nothing beyond kissing, the film is sexier than any modern picture I can name / Stanwyck is at her best in a role that seems tailor-made for her, and which earned her an Oscar nomination / Some powerful yum-yum / Slows down a little toward the end, but still a wonderful comedy / Another great Golden Age Hollywood classic and a feather in the cap of all associated with it / A film that will live forever / Cooper does a fine job as the shy professor and Stanwyck is absolutely delightful as the tough-talking but warm- hearted Sugarpuss. They play off each other so well that the movie loses something toward the end when Sugarpuss is back with the gangsters in New Jersey while Potts is held hostage in New York / We are asked to accept a 180 degree volte face from Stanwyck's character but the writing, directing and acting are so solid that we happily do so / Falls somewhat flat. It's too cutesy for my tastes and just about everybody in it has appeared in something better / Sugarpuss and Pottsie are quite a pair and director Hawks makes the most out of a witty, gag-filled script / Subtle and sophisticated humour / Dated / One of my favourite films. Find, play, smile.

THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES (1942)

Between June 1925 and April 1939, Lou Gehrig made 2,130 consecutive appearances for the before retiring himself from the team due to a sudden, serious and inexplicable loss of form. Within six weeks he was diagnosed as suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and within two years was dead, aged just 37. This sudsy, Mom's-apple-pie biopic must have gone into production very soon after his untimely passing. Whilst enjoyable enough as a sincere tribute to his extraordinary career, it lacks dramatic tension and is disappointingly light on detail - for example, his disease is never named nor his death documented, though doubtless all contemporary viewers would have been well aware of these ancillary details as us Johnny-come-latelys are not. Cooper does his best and there are some touching moments (, Mark Koenig et al. too), but it's all a bit two-dimensional. 128 minutes.

IMDb: This biography is pretty straightforward. Unlike many of its kind, it doesn't show its protagonist somehow succeeding against all odds. That's why Gehrig is so special to so many people - he symbolises their own hopes. Cooper as Gehrig and as his wife Eleanor both give wonderful Oscar nominated performances. If there's anything imperfect about the movie, it's its predictability. But even if most of it doesn't impress you, the final speech at , when Gehrig was suffering visibly from the disease that would eventually be named after him, will move you past tears. And even better, when Gehrig's done his brief speech, he walks off screen. If that movie were written today, he'd play another game and hit a game-winning home run. It's this film's honesty and sincerity that win you over / Includes about every baseball cliché you can imagine - promise sick boy a homer ... sick boy later recovers - then stands them on their ear by making them affecting. Other scenes are just plain odd, like the nosy cop in Chicago who wonders why Lou's hanging around outside the Twitchell mansion at 4 a.m. then accompanies him inside to propose marriage. The supporting cast is excellent, as you can always expect from Warner Bros. Walter Brennan, never better. Herbert Stossel, funny beyond the screenplay / I realise the film was intended to be a loving tribute to Gehrig, but its schmaltzy sentimentality overload made him out to be a literal saint (who could swing a mean bat) and whose feet never once seemed to touch the ground. Another thing - despite a gruelling two hours and ten minutes running time, it contained not a single surprise. The final blow was the unnecessary

focus paid to the portrayal of Lou's mother, played by the scenery-chewing Elsa Janssen. This opinionated woman was insufferably overbearing / Pride runs too long. Until Gehrig finally falls ill, near the very end of a two plus hour movie, there is no real tension. It is just one success after another. The suggestion at one point of a rivalry between Babe Ruth and Gehrig goes nowhere. The film's script is poor. It would be hard not to be moved by Gehrig's speech in Yankee Field. Cooper does a fine job there. But, other than that, I didn't get much out of this film. Disappointing.

If you are looking for a hard-hitting exposé of sports, a flawed anti-hero, a look at the pitfalls of fame and such, then look elsewhere. The Pride Of The Yankees is pure '40s Hollywood biopic. While I've heard it referred to as the best movie ever made about baseball, it really has very little to do with the game itself. Facts about Gehrig's career are presented in montages of newspaper headlines and summarized in bits of dialogue. The film is really a love note - to Lou Gehrig, to Gehrig and his wife and to baseball and its fans. It is unabashedly sentimental and romantic. It is also perfectly cast and acted, boasts a literate script (from Jo Swerling and Herman Mankiewicz), features great production values (it's a film) and is deeply moving. It might not be a great film, in the way that, say, Citizen Kane is a great film, but it is a great movie, the kind of classy "Old Hollywood" production that makes us love the movies. Gary Cooper was Goldwyn's first - and really, only - choice to play Gehrig, and he turns in one of his most memorable performances. Cooper was 41 when he made The Pride Of The Yankees - older than Gehrig was when he died in 1941, a couple of weeks shy of his 38th birthday. It's a little awkward early on, particularly when Cooper is portraying Gehrig during his college years and as a rookie player, but the actor's earnest performance and obvious affection for the man he's playing make these scenes work better than they should. Although she never achieved status as a great actress, Teresa Wright appeared in some pretty great movies, including , , The Men and The Best Years Of Our Lives. She had a wholesome sexiness and evident strength, sensitivity and intelligence that made her ideal to play Eleanor Gehrig. Cooper and Wright are a strong combination. They have great chemistry - we don't doubt for a minute that these two are each other's great love. Their scenes together, scored with the gorgeous Irving Berlin song "Always," are heartfelt and moving, particularly in the latter part of the film, when the effects of Gehrig's illness - portrayed with a terrifying and subtle honesty - start manifesting. Gehrig's brave battle with the disease that now bears his name is well known, and this knowledge adds a poignant overlay to the entire film. The final 30 minutes - leading up to Cooper's iconic rendition of Gehrig's "Luckiest man" speech at Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day - might be among the most honestly moving in the history of American film. If you can watch this without getting a lump in your throat, if not outright weeping, then I suspect you might be descended from Cyborgs.

Tom Becker, DVD Talk, 10 September 2002

FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS (1943)

It's probably safe to conclude that a film that starts with four minutes of music under a black screen then includes another 4:30 in its middle is one that's taking itself too seriously - and so it is here. This adaptation of Hemingway's novel, set in civil war-torn Spain in 1937, centres around a band of Republican fighters, holed up in the hills, who are joined by American freedom fighter Cooper, tasked with blowing up a strategically important bridge. We're introduced to some colourful characters and there's plenty of talk, a little action, a touch of romance, the whiff of treachery and some pretty scenery to admire. But it runs on far too long (158 minutes in all). This feels ultimately like a good, taut, solid film lost inside a bloated and over-pretentious one.

IMDb: This story of a three-days love affair during the is about idealism, self-sacrifice and hope - themes not specially "in" in 2015 that were developed by Ernest Hemingway, one of America's best writers / Cooper seems wooden and bored while Bergman plays with her hair too much / A true masterpiece that I wish to recommend to everyone / Certainly a fine production, but pervaded by Hemingway's skewed consciousness. He occasionally paid lip service to sensitivity toward his fellow beings, but actually he did not appear to hold others in high value. His attitude toward the "enemy" or the "target" is characteristic of the sickly way he tended to see things. His total real life disregard for animals emerges in his writing on human interaction. His is a consciousness of violence, scheming, plotting and conflict. That all this is the stuff of action and adventure allows the sickness to mask itself very skilfully. Scratch the surface, however, and one finds an ill view of the world / A romance with some terrorism thrown in, in which Bergman is unbelievably bad: cloying, annoying, self- pitying and stupid. Cooper, on the other hand, is fine so long as the life is not drained out of him by Ingrid / Clueless Cooper at his worst / One of the most boring movies

I've ever sat through / Not a great deal happens in the first sixty minutes or so, other than a rather predictable and over-ripe Hollywood romance between Cooper and Bergman. However, as the weather changes, so does the film. With the snow comes a new urgency. Nationalist troops show up and the squabbles take on a darker edge with a real sense of menace - and the whole compels / A classic that all should see.

Adapting esteemed works of fiction for the screen can be a tricky business, not least because the reverence with which the source material is regarded more often than not leads to a failure of creative nerve. Perhaps the reason why the most interesting literary adaptations are frequently those made by arrogant mavericks is because their irreverence and self-confidence allows them the freedom to bend the source material to the demands of their own medium. The least interesting adaptations, on the other hand, are those made by writers and directors so in awe of their source that they take the notion of fidelity into the realm of worthy, turgid literalism. It's the difference between creative re-interpretation and slavish transcription.

Paramount must have thought that they had an open goal when they acquired the rights to Ernest Hemmingway's 1940 bestseller For Whom The Bell Tolls. It's an epic tale of love, derring-do and sacrifice in the Spanish Civil War, laced with tragic fatalism and written by one of America's most famous and respected (if controversial) men of letters. On paper at least, the prospective film ticked a lot of the boxes required to qualify as a beloved American classic.

Once Gary Cooper (who had already starred as the author's alter-ego in 's 1932 adaptation of A Farewell To Arms) and Ingrid Bergman were cast, it must have seemed like all anyone had to do was make everything look pretty and the awards would pile up. In the event, the film was nominated for nine Oscars and won one (Best Supporting Actress, Katina Paxinou) but the fact that not one of those nominations was for either direction or screenplay gives some indication of what's wrong with the film.

There are three interdependent storylines - the mission of American mercenary Robert Jordan (Cooper) to destroy a strategically important bridge; his flowering love affair with brutalised young refugee Maria (Bergman) and the tensions within the band of rebels with whom he collaborates. The problem is that neither the script nor the direction seems sure about how to juggle these three competing narratives in a way that makes for gripping or involving drama. David Nichols' script feels less like a structured or thoughtful dramatisation than the product of a process in which passages from the novel were simply underlined in red and then stitched together in order, regardless of dramatic effectiveness. The resulting narrative arc is clumsy and disjointed due to inconsistent pacing, the tone varies uncertainly between grit and a kind of solemn sentimentality and most of the scenes drag on so long and artlessly that the drama runs out of them.

None of this is helped by Sam Wood's barely competent direction. Wood had previously worked successfully with the Marx Brothers, but seems incapable of building tension and empathy effectively in the context of what is meant to be a romantic thriller. Scenes don't feel as if they've been badly directed - they don't feel as if they've been directed at all. More often than not the action is simply staged and then recorded in an arbitrary wide shot, irrespective of what is being said or why. Cooper is okay, but deprived of the inner voice through which the novel's narrative primarily unfolds, the film's protagonist is frequently reduced to the status of stony bystander - in addition to which, since his scenes with Ingrid Bergman are for the most part unconvincing and rather dull, neither actor is able to carry the remains of the picture in spite of their respective talents. As a result, many of the awkwardly staged sequences around the camp are stolen by Akim Tamiroff's unstable alcoholic Pablo and Paxinou's Oscar-winning turn as the rebels' de facto leader Pilar.

The photography does look nice, though, and in the longueurs the syrupy strings of Victor Young's omnipresent score are cranked up to paper over the cracks, which I suppose might be vaguely pleasant if you like that kind of thing. But in the final analysis, the film is basically just a polished turd, as pretty and anonymous as it is boring and banal, which exhaustingly replicates the novel's sequence of events whilst completely failing to capture the passion and muscularity of Hemmingway's prose. Now, if 25 years later someone had asked Sam Peckinpah to adapt it …

Themroc, EyeForFilm, 4 June 2008

CASANOVA BROWN (1944)

Coop plays a college professor who discovers on the eve of his wedding that he has a new baby from a very brief previous marriage. On learning that the mother (his Pride Of The Yankees "wife" Teresa Wright, above) intends to put it up for adoption, he decides that a little kidnapping is in order. Adapted from a 1929 Floyd Dell play called Accidental Father, this lightweight comedy is mildly amusing in some parts - 's peppery father-in-law and the house fire, for instance - but too contrived and downright silly in others. 87 minutes.

IMDb: Amusing entertainment without going overboard on comedy. Frank Morgan shines with his usual wit and bumbling charm / There is nothing funny in this so-called comedy. The plot is pretty stupid and corny. Cooper was much better in Ball Of Fire and Meet John Doe. Don't waste your time / Not the best movie you will ever see, but not as bad as everyone says. Give it a chance / A forgotten gem. Patricia Collinge as Mrs. Drury is marvellous / A cute little comedy. Wright is stunning. Her face seems to glow in every shot / The actors try very hard to make a go of an essentially unfunny script / Cooper burning the house down is one of the most hilarious things ever put on film / A slow and poorly scripted film in which, after a promising start, the story slides downhill all the way to the end. A good performance by Frank Morgan in a slightly different role is totally wasted here / Watch the first twenty minutes and you'll know whether to bother with the rest. Some people will find this too old-fashioned and dated in its humour and a little too forced and silly. But others will be pleased by the nice filming, the non-stop absurdity and the almost surreal strangeness of events / A funny comedy with real heart / Wright is perky as Cooper's wife but seems too young for him (and she was indeed more than seventeen years his junior) / Preposterous.

ALONG CAME JONES (1945)

A pleasant but forgettable Cooper-produced B-picture oater with Gary in genial aw-shucks mode smitten by and eventually winning (above). The spoofing of Coop's iconic Western Hero persona is fun. 77 minutes.

IMDb: Along Came Jones is a light and entertaining film about mistaken identities that is never serious until the last reel when everything breaks loose / Only for huge fans of the genre, or Gary Cooper / This is an entertaining Western farce but you'll probably never find yourself laughing out loud, except at the purposely horrible rear projection scenes when they're "riding." Cooper, playing a doofus, is wonderful / Loretta Young gives a strong performance as a woman torn between the bandit and the cowboy. Cooper is not really believable as the amiable but clutzy cowpoke / An early satire of what characters of the Old West were really like / Even fans of Gary Cooper may not see the artistry in his performance, but that's not what makes this film special. 's script is the thing, and it's a pretty lightweight thing, with subtle repetition, satire and tongue firmly in cheek. Filmed like a western B-movie, played as a self- aware western B-movie, with all the clichés and set pieces intact, including indoor back projection riding scenes and more than one "stick 'em up" scenario. Your first tip-off should be the wanted poster for "Monte Jarrad, often in the company of Uncle Roscoe something." I can't imagine that Cooper and Demerest (as his sidekick) didn't have a grand time playing against the stereotype established by John Wayne and Walter Brennan. Don't take it seriously, just enjoy / Most Hollywood Westerns of the '30s, '40s and '50s were incredibly formulaic and routine. This one breaks the mould. Not great, but different / Fabulously funny / Subtle spoofing ... Could it be that Cooper's melodious Melody Jones (who sang his own songs) was a jab at John Wayne's Singing Sandy (all dubbed, all the time, and badly too)? / A quaint and quirky diversion.

CLOAK AND DAGGER (1946)

This pedestrian, low-wattage espionage yarn needs all the pep it can get and far more than Cooper's dour, uncharismatic performance is able to provide. He plays like a waning, washed-up star - like a poor man's James Stewart. Like 45 going on 60 - though better material would surely help. 107 dreary minutes.

IMDb: Engaging but not too demanding / Neither realistic, factual nor tightly crafted, but a fun movie with a solid cast. Cooper is perfect / If you cut this movie in half it would be tolerable. Coop is awkward and painful to watch, though the story and writing didn't help any of the other actors either. directed this tripe? / Not ultimate Lang, but worth seeing / Lacks so much energy. The actors limp through the film as if half asleep. Many parts make no sense and the romance between Cooper and Palmer is too contrived. Overall, surprisingly ordinary / Plodding Cooper in a plodding film / Not , but film no - as in no, don't watch it / The highlight of the movie is a brutal fight between Cooper and an eye-gouging OVRA agent - a tough, dirty and realistic battle to the death with only the sound of a street singer as accompaniment. I could imagine even Hitchcock applauding this bravura sequence / A drag / Expertly directed by Lang for maximum tension and featuring a rousing score by the great , Cloak And Dagger is winning entertainment. If you want to see Cooper in a proto James Bond role - and he acquits himself quite creditably - then this picture is for you / I hate to say it, because it sounds incredible, but Gary Cooper overacts. His eyebrows go up and down like twin elevators / Lang's fight scenes, shot in a shockingly brutal way for the 1940s - all below-the-belt hits and attempts to gouge and murder the rival fighter - are good enough to stand up with the best of modern cinema. It's a shame that the rest couldn't consistently match their pace and excitement / A rather tedious, second rate spy flick with an even more tedious, third rate romance. One of Lang's worst.

UNCONQUERED (1947)

DeMille serves up another sprawling pioneers v. natives epic that, while shot through with a benign pastel ambience, pleases the eye rather more than the brain. Cooper does well in a role that fits him like a skin and Paulette Goddard (above), still short of great, at least improves on her NWMP scenery-chewing. Old friend C. Aubrey Smith makes a brief appearance as a High Court judge and a more substantial one as a fish-out-of-water Indian Chief. Who makes these ridiculous casting choices? 147 minutes of frothy fun.

IMDb: Karloff is a hoot as the Indian with a weird accent. Great, politically incorrect fun from start to finish / Typical overblown DeMille. Fun in a goofball, campy sort of way, but if you're looking for anything else, forget it / Put British troops, American settlers, Indians, Gary Cooper and Paulette Goddard in the same film, add Technicolor and you have fine entertainment / I enjoyed this film, but the acting was so overblown, especially by Goddard, that I had to laugh during many of the more tense situations / Not DeMille's best, but the Technicolor, De Silva's performance, Karloff as a villainous Indian and the two leads make it entertaining enough / DeMille's pseudo-historical epics are as fascinating to watch as a head-on collision between two trains and about as subtle. So let's get this clear - if you're looking for any sort of historical accuracy, look elsewhere! For hand-wringing political correctness, be gone! The Colonial Settlers are good, the Indians bad and the British are incompetent and that's it. If you are expecting dialogue by way of Hamlet, that's not going to be here either. The important thing with a DeMille film is not to take it seriously and just enjoy the ride. Though he plays fast and loose with history he gets a lot of details right. He did build his films from the ground up and if they did not convey historical accuracy, gave a good imitation. Sort of a 1940s version of virtual reality - looks great but is not all there.

GOOD SAM (1948)

Unashamedly Capraesque right down to the identity of its , Good Sam is sentimental but slight, manipulative but without merit, calculated and calculating chaff. Cooper plays a Good Samaritan who looks out for the welfare of all except his long-suffering wife. A dreary dud. 115 minutes.

IMDb: An example of what happens when you go Capraesque without Capra. The idea isn't bad, but the execution ... Cooper's character goes way past selflessness and on into suckerdom. He's so virtuous, he's neither believable nor sympathetic. He's infuriating to watch. He simply begs to be walked all over. is Coop's wife. What a waste! / Though the actors are excellent, the script is convoluted and the story hard to follow. Plodding and episodic, it seems to go on forever / A 'must see' for any Cooper fan. Wonderful! / Surely the nadir of Cooper's career as a lovable comic hero. A misfire / Sheridan at least gives it her all, but Cooper walks through the role as though he doesn't believe a minute of it. Nor, by the final reel, does the viewer. Not worth your time / Fair to mediocre / Cooper and Ann Sheridan seem uncomfortable in some of the scenes here and Sheridan later admitted that the two of them had no chemistry. Cooper, though good in his role, seems to overdo it in some scenes / Bosley Crowther claimed on Good Sam's release that it was a satire of Capra-type movies, but, if it was, the ticket buying public didn't get it, staying away in droves. So, sincere or satire, it was a flop / I watched it all the way through just to find out how bad a film can be / Not the best work of either Sheridan or Cooper and several scenes - the wife’s asthma, the woman on the bus - run on too long / What a let-down - no romance, no comedy and Cooper playing a worthless husband in lacklustre fashion. When you get right down to it, Good Sam is one depressing pill of a movie.

TASK FORCE (1949)

Task Force traces the development of and pays tribute to US naval aviation by documenting the career of Jonathan L. Scott who began as a rookie pilot on the first US aircraft carrier in the early twenties and retired, after the war, as a Rear Admiral. The film is in black and white for 93 minutes then Technicolor through to the end. Cooper's last with Walter Brennan. Good of its kind. 112 minutes.

IMDb: The best movie ever made about the U.S. Navy in the Pacific conflict, with the coloured wartime documentary footage adding that extra gloss to a fine film. Coop took on his role perfectly and Brennan never lets you down / High marks for accuracy and atmosphere. The central event is the 1942 Battle of Midway, re-told here so much better than in the egregious 1976 film / Will hold the interest of hardcore war buffs but most others will pass on this dated film after a few minutes / A great true story told with stock footage / Some wooden acting and too much exposition / A fine, passionate and patriotic film about the advent of the aircraft carrier as the principal weapon of the U.S. Navy in World War II / I read somewhere that Cooper surrendered his chance at ultra-stardom when he made certain decisions about parts that robbed his film persona of the sort of sex appeal that would have guaranteed his place as a film star/sex symbol. The reviewer said something about Cooper being more of a big brother than a lover. I don't know if all this is true, but Cooper's image of being a friendly, decent, human hero is clearly on display in Task Force. He and Brennan carry the movie. The chemistry Coop has with his audience and his on-screen friend and CO (Brennan) puts real blood and muscle into a film that at times gets a bit too documentarian. Add in a sweet, loving performance by as the graceful and gracious military wife and you have a really human movie that works as history lesson, , political essay and love story / One of the best war films ever / I did have a chuckle when they said Scottie is on the Enterprise / Cooper convinces as a modest man just doing a job.

BRIGHT LEAF (1950)

A grand Southern saga, stretching from 1894 on into the Twentieth Century, involving a farmer's son who returns to the North Carolina town he and his father were run out of, to make good and settle scores. This he does, by mass- producing cigarettes, until complications in his love life prove ruinous. Adapted from a novel by Foster Fitzsimmons and directed by Michael Curtiz, looks magnificent and boasts a cast to match, with Cooper in top form supported by a sculpted (still then Mrs Bogart, above), Patricia Neal (then a year or so into a three year relationship with Cooper), as Barton and as Malley. 110 minutes. Recommended.

IMDb: Fairly heavy going ... All rather slow and humourless, not at all gripping. Coop is a good enough actor to keep you watching even though his character is basically unlikeable, but Patricia Neal is the best reason to watch the film. The part when she drops the icy mask of aristocratic poise to reveal her true character and motivations is genuinely gripping. Bacall, though likeable, doesn't make an equal impact and doesn't really seem to belong here / Cooper seems a bit on the reserved side even though out for revenge, but that's Coop. He's a master of do nothing on the screen and manages to hold his own / A splendid melodrama featuring the old gent who treats young Turk Cooper as a dog and the latter's revenge leading up to the impressive finale when the new king screams "Let it burn!" The supporting cast is first-class including Donald Crisp playing a man from another age with his obsolete code of honour, Jack Carson as the noble pal, Lauren Bacall as the good-hearted gal and my favourite, Patricia Neal, who portrays the most complex character of the film / I have seen nearly every Cooper movie and this is by far his best performance! The combination of star power, story

and character interplay is flawless. If you have never seen a Cooper film, see this one first. I'm also a huge fan of Donald Crisp, who also gives a tremendous performance (though a slight step back from How Green Was My Valley). Neal and Bacall are also good. This is nearly in the epic category as movies go. Somewhat loosely based on the history and development of the tobacco industry, it chronicles the rise in popularity and proliferation of cigarettes. Bright Leaf is a hidden gem that most film fans are unaware of - and, as if that were not enough, it was directed by the great Michael Curtiz / A bit too melodramatic for my taste, but fans of the stars should enjoy it / Modern Greek tragedy at its finest and a rare chance to see Cooper playing a very unsympathetic character. The ending is very satisfactory, both a typical Hollywood finale and a moral lesson as well / Cooper, even cast against type, commands the screen.

(1) Patricia Neal with Cooper (2) Lauren Bacall and Jack Carson (3) Jeff Corey

DISTANT DRUMS (1951)

More soldiers v. Indians bunkum - this time, not on the Midwestern plains or in the Canadian forest but through the Florida everglades, and not Cheyenne or Blackfoot but Seminole - yet every bit as clichéd and dull. 87 long minutes.

IMDb: Not your usual oater. The story is okay with an aging Coop showing he's not yet over the hill. Not many memorable moments but fun nonetheless / is nothing more than a "Western" transplanted into the swamps of Florida - yet, despite its ridiculous plot, bargain basement Hollywood surplus wardrobe and anachronistic armaments, I will admit a bias for this film since there are so few that depict the Second Seminole War of 1835-1842, America's longest and bloodiest Indian war. Sadly, you won't learn much about the War from this movie, though it does have some basis in fact. Taking full advantage of the wildly beautiful Florida wilderness, its true star is the scenery / You gotta love a jungle that is home to kookaburras, peacocks and howler monkeys to name a few! / Perhaps Cooper's least known Western adventure, Distant Drums is a winning feature with a solid cast / Enjoy the decent scenery and that famous underwater knife fight, because there's not much else / Coop is once again the epitome of what a hero should be, showing what a superb film actor he was by seemingly saying and doing very little but conveying through facial and body language all that is necessary. Good cinematic acting is so different from the stage variety and this man was the best! / One of Cooper's finest roles, that fit right in with his "homespun" personality / Only the romance between Gary Cooper and Mari Aldon saves this film from being a total bore / Maybe one day someone will do a proper film on the early history of Florida, but this ain't it / Mundane plotting offset by zippy action and smart location work / You might need those Clockwork Orange eyelid-holders for this thick slice of old Hollywood hokum. You've come for either or Cooper, and neither impresses here / Cooper is rugged and watchable as an Alligator Dundee type and Hunnicutt, as always, leaves a favourable impression as the scout. Aldon is pretty but pretty one-dimensional, though nobody is helped by the tepid script.

HIGH NOON (1952)

The film for which Cooper is best remembered and, while perhaps not the best he was ever in (Mr. Deeds? Ball Of Fire? Friendly Persuasion? Pick your own) arguably his most accomplished performance (good enough, at any rate, to win him a second Best Actor Oscar). Certainly it is another role that plays to his strengths - a man spare with words and with a thread of melancholy braided indelibly through his soul, who stands for unswerving courage, integrity and honour in the face of danger and - deserted by his "friends" - against the odds. But, while Cooper's film, High Noon is memorable for more than merely his impressive turn: Tex Ritter's song (not just ambient but a key part of the narrative), as the wife driven to choose between her man and her Quaker beliefs, young , old Otto Kruger and Fred Zinnemann's taut direction that brings the picture home in a real-time, Maltin four-star 82 minutes of top drawer entertainment.

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Controversial producer had his first blockbuster hit with High Noon, a relatively inexpensive Western that became one of the most popular pictures of 1952, took home four Academy Awards and still stands near the top of its genre. Viewers were riveted by Gary Cooper's anguished performance as a Marshall caught between his duty to his badge and to his new bride, played by the new star Grace Kelly. Fred Zinnemann embellishes his precise direction with powerful wordless scenes and montages that made audiences feel that they were watching an artistic triumph.

High Noon is one of producer Stanley Kramer's early message pictures, a grand statement about civic responsibility. The producer had been courting a name as a liberal producer with bold movies about the Race issue (Home Of The Brave) and disabled veterans (The Men). But Kramer clashed with his equally outspoken screenwriter . A public flap ensued when Kramer allegedly refused Foreman a co-producing credit. Audiences were more interested in the new star Grace Kelly, and Tex Ritter's hit song Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darlin', which is cleverly used for recurring sequences of Marshall Kane walking through town, looking in vain for help.

Most contemporary Hollywood Westerns with stars as big as Cooper were being filmed in colour, yet this picture plays out on a B-Western back lot set with almost no special production. High Noon compensates with expert filmic craftsmanship. Editor Elmo Williams' work is dynamic, almost ostentatiously so. Foreman's shrewd screenplay lends suspense to a series of dialogue scenes through the use of the same 'deadline' device that dominates many new action films. We're told that something dreadful will occur in X minutes - the Titanic will sink, the bomb will detonate. Time becomes an automatic suspense machine as the seconds slip away. By the time the noon train carrying Miller arrives, everyone in the story is checking their clocks. A metronome-paced montage kicks in as the hour approaches, recapitulating the forces arrayed against Will Kane. A crane shot (above) finally reveals him standing alone in the dusty street. Much of the power of this sequence derives from 's insistent music score. Stylistically, High Noon is a triumph of talented filmmaking.

Film theory students at UCLA in the early '70s were impressed by the movie's frequent cutaways to clocks: director Zinnemann and editor Williams experimented with the notion of making the film play in real time. In one

screening we clocked the clocks, so to speak, and they did indeed stay within a couple of minutes of our "control" clock. So many clock faces are built into dialogue scenes that they must have been part of the original structure during shooting. This observation weighs against the frequent claim that the clocks were an editorial trick imposed later in post-production.

The feminists in the critical studies programme also lauded the formulation of the film's two female roles. Grace Kelly's waspish Amy is the "Clementine Carter" character, an unyielding Easterner who does not intend to surrender her refined moral values to the violence of the West. 's Helen Ramirez is the alternative 'dark woman' or 'Mexican girlfriend', usually conceived as "the native" who sacrifices herself to protect a hero who would never stoop to actually marry her. By breaking that unwritten rule, Ramirez is the most independent and sensible character in the show. She tolerates no guff from punk (an excellent jerk) and even tells off La Princess in no uncertain terms. Amy Fowler may be the socially correct choice for a bride, but the smart and worldly-wise Helen Ramirez possesses a real capacity to love. Marriage with Ramirez could be a great adventure, were Will Kane not so conventional in his thinking.

High Noon still carries a reputation as a courageous liberal statement. Howard Hawks and John Wayne reportedly stated to the press that they made 1959's Rio Bravo to counter High Noon's then-radical image of a Marshall throwing his badge away, in contempt of the town that wouldn't back him up. Wayne's character in Rio Bravo is a professional who would never ask the community for help to do his job. Defending High Noon's political stance isn't easy, as its inconsistent messages are ladled on with the subtlety of a shovel.

To develop its social argument, High Noon envisions Hadleyville as a rotten place filled with rotten citizens. This supposedly left-wing film tries to prove that Democracy won't work because people are basically selfish and cowardly. The judge skedaddles, pointedly taking his American flag and scales of justice with him (symbol! symbol!). Frank Miller's return will obviously bring big trouble, yet many of Hadleyville's able-bodied men are firmly on his side. Save for Kane, the only decent citizens in town are either crippled or under-aged. Businessman is a craven coward, Kane's deputy Lloyd Bridges is concerned only for his hurt feelings, and the church congregation is a worst- case scenario of Bad Civics in Action. Instead of coming to Kane's defence, the preacher condemns him from the pulpit. Kane's best friend Jonas () uses the lack of consensus to squelch any effort to support Kane in his hour of need.

All of these rejections are a ploy to isolate Kane as the only individual in Hadleyville with morals and ethics, the only man who cares enough to stand up

for What's Right. But Will meekly accepts little crucifixions in every scene. He gives feeble three-word speeches to the church congregation, like "I need help". How this tough lawman stood up to trigger-happy drunks and dangerous thugs is a big question, when he won't use a simple promise or a bit of intimidation to secure the desperately needed help of his own deputy. When people don't rally to his aid, Kane remains silent, a queer combination of pride and humility. Carl Foreman even turns Helen Ramirez into a martyr-enabler when, for her own reasons, she decides not to come to Will's defence: "He is not my man." For Kane to undergo his ordeal of character and will power, he must face his fate alone. Yet, after all the posturing, Kramer and Foreman make no particular statement beyond a murky, 'A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do'.

High Noon is actually a better fit as a conservative fantasy about America fighting in foreign wars. Good ol' Kane (General MacArthur and company) defeated Evil foes five years ago (roughly the end of WW2), but now Evil is back and it's personal. Nobody gives a damn, or worse, they're on the side of the Commies. Kane must go it alone. Poor General MacArthur, stabbed in the back by the politicians. The pacifist argument in High Noon takes a conservative turn as well. Amy Fowler (above) is a pacifist Quaker, yet has married a man whose profession involves gunplay and killing. When Amy blasts bad guy Robert J. Wilke in the back, the movie crudely suggests that Christian pacifism is a myth promoted by people who have never had to fight to protect their loved ones. Amy earns the right to keep her man the American Way, by killing for it.

The end of High Noon presents the stickiest puzzle. It plays as emotionally correct yet satisfies neither read of the movie. Kane tosses his star in the dust to show his contempt for the town that comes out to congratulate him only

after the fight is won. Perhaps John Wayne and Howard Hawks were correct in interpreting this ending as Kramer and Foreman saying, 'Screw America.' Hadleyville has its share of jerks but also good women and loyal kids like the boy who so badly want to help. Kane is turning his back on all of them. Now he and Amy can open their store somewhere else. Are people in this next town going to be any different? Or will they be more scum unworthy of the ethically superior Mr. and Mrs. Kane? Is Will going to sit behind his notions counter when troublemakers terrorise his neighbours? The message of High Noon is confused, to say the least. People report being moved by its message, yet often can't come up with a coherent answer for what that message is.

As a drama without symbolic significance, High Noon is very satisfying. I like to read nuances into the Kane-Ramirez relationship, and criticise Amy's lack of real commitment to the husband she expects to turn from hawk to dove overnight. The Dimitri Tiomkin music is always a kick, as is the dry Tex Ritter song that opens the plain-wrap film so perfectly. It's also fun to see eternal bad guys Lee Van Cleef and Robert J. Wilke near the beginning of a career that mostly consisted of being gunned down by the hero, in picture after picture.

Mad Magazine recognised High Noon as the key psychological Western of the fifties. One of its cartoons lampooned 'adult Westerns' by showing a picture of a traumatized Will Kane shooting a hole through his pocket watch, as if he had a neurotic aversion to the existential tyranny of Time. In the earliest Mad spoof, Hah! Noon!, Kane solved his little problem with 'Killer Diller Miller' by simply calling in a thousand National Guard troops, complete with tanks and artillery. The spoof had one of my favourite Western gag lines, ribbing the obvious doubles for Bridges and Cooper in their big barn fight: "Now my stuntman's going to give your stuntman the beating of his life!"

High Noon has been a profound influence on the Western genre. The old TV series was basically a spin-off, and eclectic-minded directors have frequently revisited its situations. Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch riffed on the kids whose play shows the influence of the violence in the streets: "Bang! You're dead, Kane!" Sam Fuller's Forty Guns did a wild and woolly number on the final 'Drop yer gun or she's dead' situation. Sheriff Barry Sullivan resolves the standoff by purposely shooting hostage Barbara Stanwyck so he can get a clean shot at her captor. Sergio Leone turned the first ten minutes of his Once Upon A Time In The West into an extended parody of High Noon, as three gunmen wait at a train station, intimidating the telegraph clerk to pass the time.

Glenn Erickson, DVD Talk, 18 July 2012

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RETURN TO PARADISE (1953)

Having fetched up on a Polynesian island, drifter Coop encourages the natives to throw off the tyrannical oppression imposed on them by a white missionary and return to a more natural way of life. He has a relationship with Maeva (Roberta Haynes, above), who dies after bearing him a daughter. He leaves and, on returning years later, finds her, all grown up, about to suffer the same fate as her mother. 85 minutes of misbegotten hokum. High Noon it ain't.

IMDb: Rather enjoyable / Return to Paradise's main problem is that Cooper at 52 is way too old for the part of the hedonistic Mr. Morgan. They should have cast someone like , , or . Having said that, Coop does all right in the role of the man whose arrival on a Polynesian island changes all around him. Filmed entirely on location on , it's a stunningly beautiful film to watch. You couldn't make a bad movie in that location. One of Cooper's lesser known works that holds up well after more than sixty years / A bit contrived by the end, but not a bad little film that remains interesting through much of its run time. Location filming and the inclusion of Samoan people and their culture help make the picture unique. Cooper is actually rather fit for a man of 52 and is occasionally caught by the lens in a way that reveals his earlier boyish good looks. He gives a nice performance in the straightforward, no-nonsense style that was his own. Roberta Haynes is surprisingly authentic and appealing, eschewing a lot of the syrupy and over-stated qualities that many Caucasian actresses brought to their portrayals of island women during the studio era. Her performance is restrained but strong and she is quite lovely with virtually no make-up. One of the most striking things about the movie is the fact that sex and pregnancy are treated with a frankness that is surprising for 1953, though, obviously, nothing is shown / Probably the only Hollywood movie filmed in Western Samoa, where it still airs regularly on their two TV stations.

BLOWING WILD (1953)

This third and last Cooper-Stanwyck collaboration (see also Meet John Doe and Ball Of Fire) is by a distance their worst, amounting to 85 minutes of barrel scraping bilge, in which Babs (above) is a histrionic caricature of her best self, Anthony Quinn is unconvincing and Cooper seems embarrassed to be caught up in such mind-numbingly dismal proceedings. A series of heated action sequences involving bandidos with dynamite, a race between a horse and a car, a torpedo-containing oil well "blowing wild" and so on is stitched together with a facile love-triangle narrative that fails to grip, persuade or interest even mildly. Risibly poor fare, best avoided.

IMDb: An entertaining little flick that wastes the huge potential of a dream cast / Stanwyck characters are never someone you'd see grocery shopping (unless plotting a murder with Fred MacMurray) or attending a social function. Here she is aging but still very much on the prowl - a cougar roaring loudly with desire / Surprisingly cheapjack production featuring three top stars who all acquit themselves well despite a script that seems half-finished. From a narrative standpoint, the picture is a mess; however, it is sharp-paced, torrid in spots and frequently entertaining in spite of its flaws / Blowing Wild is a great, relatively unknown gem of a modern Western featuring some exquisitely overblown melodrama. In the current trend of films that must have uplifting themes and happy endings, I found it so refreshing to watch something where it all goes wrong / Only holds interest because of the stars involved. Everybody overacts outrageously to keep the film afloat - even Cooper, if you can believe that / Sort of a pot luck movie / Decent action drama that seems to have been made in a rush / Good cast in a watchable product ... Unpretentious but interesting / Felt underdeveloped.

GARDEN OF EVIL (1954)

A wretchedly dull Western with not one ounce of charisma among its cast or allure in its trite, tiresome tale. Scenery 1-0 Actors. With and (above - she was also in Beau Geste), also (aka High Chaparral's Buck) and some Apache. 100 dreary minutes. Avoid.

IMDb: A moving parable in which we are reminded that a society's least wanted members may be its most willing defenders. Beneath the big screen Western flash, this is a film about loyalty and responsibility. Cooper's ending speech says it all / The film's panoramic vistas sometimes overshadow its narrative / A well-done character piece, beautiful to behold / While Cooper's career spanned ninety-two feature films in which he appeared as everything from a masked Cossack to an Italian Renaissance explorer, a foreign legionnaire, a baseball great and countless sophisticated romantic adventurers, he is best remembered as a Western star. Here he proves himself a powerful leader with a commanding performance / Only fair but with a good finale as the rescuers fight their way across a ruggedly beautiful Mexican landscape / Who would think a line up like this would lend themselves to such a disaster? is slow, ponderous and banal. You could almost feel the actors were reading their lines from a board. I expected more from all concerned, including the great Henry Hathaway, who directed / The story is ridiculous and there's too little suspense / Not one of the better Westerns ever made. The Michoacan locations are glorious but nobody's motives are especially clear. Worse than that, they're sometimes incomprehensible. The dialogue is listless, as if done by numbers / There's a reason you probably haven't heard of this Gary Cooper Western. Actually, it's not so much a Western as a psychological thriller - except that it isn't thrilling. It's more of a B-movie, as in B for Boring / Something artificial about the whole thing / A forgettable Western in which most of the cast were underused, with the exception of Susan Hayward, who gave a committed performance. Both Coop and Widmark practically walk through the film, albeit under arduous conditions. This is primarily due to a weak storyline which veteran director Hathaway could do nothing about / A simple, old fashioned cowboy yarn with a difference. Don't overthink it - just enjoy / Some shots are to die for, with the film's closer one of the best there is. But this is a wasted opportunity and proof positive that no combination of fine technical ingred- ients can compensate for an over-ambitious and plodding script / Beautiful location photography and a good score about wraps it up for the vapid Garden Of Evil.

VERA CRUZ (1954)

A pretty (Technicolor) but pretty ordinary Western set during the Mexican War of Independence. After the Civil War, American mercenaries head south over the border to hire their services to whichever side pays best. Cooper, dour, uncharismatic and not aging well, still manages to outshine co-star Burt Lancaster, who gives a broad, amateurish performance replete with silly sneers and grimaces. and Charles Bronson are among those making up the numbers. The plot, involving the fate of a shipment of gold, is inconse- quential. Twenty-five years on from The Virginian, this film will have cost far more and looks the part, yet manages to be half as entertaining. 81 minutes.

IMDb: Lancaster grins toothily at every opportunity, Cooper's muttering seems to indicate what he thinks of the film and Macready is reduced to imitating a fop. A waste of good actors / This mediocre film has a good cast but unappealing characters and a story that just isn't that compelling / Cooper looks out of place, a little too long in the tooth to be convincing as the quick-on-the-draw hero. Lancaster, on the other hand, goes way over the top, flashing those pearly whites at every opportunity. Romero dashing as always, steals the picture. The battles scenes are well staged and exciting and the photography is spectacular / This film has the usual assortment of gun battles, machismo and manliness. However, it lacks personality as none of the characters have much depth. Lancaster mostly smiles with his teeth clenched, Cooper is nice though bland and the film never seems all that interesting. Watchable for fans of these actors but otherwise pretty forgettable despite the unusual setting / The love scenes were more hilarious then anything else as both love interests were mismatched to the men involved, although at least Lancaster and gave it a whirl. But Cooper who is stilted at the best of times was just plain laughable with his love interest in / A Western, typical of the '50s era, well made in excellent outdoor locations. Coop gives his usual professional touch and Lancaster is superb - that "smile" really makes his character, offsetting the film's darker side with some humour. The cast

including Borgnine and Bronson adds real class to the production. I saw the film as a fifteen year old when it was first released and, fifty years later, still watch it with the same excitement and interest. They don't make films like this anymore. Modern cinema has no answer to it / A frenzied no-brainer with over-the-top pyrotechnics, shoot-'em- up sensibilities and some inventive staging, Vera Cruz is no throwaway cheapie. If half the budget was spent on explosives and sombrero-sporting extras, the other half was spent on securing A-list leading men. It is odd to see such able and prestigious performers as Gary Cooper and Burt Lancaster plodding their way through a leaden script that is one trite excuse for a shoot-out after another. And yet they are by no means miscast. Cooper, with his laconic and world-weary manner is the ideal man- with-a-troubled-past, and he brings a depth and intelligence to the character that is not there in the screenplay. Lancaster is simply fun to watch, with his manly swagger and predatory grin - a clever actor having fun with a lightweight role.

For decades, the Hollywood Western was an endless wellspring of simple morality plays: good vs. evil, white hats vs. black hats, selflessness vs. greed and so on. However, the Western began shifting into revisionist territory in the '60s and '70s, as the genre became dominated by violent antiheroes and the black and white morality was tossed aside for shades of grey. While there have always been exceptions to the overall trend, many have argued that the era of the "cynical Western" begins with 's 1954 feature Vera Cruz.

Aldrich was a director who frequently managed to get away with movies a little bit edgier than what was generally accepted at the time - recall the grim horror of Kiss Me Deadly and the then-startling violence of The Dirty Dozen - and Vera Cruz is another of his controversial genre pieces. While the attitudes and level of violence presented in the film are not much different from what audiences would see in Sergio Leone's A Fistful Of Dollars, this film preceded

that one by ten years. There are several moments of bloodshed that are startling by 1954 standards and the hired-gun mentality of the main characters was strikingly different from the sort of heroics audiences of the era were used to. This is a film in which the good guys threaten to kill a group of children if their ransom demands aren't met.

Vera Cruz may be one of the earliest cynical Westerns, but it's also a precursor to the "buddy movie" genre that would become so popular in the 1980s. Though the differences between Joe and Benjamin will eventually drive them into conflict, for the vast majority of the film they remain surprisingly chummy. Joe is attracted to Benjamin's plain-spoken honesty, while Benjamin seems fascinated by Joe's ruthless charm. Their giddy, greed-fuelled camaraderie is a whole lot of fun to watch and one is reminded as much of Lethal Weapon as For A Few Dollars More.

It's said that warned Gary Cooper against working with Burt Lancaster, claiming that the ambitious young actor would steal every scene from the stately movie star. That's precisely what happened, as Lancaster's antihero (with his alarming toothy grin) [see above] immediately attracts our attention every time he appears on screen. Lancaster essays his character's lust for violence with gleeful energy; one of the early indicators of what a powerful force he could be on screen. Meanwhile, Cooper seems more than a little uncomfortable in his role, unsuccessfully attempting to bring his unique brand of unshakeable dignity to a character who makes a whole lot of moral compromises. Even so, the weaker quality of Cooper's performance almost works in the context of the film, as it only enhances the impression Lancaster makes in his colourful role.

There are many who have argued that Vera Cruz is actually a rather mediocre movie despite its groundbreaking qualities, but I'd have to disagree. The tale is tightly-plotted and well-directed by Aldrich, who does a nice job of slowly escalating the tension over the course of Vera Cruz's slim 94 minutes. The busy action scenes are presented with refreshing clarity, Hugo Friedhofer's score brings some interesting south-of-the-border shades to the more traditional Western movie bustle and the dialogue boasts a handful of entertainingly clever exchanges. The supporting cast is solid across the board, with (Batman) and George MacReady (Paths Of Glory) making strong impressions and future stars like Ernest Borgnine (Marty) and Charles Bronson (Once Upon A Time In The West) bringing a lot to their bit roles.

Though fans of traditional Gary Cooper Westerns may find Vera Cruz off- putting, this subversive slice of cinema history is well worth checking out.

Clark Douglas, DVD Verdict, 2 July 2011

THE COURT-MARTIAL OF (1955)

It's the early and the Navy top brass regard aircraft and fliers with barely disguised contempt. Colonel Mitchell lobbies in vain for better equipment and more regard for the safety of his men. Eventually, after being continually frustrated, he provokes his own court-martial in order that his concerns may be taken more seriously. The film, telling a true story, is earnest but somewhat staid and sober until the last twenty minutes, when young (above, left) weighs in with a compelling Prosecuting Counsel turn. Cooper is dour but effective and (above, right, with bow tie) is good. 100 minutes.

IMDb: The courtroom drama sub-genre has developed its own ritualistic codes, plots and characters as much as the gangster film or the musical - the brilliant, bullying prosecutor, the weak, inarticulate defence, the verbal battle-of-wills between lawyers presided over by a petulant judge, the grandiloquent speeches, the playing to the gallery, the last-minute crucial piece of evidence or overlooked witness etc. All are present here. The argument being had risks seeming sterile, academic, uninteresting - we know Mitchell's right, and the Army is blind, so where's the conflict? But this is a Preminger film and therefore more than a courtroom drama. The casting of Cooper is crucial. Like The Right Stuff, this film about the military is negatively imbued with the spirit of the Western. Cooper, so often , ranging the open spaces, embodying American values, now faces the modern world and finds frontiers closed as he is hemmed in by bureaucracy. The individualistic spirit of adventure, risk, progress is no more, replaced by decision by committee / A courtroom drama with brains and brawn. Excellent / The real Mitchell was a firebrand not afraid of speaking his mind and Cooper not the right actor to play him / Solid on the central story but fictional on the margins / A blistering but unreal cross-examination by Steiger as Major Guillion is the dramatic high point of the film / Dear old Coop, getting a bit long in the tooth, hits his one note and does it well. Then enter Steiger, fluid, fluent, naturalistic, delivering his lines twice as fast as everyone else - in short, a real character as opposed to a cut- out hits the screen. Wayne and Clift in Red River are a similar New school meets Old school pairing, but this film is the best example of them all / See it for Steiger.

FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956)

Many people rate this film highly, including Leonard Maltin, who gives it his full four stars, and it is well acted and beautifully shot, and was nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Writing and (). But it is long (137 minutes), slow and virtually drama-free. Based on The Friendly Persuasion, a collection of short stories by , it is set in a small Indiana Quaker community in 1862 and considers the strain put upon their pacifist beliefs during a time of war. Pumpkin pie pleasant but tame.

IMDb: Sincere, heartfelt and unexciting / I would have preferred a more complex and intelligent film. The opening scene is straight out of Disney / Lovely to watch for many reasons. Director Wyler obviously took his time allowing the story to unfold with many nice vignettes along the way serving to give the film heart and a nice gentle sense of humour. In addition, the actors did a fine job and the end result is most enjoyable, up until the end. The end annoyed me because several characters seemed so untrue to who they were throughout the rest of the film. In addition, any respect you had for their religious commitment was negated by some of their actions. For instance, the wife actually aids the Confederates - and, while the opposed violence, would they condone treason? As for the father, after a rebel had just killed his friend and then tried to kill him, he hits the guy and tells him to go away. Huh?! It was as if the writers didn't know how to wrap it all up. After investing more than two hours of my time, I felt dissatisfied / In the broad expanse of the first part of the picture, we miss out on any real emotional connection with individuals via the camera / It's hard to think of anyone more suited to the role of the upright father than Cooper. Every pore of his stature oozes rectitude / A film with irresistible charm and atmosphere. Some might describe it as rather sickly and sentimental at times, but William Wyler's touch is always assured / One of Cooper's best ever screen moments is in the death scene of his friend / This film will pleasure thee in a hundred ways.

10 NORTH FREDERICK (1958)

Adapted from a John O'Hara novel, 10 North Frederick looks back at the last five years of the life of Joe Chapin, a worthy but malleable man beaten by life in the shape of a coldly ambitious wife, self-serving political cronies, two children he fails as a father and a young woman (Suzy Parker, above) whose love for him comes too late to save him from his fate. A strong cast put over a meaty tale of dreams defeated and morals put to the test. 98 minutes. Very good.

IMDb: A well-acted soap with a good cast / With some updating this could easily be a plot for a prime time soap opera pilot / Some stellar acting from Geraldine Fitzgerald in particular / An overlooked drama, romantic and consuming / Bittersweet with a touch of romance / Cooper and Fitzgerald are in fine form as the middle aged man and his vicious wife in this wonderful film. Highly recommended / A great movie. One of my favourites of this genre / While you don't necessarily need to love all the characters in a film, it has a huge uphill battle when you like none of them. I didn't like any of the Chapin clan and while the soapy elements of the movie were interesting, connecting to or caring about them was difficult / Slow and a little dull. The thing about Cooper is that he underplays and is very subtle - but there's underplaying and there's just not acting. Diane Varsi didn't do much acting here. Geraldine Fitzgerald was terrific, as was Ray Stricklyn, who went on to Broadway success and a huge career in publicity with the John Springer organisation, handling people like Elizabeth Taylor and . Suzy Parker was always a total vision, but never much of an actress. The most effective scenes were at the end, very beautiful and well worth waiting for. Cooper really shone throughout, but especially in the last section. Like many stars of that era, we lost him too soon. It's sad to realise that they're all gone, including Varsi, who died at 54 / Cooper proves yet again, in his twilight years, that the man could act! / A heart- warming love story. If Cooper hadn't been born, who else could possibly have played this wonderfully passionate older man? In my belief, no one! / Cooper is ideally cast as Joe Chapin and it would be hard to improve on Fitzgerald as the wife/mother from hell. A film that will support several viewings / If you have any human kindness, compassion or empathy in your soul, you are bound to respond to this wonderful film. If you happen to be in a similar situation as the protagonist, 10 North Frederick will alternately lift you up and break your heart / Very underrated. Cooper is marvellous.

MAN OF THE WEST (1958)

A mean-spirited Western ('s last) in which Cooper - a bad man turned good - gets tangled up with an outlaw gang led by the amoral killer who raised him. Lee J. Cobb (above) gives a rank and un-nuanced performance in that role in keeping with the story's rancid, gratuitous and unedifying nastiness. 86 grim and unrewarding minutes - though some of the scenery is nice.

IMDb: Arguably one of Cooper's best films / Mann was one of the great artists of American cinema, whose Westerns rivalled the best of Ford and Hawks and his epic Man Of The West ranks with the all time greats. Intense, blistering and sometimes lyrical, the film benefits from superb performances from Gary Cooper and Lee J. Cobb, whose aged, half mad bandit chief bears a remarkable resemblance to the title character of Shakespeare's King Lear / Unique and intelligent / Raw, intense and violent. Cooper is brilliant / Cooper gives one of his better performances here, not exactly impressive but appropriate for the role / One of the most intelligent, interesting Westerns ever made / Neither the plot nor the characters appeal. If you want to discover Mann, begin with something else / One of the most tragic and pessimistic Westerns in cinema's history / Mann's last Western and his best work in the genre / A real downer of a Western, but a great classic in which Cooper pinch hits for James Stewart / Miscast, poorly acted, surprisingly bad / Another overrated "critics favourite", this is a boring piece of junk with a mean edge to it. Lee J. Cobb's gang is crude, nasty and no fun to watch. Cobb rants and raves through most of the film, which gets aggravating in a hurry. A movie for sourpusses / A downbeat Western with little new to offer. Cooper's tired look doesn't serve his character well / Man Of The West is like three separate movies in sequence, which can be off-putting unless you just go with it and trust the director. Mann knew what he was doing and manages to pull off what otherwise could have been a disaster of a movie due to its choppy, segmented construction and overall weak plot / Not for the young or optimistic. A kind of sunlit film noir. Though too old, Cooper, his face as lined as an old riverbed, brings the authority and pain of age to his part / The picture is almost overwhelmed by its own unpleasantness and by Cobb's growling, snarling performance as Cooper's grizzled relative / Great scenery spoiled by some of the poorest acting and a wholly unimaginative screenplay. I'd rather have spent the time walking around the film locations in the middle of the summer.

THEY CAME TO CORDURA (1959)

Adapted from a novel, is set in Mexico in 1916, during the Villa-led revolution, and centres around a US Army major driven by his own past to try to understand what motivates men to commit acts of courage. Another visually striking but dramatically implausible yarn. With , and . 103 minutes.

IMDb: A good film with a very subtle message / A would-be essay on the wellsprings of human courage peters out into a humdrum adventure yarn. The Mexican terrain is spectacular and the film's central proposition is an interesting one but the end product is so-so. It is difficult to warm to Cooper as an actor, or indeed to his character. Hunter goes way over the top. Thorn's sudden perking-up beside the rail track is a ludicrous event / Hayworth gives the best performance of her career as a shady lady surrounded by six men, substituting acting for sex and glamour / The theme - What is courage? - is overdeveloped / Lacklustre execution, makes its point way before the end, drags on too long and the finale is not only utterly unbelievable after what we have just seen, but too quick, too pat. Not Cooper's finest hour / Not a great film but an interesting one. Despite being over fifty years old it is surprising raw and willing to turn away from simplistic definitions of courageous and cowardly towards something more real and well conceived. It doesn't go deep enough but is strong on the surface / A dark Western that would appear to be yin to 's yang. Heroes become brutes, brutes become heroes. The latter film is more entertaining - and satisfying / None of the film's characters ring even remotely true and with the irony stripped out of the ending the result is a total failure to effectively illustrate the theme. So you watch, and if you can suspend disbelief it is possible to understand what the film is trying to say but it is hardly great cinema and the viewer ultimately thinks more about the missed opportunity than about the mysteries of battlefield courage and human redemption / One of Coop's weakest late films. The rest of the cast overact outrageously. Of course, since the whole story is rather incredible, what else were they to do? / This is a Cooper film unlikely to be remembered by most fans, and that isn't a bad thing because its central message is so muddled and overdone. The polarised aspect to all the men (and Hayworth) is one huge cliché such that none of the characters seem real or engaging. A great story idea ruined by lousy writing / Sahara as a Western with Cooper too old for his part / More like the proceedings of a debating society than a war film.

THE NAKED EDGE (1961)

Adapted from a Max Ehrlich novel called First Train To Babylon, this decent but padded whodunit suffers from having too few suspects. Given Cooper's policy of never playing the bad guy, it doesn't take much working out who that is. As in The Wedding Night, a last reel death by tumbling down half a flight of stairs provides a contrived, lazy and overly convenient wrap-up. In his last film, Coop looks old, grey and drawn, but no more so than he had through most of the fifties. With , Eric Portman, , a young Ray McAnally and, in a small part, 's son Ronald. 97 minutes. Not bad.

IMDb: Evocative of Hitchcock, though not as good / Kerr, as usual, delivers a terrific performance. Cooper does his best with the dialogue and role he is given, but it isn't enough to make this film believable to the discerning viewer. The dialogue is contrived to leave every situation open to the possibility that Cooper is the murderer. The result is that the film quickly becomes annoying. I felt jerked around as a viewer / Very entertaining, although the story has some major holes and the ending, which could have been done much better, is a bit of a let-down. Cooper is very good in his last role but Kerr is less convincing / A heavy-handed drama in which every move and action, no matter how insignificant, is followed by a loud blast of music that almost blows you out of your seat. A turkey of a film with an off-the-wall and obnoxious ending / I won't identify the real culprit but if you watch the first half hour you'll know. Very little suspense involved at all. The cast do the best they can with the material they're given / 's schlock music is godawful / A taut Hitchcock-like thriller that delivers / Too slow. Too much talking. Cooper (perhaps ill?) is wooden and lifeless. Kerr is disappointing. Pass on this one / Cushing as the prosecutor is brilliant / Film noir viewers are in for a treat. The murder scenes are exceedingly well done, in flashback, with some being quite expressionistic. Scenes in the courtroom and at the mansion and offices are equally impressive. The director and cinematographer deserve a great deal of credit / A silly film in which Cooper and Kerr are mismatched / A marvel of a thriller.

THE REAL WEST (TV: PROJECT TWENTY, episode 20 of 33, 29 March 1961)

Between September 1954 and May 1970, NBC's Project Twenty broadcast 33 hour-long documentaries on subjects such as The Great War, The Jazz Age, , , Mark Twain, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Charles Russell, Billy Graham and, in 1963, almost two years after his death, Gary Cooper. The Real West, a 52 minute consideration of the Old West during the forty years (1860-1900) of its existence, comprises six brief clips (total running time seven minutes) of Cooper talking to camera plus extended montages of still images over his narration, the recording of which, just two months before he died, when he knew his time was short, was his last profess- ional undertaking. An informative, poignant and very fitting farewell.

IMDb: The legend of the American West helped earn Coop a good living, His part in demythologising it here seems in some way the closing of a circle. Montana is still a rugged place and, growing up there, Coop saw the ranchers, miners, small farmers and even the tragic American Indians on their reservations living on subsistence. His Big Sky drawl, tinged with pride, courage and regret, perfectly suits the story of The Real West, a wonderful coda to his career / Enormously moving / A dying Gary Cooper sits on the dilapidated porch of a wooden frame house on some "town" where Westerns used to be shot. In fact, what's left of the town looks like the setting for the climactic shoot-out in Cooper's own Man Of The West. Cooper is obviously reading from cue cards held next to the camera but his drifting gaze only adds to the feeling of nostalgia. You won't find the narration very challenging, although sometimes it's amusing. The original settlers "came for three reasons: to get something, to get away from something or just to get there." No nonsense about socioeconomic issues. The narration is plain spoken, like its presenter. The programme focuses on the less glamorous aspects of the West. Just reaching it was a risky business. We see many unfamiliar period photos showing an abundance of poor, hard, corrugated faces, and not one of them handsome as John Wayne or . As for Calamity Jane and Belle Starr, though myth- making "inventor of the dime novel" Ned Buntline pictured them as beautiful, both in

fact looked less like or than some murderous nanny out of a horror movie (see below). Several passages are read from diaries or letters, including one, accompanied by portraits of Indians, revealing the contempt the travellers had for "the people" and what the diarists saw as "sullenness" on the natives' part. The usual outlaws - the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang "an over-publicised pack of pariahs", Jesse James "who often killed out of sheer meanness", Billy the Kid "a homicidal moron from the slums of New York", Doc Holliday "a psychopathic dentist" - are dealt with briefly and harshly. As the wildest excesses of the West started to quiet down and its low-hanging fruit became more scarce, nice ladies from back East began to arrive by means of the new railroads. Lawyers replaced gunmen and so the Old West gave way to the onrushing twentieth century.

Calamity Jane Belle Starr

Cooper doesn't look ill on this film, although he must have been in pain. He died of prostate cancer. One winces in the first minutes when he plops himself down on a bleached wooden step. He was visited in the hospital by his friend Ernest Hemingway, to whom he joked: "I bet I'll beat you to the barn." (And he did, though not by much.) A nice, modest guy.

Gary Cooper (1901 - 1961)