Any Gary Cooper Fans?

[coopsgirl]

*I can not see how even Angie could find any fault in the colorization for this film.*

 

Oh yes I can - ha! Seriously though it's the same issue I have with all colorized films. The skin tone just does not look natural. In that one close up of Donna Reed, her hair, eyes and lips looked good but the skin just is not a real skin color. The b+w version looked great though.

[CoopsGal]

Clara Bow helped Cooper get a leading role in Children of Divorce which she felt would give him a more romantic aura and enhance their public image. "We'll go places and do things together," she told him. "We'll become an 'item.' " But the still-inexperienced Cooper, who had played tiny parts as a cowboy and war hero, was not ready to abandon his own character and become a New York smoothie -- a witty and spoiled society boy, serious about love but reluctant to marry. Horribly miscast, agonizing shyness. Unlike most creative people, who work in solitude and silence, actors have to perform in front of a crowd. "I couldn't make love to a girl with a camera snooping at me," he rather naively said. "It just didn't seem decent, especially with a girl I hardly knew."

Hedda Hopper, who was then an actress and appeared in the film, remembered the first day of shooting as the most painful performance she had ever witnessed: "the set was my swank Park Avenue apartment . The characters were super-sophisticated Manhattan youths merrily going to hell. The scene was a cocktail party and Gary's job, of all things, was to breeze into the room and make the rounds from one flapper to another, sipping champagne out of their glasses, cadging a nonchalant puff from their cigarettes, and tossing sophisticated wisecracks as he strolled along.... He was a New York man about town, the script read, yet only a few months before he'd been riding the range in Montana. " Completely unnerved, Cooper spilled champagne on Clara for twenty-three straight takes. He turned the sophisticated drama into a slapstick debacle and almost finished his film career.

 

Esther Ralston, the other leading lady, spent an entire day filming her love scenes with Cooper and had to re-shoot them because he seemed to amateur. As he lost confidence, became nervous, hesitated and forgot his lines, the director, Frank Lloyd, said he couldn't work with him any longer. Cooper was taken off the picture and replaced with a new leading man. Deeply distressed by his own ineptitude, by the trouble he was causing on the set and by the hostility of the director, Cooper suddenly disappeared on a "solitary walk" in the wilds. Three days later he was found, unshaven and exhausted, in a Hollywood restaurant.

When the replacement didn't work out, B.P. Schulberg rehired Cooper -- who'd been ready to leave Hollywood but was willing to finish the picture -- and asked Ralston to give him as much help as possible. " 'I know he can't act now,' said Mr. Schulberg. 'But I am sure he's got a face -- something unusual. He just needs experience. If you'd just work with him, Ester, be nice to him, make a friend of him.' Conscious of my newlywed status, I said hesitatingly, 'Just what did you have in mind?' Miss Loring [the scenarist] spoke up. 'You see, dear, Gary is so stiff in the love scenes, as though he was afraid to touch you for fear you'd break. Take him to lunch, Esther, talk to him. I'm sure you can make him feel more at ease.' "

His confidence restored by his rehiring, Cooper made significant improvement. This time round the director was replaced by the eminent Josef von Sternberg. He remade Lloyd's version at night, in order to accommodate the actors who had moved to their next picture, and Lloyd got screen credit for the work von Sternberg had done. Cooper was saved not only by the superior artistry of von Sternberg, but also by the perception of Schulberg, who recognized his talent and saw a way to use it.

 

Cooper -- in the midst of his affair with Bow -- appears in only one brief scene of Wings. Wearing a pilot's cap and goggles, a long leather coat and high polished boots, he plays an experienced flier. He shares a training camp tent with two new cadets, Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen, the stars of the film. Combining boyish charm with manly swagger (he doesn't carry a good luck charm), and looping his fingers in his belt as he speaks, Cooper says: "Guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other." He's a hero to the two recruits, who give him a candy bar in a childish gesture of admiration. Taking a quick bite of the chocolate, he throws it aside and says he has to "do a flock of figure eights before chow." In a striking close-up, he stares at the two cadets with intense beacon-like eyes and nonchalantly utters his last words: "Luck or no luck, when your time comes, you're going to get it." As he takes off on a routine test flight, his plane throws a shadow on the ground. After his unseen crash and the rush of the ambulance, the camera focuses on the half-eaten chocolate and on the faces that reflect the drama of his death. It's astonishing that Cooper -- without speaking a word and in less than two minutes -- would, by his mere physical presence, his charm, charisma and devil-may-care attitude, make such a powerful impact. At that crucial moment a major film star was born.

 

Wings clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR1qw9Yr_6I

 

The director William Wellman, like the scriptwriter John Monk Saunders and the actor Richard Arlen, had been a flier during the war. After rehearsing Cooper in his hotel suite the night before shooting, he printed the first take and thanked him for his impressive performance. Cooper, unaware of the effect he had achieved, and more concerned about controlling every gesture, asked if he could play the scene again. Wellman said: " 'You don't know what you're doing. I do. I see it. I know it was good. It was great, or I wouldn't have printed it.' He said, "Well, in the middle of the scene I picked (i.e., touched) my nose.' I said, 'Listen, you son of a [blank], you keep right on picking your nose and you'll pick your nose right into a fortune.' "

During the filming of Wings Cooper stayed in San Antonio to be with Bow and formed close friendships with Rogers and Arlen. Rogers, soon to be surpassed by Cooper, emphasized that he was "super quiet" and later said: "We didn't consider him a great actor, but his strong personality made him a star." He also recalled that the three companions, anxious about the nerve-racking transition to talkies, "made a pact to protect the one of us that we figured would turn out not to have a voice; the other two would give him a certain segment of our salaries until he could find something else to do." Errol Flynn, another companion, gave a lively account of their boyish adventures at sea: "Dick Arlen took Gary Cooper and Jack Oakie for a fishing trip on the Joby R. and Oakie arrived in what might be the Esquire's idea of Patagonian Rear Admirals Coronation uniform.... The two enraged, dungareed players dumped him overside and towed him around the harbor.... Jack Moss, Gary's three-hundred-pound manager, fell in after a yellow-tail and, despite his indignant denials, had to be hauled back aboard with the power winch."

 

Excerpt from "Gary Cooper - American Hero."

 

I'm finally going to sit down and read this; I'll take what I can from it and leave the other junk alone.

[CoopfanDan]

Hi Angie, It really is an issue of guys colorizing movies for guys. The bad skin tones you and other women see are not seen by us guys. I can garantee that the people doing these colorizations of movies are in fact 100 percent men. In fact not a single guy including the guy at dvdbeaver had anything bad to say about the colorization process for It's a wonderful Life. My main problem with the colorization of My Man Godfrey was a contrast issue I believe with the faces being too white. I liked watching the black and white version to that movie. I am in fact still an extreme black and white original supporter. These color versions of classics are just diversions for me and nothing else. I never want to see the original black and white versions to any film go out of print ever.

[MissGoddess]

News that Gary Cooper fans may very well dread to read:

 

High Noon to be Remade:

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i912733953e3c9d9e4f96854dc9778fbe

[coopsgirl]

*High Noon to be Remade*

 

That is not how I wanted to start my day. I don't even know what to say. I do know that I could feel my face get hot as I read that and it wasn't out of excitment. Some movies should just be left alone b/c no one could improve upon them. *High Noon* is very high on that list. I know a lot of people say stuff like remakes can bring publicity for the original but when they bomb as they nearly always do, might that not also put people off the original?

 

This is wrong for so many reasons. The film was perfect for b+w which gave it a very stark and bleak look. It won't look right in color. There's is no way on God's green earth they find someone to do even half a good a job as Gary. Will they add more violence (as the original actually has very little) and sex/love scenes as it seems you can't make movies anymore without gratuitius sex and violence in them? The original running time is around 80 minutes. That's short for nowadays so they will most likely add filler scenes to pad it out which is probably where we'll get the additional sex/violence.

 

Man, I'm just really upset about this. There's only one possible good thing I can think that might come of this. John and MODA made a new documentary about the original and were going to release it on a disc with the movie but the company that own the movie lost the rights to release it in the U.S. If the movie is remade maybe the rights can be attained and the doc could be released.

 

I think the only movies of his that might be safe from remakes are *Sgt. York* and *Friendly Persuasion* and that's only b/c of the Christian elements and Hollywood won't touch that with a ten foot pole.

[coopsgirl]

There was a 2000 made for TV movie remake of *High Noon* starring Tom Skerritt and here's some comments from imdb.com.

 

There is nothing to Say for this film. This is a pathetic , not even appreciated effort to create a replica of an old story and a silver screen success of past giants such as actor Gary Cooper and director Fred Zinneman. Ther is not much to comment about the acting, either- this one is certainly lifeless. Had not the original 1952 version been made and this one was the first to be created with the same title and plot,no impact would even be made on movie goers (or TV observers in this case). It lacks in-depth struggle between the good and the bad, the personal dilemma's the 1952 contained and leaves absolutely no social message....waste of time, switch over to the next channel...

 

Comparing this movie to its predecessor is unfair but unavoidable. What I so liked about the old version was how much Gary Cooper loathed violence and how he was left completely isolated to face a duel on his own. None of this showed in this new version and sort of left it without much purpose. That said, I really think Tom Skerrit did a great job acting what was left of Will Kane's character.

 

Remaking a classic is always a tricky proposition, especially when the classic is so well known and has such a singular style of its own. The original HIGH NOON isn't just a story. It's also the excellent cast, the use of camera, and of course Tiomkin's score that acts like a Greek chorus commenting on the action.

The remake's cast labors nobly to recreate the story, but the camera work and score are missing. For example, the famous crane shot showing Will Kane absolutely alone on the dusty street is not there. It isn't essential, but that shot is part of what makes the original HIGH NOON what it is as a classic. In addition, while the score does express the moods, it is nevertheless conventional.

It was an interesting effort, but of necessity it fails in comparison to the original.

 

 

Most of the comments were like this. Many pointed out how the actors did a fair to good job but the emotion and tone of the original was lacking.

[MissGoddess]

I can see Hollywood producers being intrigued by the [original story] because the man alone facing down the bad guy (and his past) is a timeless theme. However, to simply remake the movie is to me a waste of time. The original is one of those timeless classics known by the whole world, even people who are not Cooper fans. Redoing what was done perfectly makes no sense to me. Now, if they just use the basic storyline as a starting point and make something entirely different out of it, then I can live with it. But don't call it High Noon.

[coopsgirl]

Great stuff Kim! Here's some of my faves snippets from that book.

 

*"I couldn't make love to a girl with a camera snooping at me," he rather naively said. "It just didn't seem decent, especially with a girl I hardly knew."*

 

He was a such a sweetie!

 

*Completely unnerved, Cooper spilled champagne on Clara for twenty-three straight takes. He turned the sophisticated drama into a slapstick debacle and almost finished his film career.*

 

Man I would love to see some of the outtakes from that. It's probably not so much funny as just pitiful watching someone who would become such a great actor bumble nervously around.

 

*Esther Ralston, the other leading lady, spent an entire day filming her love scenes with Cooper and had to re-shoot them because he seemed to amateur.*

 

Wow! Nice work if you can get it :x .

[butterscotchgreer]

oh my goodness angie, sis!! my mother had to go and burst my bubble about clara bow. she was looking through one of the books on her at the library, and read that she was a nymphomaniac. i just cant believe tyhat our clara bow would sleep around like that!!!! i really didnt want to hear that, and i have lots of her movies too. i would actually like to see all of her movies, but i am going to choose not to see that.

[coopsgirl]

I figured you already knew that about Clara. She was a jazz baby in every sense of the word. She drank, gambled and slept around something fierce. Don't know how true this is but in the *Last Hero* book it told about how Clara met Gary for the first time at a party and she took him home that night. I've also read about how in therapy sessions later in her life while she was being treated for Schizophrenia she remembered being raped by her father when she was young. Sometimes inadvertantly (or on purpose) therapist can put stuff like that in people's heads so I also don't know if that was true but it could explain the rampant sexual behavior which can be typical of people who were sexually abused as kids. I don't think she would have had the problem with gambling if the studio or somebody had been looking out for her more. She was in her teens and early 20's when she hit it big and her family did a poor job of raising her so that didn't help any. When she would get in debt from gambling the studio would float her more money but instead they should have been trying to put a stop to it since she was so young.

 

People also took advantage of her like her best friend and assistant Daisy Devoe. She was embezzelling money from her and when Clara sued her, Daisy turned on her and spilled all her dirty laundry in court. Quite a bit of it was embellished too like Clara having sex with all the members of the USC football team at a party one night which didn't happen. The stories were then published and many fans and Hollywood people turned against her even though many of them were doing the same things.

 

It's funny too b/c the parts she played in many of her movies often mirrored her real life exploits. In *True to the Navy* (1930) she has several boyfriends she is stringing along b/c they are never in port at the same time. In *No Limit* (1931) she lives at a house where there's a gambling den and she gambles in the movie. In *It* she is the sexual aggressor chasing after the guy she wants. All this was fine with the public until it came out that she really did have lots of boyfriends and liked to gamble, etc...

 

It's just a sad story b/c she really seems to have been a nice person who just didn't have a very good upbringing and sometimes went down the wrong roads. She liked to stay at home and play cards with her household staff and never looked down at people b/c she had literally come from the slums and never thought she was above anyone. She would also go out of her way to help others in her movies whether it was acting help or needing a little money. For the film Saturday Night Kid (1929) she was supposed to wear this gorgeous dress in one scene that they had made for her. But she had gained some weight and it didn't fit her anymore. So she offered to give it to an upstart actress also in the picture so it would make her stand out. That girl was Jean Harlow.

[butterscotchgreer]

you know, she was one of the few actresses i hadnt read her bio of quite yet, but i really wanted to get around to it. now i really dont want to read her bio, other than to read what she has to say about gary if anything. i still really love her in the movies though(the goody ones anyway. heehee), she was amazing as an actress!

oh banana oil! every time i leave the house i mean to scan those pics i have of her for , but i always froget. i promise i will get aorund to it. i will put them on my dresser and scan them on thursday so i dont forget k. heehee!

[coopsgirl]

I'm definitely gonna read the book *Runnin' Wild* by David Stenn. It's supposed to the best and most accurate book about her.

 

Here's a really good critique of the book from a commenter at amazon.com.

 

This is an excellent thorough look at one of the most fascinating moviestars of early cinema, Clara Bow. Instead of writing a highly sensationalised account, Mr. Stenn uses a lot of solid research and facts, not rehashing and keeping alive the same old trashy rumors and character assassinations. He even disproves the most infamous urban legend of them all, the one about Clara and the USC football team. What does emerge is the portrait of a very sad vulnerable tragic person. Clara came from dirt-poor Brooklyn roots, with mental illness running in her family, moving often in childhood, picked on by her peers and terribly abused at home. And like many abused children, she made excuses for it, believing they did it for her own good, that it was in her own best interest that her mother tried to kill her, that her father often beat her and once raped her. Her luck really began changing when she went west and broke into movies, after winning a local talent contest at the age of sixteen, and for a time enjoyed a semblance of happiness. However, her career began to decline in the early Thirties after a number of scandals (contrary to another urban legend, it wasn't really because of the coming of sound, although she did have a terrible case of microphone-phobia), and she finally left Paramount, feeling it in her own best interest. During this time, she married Rex Bell, who for a time provided her with a very happy secure life, as well as the two sons she adored and tried to be the ideal mother to. However, her past caught up with her and she eventually had to go to a number of doctors and psychiatrists, falling victim to the same schizophrenia that her mother and other female relatives had suffered from, and died at the relatively young age of sixty.

 

It would be too easy for a biographer to paint a picture of Clara as a sleazy party-crazy bed-hopping woman of loose morals and ill repute who just got lucky, but Mr. Stenn instead paints a picture of a woman who was just a sweet scared vulnerable person who never really had a childhood, who just wanted love, security, and acceptance, and tried to get it in all of the wrong ways. She deserved so much better than abusive parents, a manager who exploited her, a studio that rarely put her in anything but predictable formula pictures instead of more serious dramatic roles, a press that repeatedly made up disgusting allegations against her (whether of a sexual nature or not), people who still believe these ridiculous stories that were manufactured decades ago, and a society that didn't fully understand the schizophrenia she suffered from, the disease that fully began showing itself after she was no longer acting.

[MissGoddess]

This article ends with the question the American Film Market principals should have started with: "Can anyone fill Gary Cooper's shoes?"

 

http://www.bww.cinematical.com/2007/11/06/high-noon-is-getting-a-remake/

[butterscotchgreer]

i have heard of that bio of clara, and that is actually the one i wanted to get and read, im debating over it now, oh i might as well just to see what their perspective on her is.

[MissGoddess]

To vent my spleen over the news about the remake of High Noon I've been flooding my Western Gallery thread with Coop images. I came across this one and it's really playing with my mind.

 

[FrankGrimes]

Really?? I DIDN'T NOTICE.

[MissGoddess]

This one too!

 

[MissGoddess]

You [always] seem to notice things like that, Frankie Furter.

[FrankGrimes]

Frankie Furter

 

That's ButterscotchGreer's name for me. Use one of your own. On second thought, you better not. I prefer not to see red.

[butterscotchgreer]

that's right frankie you tell her, thats my name for you. heehee......just kidding april!!

[MissGoddess]

I've got a few names for Mr Burns from Oregon, but I'll keep them to myself until I've read the reviews for Peter Ibbetson, The Fountainhead, They Came to Codura and about a dozen other movies. How about, "The Late Mr. Burns from Oregon"?

[FrankGrimes]

I've got a few names for Mr Burns from Oregon, but I'll keep them to myself until I've read the reviews for Peter Ibbetson, The Fountainhead, They Came to Codura and about a dozen other movies. How about, "The Late Mr. Burns from Oregon"?

 

 

That's two. So how sure are you that I'm Mr. Burns? How's that saying go again? Something about a cat and lives? Yeah, you better make sure.

 

So what's the Coop forecast for tomorrow, Miss G(lacier)? Will it be sunny or will it pour? Do you sense any storms?

 

 

 

HI, SUPER SWEET TEA! -- I can always count on you to cheer me up. Don't worry about that icy blonde. She'll keep her distance from you because your kindness will cause her to melt. She doesn't want that to happen.

[MissGoddess]

Do you think the resurrected Mr Grimes will be any better at fulfilling his promises?

 

[MissGoddess]

This was posted in my thread under "Hot Topics" about the High Noon remake:

 

CR Studios is doing its part to preserve the memories of the original - we will be releasing the first-ever original soundtrack CD next month

 

Here's the link to their website, and guess what music is playing:

 

http://www.chelsearialtostudios.com/

[coopsgirl]

That's cool about the *High Noon* soundtrack. I love the pics too of Gary with Barbara and Ruth Roman. I have the one with him and Barb but hadn't seen the one from *Dallas*. It's my desktop now . I'm noticing a bondage theme (ha!) but hey I'm not complaining .