Any Gary Cooper Fans?

[cashette]

Hi Dan, "Night Nurse" is on my list of movies to tape in December. "Shopworn" will be shown on TCM next month, and it is one of the few Barbara Stanwyck movies that I haven`t seen. How stupid to read that a remake of "High Noon" is in the future. Doesn`t anybody learn from previous fiascos, what a waste of time and money it will be. "High Noon" is former president Bill Clinton`s favorite movie too. I have all the AFI 100 Years Series on tape, and I remember what he said about the movie.

[coopsgirl]

Gary and William Powell in the late 20s/early 30s.

 

[CoopsGal]

I know I've posted this before, but I came across this picture again and thought I'd post it for those who hadn't seen it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gary wanted to name it "Tallulah" but Paramount said no because they already had Tallulah (Bankhead) under contract there. So he named it "Toluca"

 

 

 

(Directly from the Article in the early 30's):

"The name of Gary Cooper's chimpanzee has certainly caused a riot of discussion! Half of Hollywood claims it's Tallulah and the other half bets on Toluca. Here's the low-down, as reported to us. Gary called it Tallulah but the publicity department at Paramount (where Miss Bankhead and Mr. Cooper both work) thought that not so hot and rechristened the animal Toluca. Oh me! Oh my!"

[butterscotchgreer]

goodness frankiefurter! it took me half an hour to read all that, plus totally focusing on all the glorious pics of gary. man! i have watched this movie too many times.....wait! can you watch

Peter Ibbetson too many times? nah! heehee! now ill never leave the computer, b/c im too busy focusing on him.

[MissGoddess]

Thanks Kim & Angie for the pix---I especially love the one with Bill Powell. Having two of my favorites together like that is knocking me out. I don't know if I'll be able to pick myself up to read the late Mr Grimes' treatise on Peter Ibbetson.

 

[butterscotchgreer]

you can try to pick yourself up april, but i tried that already and kept falling down again. heehee!

 

 

oh yes i love that will powell pic with gary. eye candy extreme. heehee!

 

Message was edited by: butterscotchgreer

[coopsgirl]

Well that was well worth waiting for Frank. I think that's the best review I've ever read of *Peter Ibbetson*. Thank goodness there aren't many people at work this early so nobody saw me crying in my cube. I was absolutely stunned the first time I saw *PI* b/c like I said a while back I didn't know anything about it. The opening scene with the kids had me absolutely hooked and in tears as I was again at the end. It's the only film where Gary dies and I'm okay with it b/c it means he and Mary can be together forever and truly be free to be in love.

 

If only people put as much effort into movies today as was put into this one, there would be a lot more films worth seeing. The dialogue is brilliant and beautiful, the cinematography is some of the best I've ever seen, and the story is just wonderful. Peter and Mary remind me a lot of Cathy and Heathcliff from *Wuthering Heights* which is one of my favorite novels. Cathy and Healthcliff fall in love as children but are never able to be together. The exercpt below is my favorite part of the book. Cathy has decided to marry Edgar Linton, their rich neighbor. Heathcliff was just a homeless child their father brought home and as such he has no money or social standing. By Cathy marrying Edgar, she plans to use some of his wealth to help Heathcliff. Also she is a young somewhat spoiled girl and doesn't think it would be socially acceptable to marry Heathcliff. She's explaining to Nelly (her guardian and a worker in their house) why she's marrying Edgar. Remember, this is set in 1800s England where class and standing was still a huge part of the culture.

 

"It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he?s handsome, Nelly, but because he?s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and [Edgar?s] is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.

 

My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and HE remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. - My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I AM Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."

 

Finally in death Cathy and Heathcliff are together like Peter and Mary.

 

I'm reposting the link to a *Peter Ibbetson* slideshow I made in case you missed it. I used the song *Marble Halls* that's being sung in the background at the party scene where Mary decides she wants Peter to stay. It's a beautiful song that I had loved for years before I saw the movie and it's about a dream so it's very fitting for that film.

 

 

 

I love both the film *PI* and the book *Wuthering Heights* b/c they are about true love and I want to believe that it's out there and sometimes people really do find it.

[MissGoddess]

That really brought tears to my eyes, Frank---it was like watching it all over again with someone who really understood it. I'm so glad we have your thoughts on *Peter Ibbetson* in this thread because it adds immeasurably to our inexhaustible discussion of Gary Cooper and his films and anytime someone shows interest in seeing P.I., I will direct them here and to your post.

 

*Peter Ibbetson* is a really remarkable movie in many ways and especially so for director Henry Hathaway. I can't think of another one he did that comes close to its spirit. Or by any director. It is alot like *Portrait of Jennie* and it feels at times like a Borzage movie, too. But we can't leave out the source of its spirit, which is the novel by Gerald Du Maurier. This film is incredibly faithful to the book in almost every detail.

 

 

A timeless movie about everlasting love---a visual love feast for romantics.

 

So, are we going to have to call you "Peter" now that "Mimsey" has resurrected you?

[MissGoddess]

Angie, I like the connection you pointed out between [Wuthering Heights] and Peter Ibbetson. You even quoted my favorite lines from WH ("he's more myself than I am")...I've always felt profoundly moved by Cathy's declarations here. I, too, believe that it can happen that way---that two people can be so "one", so tightly bound as to know eachother's thoughts and share their dreams in one way or another. But it takes faith not to let the world and its thunder wreck that belief.

[coopsgirl]

The more I think about it the more similar Peter and Heathcliff are. Both stand out from the people around them; Peter b/c of his attitude towards life and Heathcliff b/c of his appearance. I don't know how Peter is described in the book version but in Wuthering Heights we're told that Heathcliff is quite handsome and has dark features. He has some gypsy blood in him which would definitely make him stand out amongst the very fair people of Northern England. Here's a pic from the 1992 version (my fave and very faithful to the book) starring Ralph Fiennes (one of my fave modern actors) as Heathcliff and Juliette Binoche (also a very good actress) as Cathy.

 

 

They were also both raised by someone other than their birth parents (Peter's raised by an uncle and Heathcliff is raised by Mr. Earnshaw who found him on the streets of Liverpool. Of course there is some speculation that Heathcliff was Earnshaw's illegitmate son but that's a whole 'nuther discussion.) Neither one was raised in a very loving environment either. They're both hopeless romantics too whose girls each marry someone else instead of the men they really love. However they differ greatly in how they deal with losing their true loves. Peter becomes introverted but still seems sweet. Heathcliff on the other hand turns mean and hateful nearly destroying the lives of all those around him.

 

Peter Ibbetson was written nearly 50 years after Wuthering Heights and it makes me wonder if WH was any kind of inspiration for PI.

[MissGoddess]

I sense that the Du Mauriers, Gerald included. have a strange spiritual kinship to the Brontes. They lived in the same part of England when not in London and I'm sure the works of all the Bronte sisters were as well known as their own names to the Du Mauriers. Peter Ibbetson is similar to Wuthering Heights, and *Rebecca* (by Daphne Du Maurier, George's granddaughter) is also similar to Jane Eyre.

 

I've never seen the Ralph Fiennes version, not being a fan of either star. I still prefer the William Wyler version. The music in that version is one of the most romantic scores ever. My only reservation about the movie is that, wonderful as Merle Oberon is in the part, I think Vivien Leigh would have been perfect. She really was "Cathy" in so many ways.

[MissGoddess]

Have any of you seen Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948)? It's also in the same spirit and vein as *Peter Ibbetson* (and Portrait of Jennie). A superlative film, and deeply moving. Here is the imdb.com link with more info:

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0040536/

[c21de]

some Gary Cooper German Movie programs

Distant Drums (1951)

Task Force (1949)

Souls at Sea (1937)

The Hanging Tree (1959)

Ten North Frederick (1958)

Man of the West (1958)

Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Saratoga Trunk (1945)

They Came to Cordura (1959)

 

[butterscotchgreer]

oh wow! angie i didnt know you liked ralph fiennes too!!!! i love hiis movies. heehee! that is too funny. i have only seen part of the version he was in for wuthering heights and must say i thought the parts i saw were brilliant acting done by him. i haveseen the original with larry olivier and thought he and merle oberon were also brilliant in that one. that is very interestingthat you and april werecomparing this movie with Peter. who woulda thought? now i can definitely see where you are coming from. i hadnt really ever thought about it too much, but wow! how you were right!

[coopsgirl]

Those are great!!! I'll try to pick myself up off the floor now - ha!

[MissGoddess]

Thank you so much for those brilliant posters, c21de!! My heart melted to see one from 10 North Frederick...I'm always so moved by Gary's performance in that film. He was robbed of a third Oscar for it!!

[butterscotchgreer]

i just had to save all those pics! they are fantastic!!!

[coopsgirl]

*He was robbed of a third Oscar for it!!*

 

Amen to that!! I watched *A Farewell to Arms* again yesterday and I don't understand why he didn't get a nomination for that one either. He was fantastic in it. He goes from a love 'em and leave 'em guy to so in love with Catherine that he's willing to risk his life just to get back to her. Watching him sit at that table in the little cafe while she's in labor is just gut wrenching. He's just muttering to himself and praying that God will save her and I always gripe to the TV about how he should have at least gotten a nomination.

[MissGoddess]

Yes, Angie, he was marvelous in A Farewell to Arms, (another of this movies that always makes me cry---mostly because of that scene you just described) he brought depth and sensitivity to that character. At least it made the world sit up and take notice that he was an extremely talented actor.

[butterscotchgreer]

i will never understand why he didnt get an oscar nod for a Farewell to Arms. he so incredibly deserved it. and everytime i watch it, i cry my heart out, esp the end. it gets me so flustrated when i think of it and who actually won for that year......wallace beery for The Champ and Fredrick March for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde......can you see the difference? i mean come on! gary should have at least been nominated!

[MissGoddess]

Guess What!!? *Patricia Neal* is scheduled to appear at New York's Film Forum in January for a screening of her movie In Harm's Way....I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo excited!! If she stays for questions, oh boy!! I don't want to be the cause of derailing an Otto Preminger retrospective by taking her off-topic, but I may have shout out that Gary Cooper was the best damn actor in the world. Ha!

[butterscotchgreer]

good for you april! ill be cheering for you!!!!

[MissGoddess]

Thanks, Theresa! I'm just hoping and praying I will be able to get a ticket---things like this can sell out fast. Fortunately, I have a friend who goes there all the time (I think he's a member) and he's the one who first alerted me about the retrospective. I'm hoping if I can't get a ticket he can. He knows Gary is my favorite actor so I'll really apply the pressure. Hee!

 

I wonder if John Mulholland will be attending, it would be lovely to meet him, too.

[butterscotchgreer]

that would be an honor to meet john mullholand. good luck on that april, and i do hope you get a ticket to go. HAVE FUN!!! and dont forget that tiny detail of screaming at the top of your lungs that gary is the best acotr!! heehee

[coopsgirl]

That does sound cool April, I hope you get to go. If you can't muster up the courage to yell it out (I don't think I could - ha!) you should make up a t-shirt or something that says it . Of course I did yell at Ausmus last spring training that he was favorite player and he came over to me and signed my baseball. Still can't believe I had the guts to do it. I had the jelly legs for about 20 minutes after that but man it was great!!!!