Any Gary Cooper Fans?

[Senta]

Returned from France at the beginning of the week, but my Internet doesn't work for some technical reasons.

I found the place in Paris where y9u can purchase some Gary |Cooper photos in Jeoffrua Passage at BLV Monmartre quite near the Grevin museum. I bough some - I shall scan and post later. This I received from e-bay.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a200/vera3rus/manfromwoyming1.jpg

[Senta]

has the rules of posting images changed lately? I did exactly as before and ther is only yhje link, not a picture.

[MissGoddess]

Welcome back, Vera? How was my beloved Paris?

 

Beautiful picture!

 

I think the rules for picture posting are the same---are you sure you followed all the steps?

[Senta]

Of course I forgot about formula!!!

The Paris is enchanting as ever.

To remaind you how it is a few pics.

Unfortunatly I don't make the picture better. I take this photos at the beginning of the August the end was rather cool with some rain.

But you know I'm returning to France in a couple of days. I simply can resist the trip with travelling all over France with more then 20 sights to visit (you know I'm working as a guide but enjoying my work a lot).

Do you know have Gary ever visited Daueville? There is American film festival there.

I received lately very nice photos but didn't scan them yet.

Hope to do it before I leave.

[MissGoddess]

Beautiful pictures, Vera! So you actually are a guide? How wonderful! On my last trip to Paris (in June) I explored some of the chateaux in the Loire, one of the few times I've had the chance to see the countryside in that part of France. I'm usually either in Paris or in the south of France. I want to explore more of the other parts.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Gary had been to Deauville, he certainly was in Paris several times.

[coopsgirl]

Those are gorgeous pics Vera! You're a good photographer . I love Paris and I had a chance to go to one of the chateaus in the Loire valley when I was there last in 2001 that I had wanted to see for several years: Chenonceau.

 

 

It was just like something out of a fairy tale and it was well worth the wait to see it

[Senta]

Thank you for the nice comments April and Angie,

I'm happy to go to France once more. In this trip we shall visit not only Paris but abuot 20 places in the whole! Normandy, Brittany, Loire valley (with Chenonso of course, it is a dream castle created by women I agree with you Angie and it is even better then in the pictures) Burgundy and Bordaux, we will be at the Atlantic ocean and at the Mideterrian sea. In some places I was before, but in most of them I will be for the first time too.

[Tikisoo]

Thanks Godess & Coopsgirl for the detailed various viewpoints. My brother started showing me Along Came Jones which I enjoyed very much. In fact, I'm taking it home for a more concentrated viewing. According to the packaging, Coop produced it. It's MGM property too.

 

Why don't we ever hear of it more often?

[coopsgirl]

Gary was a good businessman and when he was offered the opportunity to have a share in the International Pictures production company, he took it. Their first film was Cassanova Brown starring Gary and Teresa Wright which is also available on dvd and it?s a cute comedy. He did produce Along Came Jones which was rare in those days and it was his only foray into that side of the business. He didn?t particularly enjoy it b/c he had to be tough with people and he was a nice guy and also didn?t like dealing with the headaches involved in keeping a production running smoothly. He did a great job though and the film was a success. He and the other owners of International Pictures sold it to Universal not long after Along Came Jones was released and they turned quite a nice profit on it.

[hlywdkjk]

Gosh. I thought I'd check in here and read what everyone thought about *The Wedding Night* which TCM showed last night. Didn't anyone catch it? It's a movie I know nothing about.

 

Kyle In Hollywood

--------------------------

"Oohh, I bought a goat and his name was Jack. But he got homesick

so I had to give him ba-a-a-ack"

*F.McGee.*

[CelluloidKid]

*I found this article thought I would pass it along! Enjoy!*

 

 

*Ava and Gary Couldn't Be Here Tonight to Accept ...*

 

 

Posted on: Friday, 29 August 2008

 

By MAL VINCENT

 

*_AVA GARDNER and Gary Cooper won top acting honors as the Naro Expanded Cinema's highly successful festival of classic movies came to a close with the audience voting in a party mood. The festival, programmed and hosted by your Virginian-Pilot film and theater critic, me, is in its fifth year; this is the third year in which awards were presented._*

 

Designed to support classic movies and to provide an alternative to the current commercial bookings, the series of seven screenings drew more than 3,000 ticketbuyers with some sellouts that forced the theater to turn away as many as 75 people. The Naro seats 530 patrons and is one of the few movie "palaces" left on the East Coast.

 

Co-owner Tom Vourlas presented the award for the festival's most popular film, "Mogambo," a 1953 romantic comedy-drama filmed in Africa and co-starring Gardner with Clark Gable and Grace Kelly.

 

"It was very close," Vourlas said. "Both 'Mogambo' and the opener, 'The Philadelphia Story,' were total sellouts, but we had more turn-aways for 'Mogambo,' so that breaks the tie."

 

Gardner, a native of Smithfield, N.C., who went to high school in Newport News, won the best-actress vote by a wide margin. She played Honey Bear Kelly, a party girl marooned in Africa who competes with Kelly for the attentions of Gable. The role also netted her an Academy Award nomination. It was her first nomination in the local festival.

 

The win set off a celebration at the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield, N.C., the day afterward, where museum Director Angela Lawson said, "When you think about it, this may be the last award Ava wins. She won a film festival award in Spain for 'Night of the Iguana,' but this one is particularly nice because it was voted on by the audience." The museum director had attended the screening of "Mogambo" in Norfolk.

 

The other nominees in the best-actress race were Jean Seberg in "Bonjour Tristesse" (1958), who received a surprising amount of support; Katharine Hepburn in "The Philadelphia Story" (1940), who received surprisingly little support; Melina Mercouri in "Topkapi" (1964); and Jean Arthur in "Shane" (1953).

 

*Cooper won the best-actor award for playing Sheriff Will Kane, a man who stood against the odds in the classic Western "High Noon." The other nominees were James Stewart and Cary Grant, both in "The Philadelphia Story"; David Niven in "Bonjour Tristesse"; and Alan Ladd in "Shane." In political-convention style the audience demanded that Gable ("Mogambo") and Timothy Bottoms ("The Last Picture Show") also be included in the vote.*

 

The closest race of the night was in the supporting-actor category, won by Ben Johnson for his performance in "The Last Picture Show" (1971). The win was a narrow one over Peter Ustinov in "Topkapi." Other nominees were Jack Palance and Brandon De Wilde, both for "Shane," and Jeff Bridges for "Picture Show."

 

A popular winner as supporting actress was Cloris Leachman for "The Last Picture Show." She won over her co-stars, Ellen Burstyn and Cybill Shepherd, as well as Katy Jurado for "High Noon" (1952) and Kelly for "Mogambo."

 

While introducing the film, I noted that five members of "The Last Picture Show" cast had worked in Norfolk and Virginia Beach in film or theater roles. I also noted that most of the nominees could not be there Monday night for a very good reason. They are dead.

 

Bonnie Primm of Norfolk accepted for Gardner, giving thanks to Frank Sinatra. Local actor Gary Ball accepted for Cooper and got laughs when he also thanked Frank Sinatra. Ed Brickell, former superintendent of Virginia Beach City Public Schools, accepted for Johnson and quipped that "the hardest thing about the role was rolling those cigarettes." Johnson played a homespun Texan.

 

Having programmed the films, I was gratified to see the long lines down Colley Avenue each Monday night for the past seven weeks. One patron said she drove 50 miles to see "Picture Show" because "it won't ever be shown in a theater again." Another said he cut short his London vacation to return to Norfolk for the screenings of the two Westerns.

 

Vourlas said that the festival proved there is an audience for classic films and that, consequently, the theater plans to periodically show classic films, such as upcoming bookings of "Some Like it Hot" and "West Side Story."

 

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347

 

mal.vincent@pilotonline.com

 

Originally published by BY MAL VINCENT.

 

© 2008 Virginian - Pilot. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All rights Reserved.

[coopsgirl]

Hi Kyle!

 

I thought it was cool that TCM was showing *The Wedding Night* since it?s not one of Gary?s films that gets shown very often. It was released on dvd in ?07 so most of us here have seen it. I hope a lot of people got to see it (even though it was on very late/early) b/c it is a very good film. I thought Anna Sten did a fine job but apparently audiences just didn?t take to her. Sam Goldwyn thought she would be a huge star and since it didn?t work out she was known as Goldwyn?s folly. It?s been suggested that she was a victim of hype and that may be true. He built her image up long before she made any Hollywood films as he groomed her for about a year after signing her (mostly teaching her English). Her first three movies for Goldwyn flopped with *The Wedding Night* being her last for him and by far the most successful out of the bunch even though it didn?t do great. She made a few more films in the late 30s/40s but that was about it.

 

Seeing her in the *The Wedding Night*, I thought she was fine so I?m inclined to believe she was hyped up so much that she just couldn?t live up to it and it wasn?t necessarily a lack of talent on her part, but possibly unreachable expectations on the part of the audience. Either way I enjoyed this film and also liked the fact that it had a realistic ending. Had it been made in the pre-code years, I can see it turning out quite differently but I don?t think that would have made it a better film. Tragedies seem to stick in your mind more. Shakespeare is a good example of that as his tragedies are far more well known today that his historical or comical plays.

 

I have the pressbook kit for this movie that would have gone to theater operators and it?s interesting that nearly all the info and articles in it are focused on Gary and there?s not much devoted to Anna. I wonder if by the time this film was released, they decided to pull back the hype on her a little and focus more on him since he was a big star by that time. One of the promotional gimmicks they had going was to give 8x10s of Gary to movie goers, again no mention of any giveaways involving Anna. That does make sense though as the audience for this pick would have probably been mostly women and I know I?d rather have a pic of Gary than Anna .

[coopsgirl]

*Gary and Claudette Colbert - 1938*

 

 

*Gary and Lili Palmer clowning around on Cloak and Dagger set*

 

[MissGoddess]

In *Theresa's* honor, I found a couple of Along Came Jones still photos:

 

[MissGoddess]

Along Came Jones

[MissGoddess]

And one for good measure:

 

[coopsgirl]

Great pics April!!

 

John sent me an article from a Toronto paper that had an interview with Viggo Mortensen who stars in the new Western *Appaloosa* that is playing at the Toronto International Film Festival now and will be released in October. Viggo mentions how great he thought *High Noon* and *Man of the West* were and he also specifically mentioned Gary?s name so that?s cool. John thinks either Viggo (who is 49 so he would be around the right age) or Hugh Jackman would be good choices for the *High Noon* remake if it has to happen. He?s friends with one of the producers, Chris Mitchum (Robert Mitchum?s son) and he has actually tried to convince him that a remake would be a bad idea. Chris told him they still don?t have a script and John said in his email that he hoped they never would (he didn?t say that to Chris, that would be funny but rude ). I?m sure we all agree with him on that sentiment.

 

I?m not sure it would do well anyway b/c the trend for years has been the so-called ?good guys? must have some type of dysfunction, usually pretty severe like a drug/alcohol addiction, etc. Will Kane is not a dysfunctional character. We don?t know a lot about him but from what we see of him, he?s a pretty normal, good guy. Also unusual for a film of that era, we never see him drink or smoke. Not even one shot when he goes into the saloon to try and round up a posse. I would think for a modern remake they?d probably make him edgier and that just wouldn?t be right. The whole point is he?s a good guy who does the right thing because it?s the right thing to do. If you start throwing issues in there like he?s a recovering alcoholic or something, I think it takes away from the heroic nature of the character. Maybe I?m wrong and it will be a pretty straight remake. If that?s the case however then it?s really a waste of film since that is quite unnecessary.

[MissGoddess]

They would definitely make his character darker if the movie gets made, no such positive concept of

a hero would play anymore today. It's sad.

 

Here's some more pics I found:

 

The Adventures of Marco Polo

[MissGoddess]

Blending in with the locals in The Adventures of Marco Polo:

[MissGoddess]

The Adventures of Marco Polo

[MissGoddess]

I like this one from The Adventures of Marco Polo

[coopsgirl]

Those are great pics, the quality is just wonderful . Normally, I don't like guys with longish hair (I did when I was in high school but thankfully my tastes have changed), but it looks nice on Gary in *Marco Polo* and *The Plainsman*. Of course, he could wear a grass skirt and a pair of those oversized novelty sunglasses and I would probably laud his keen fashion sense .

 

Actually, the only thing that I don't think looked good on him was plaid. I'm not really sure why but it just didn't look right on him.

 

 

Clearly, he still looks good here, so I guess I'm contradicting my own self. Let's just say he really never looked bad in anything but he looked a little less good in plaid - ha!

[TripleHHH]

My next Gary Cooper movie will be

Beau Geste ..

thoughts anyone ?

[MissGoddess]

> {quote:title=TripleHHH wrote:}{quote}

> My next Gary Cooper movie will be

> Beau Geste ..

> thoughts anyone ?

 

It's a very exciting adventure film by director William Wellman, you really can't go wrong

especially if you like that genre. Brian Donlevy is excellent as the "heavy" and ending

is quite moving. I haven't seen it myself in a while but I remember liking it more than

Gunga Din, to which it might compare.

[butterscotchgreer]

*april, dahlink!!!!*

 

wow! talk about an adrenalin rush early in the morning. heehee! i love those two pictrue of my Melody Jones! thank you, thank you, thank you!! thats a wonderful birthday present! i wont stop smiling today now.