Any Gary Cooper Fans?

[butterscotchgreer]

i didnt know they said that about greta too. well it makes sense, i can just see that, but she was a good actress in Ninotchka. i noticed that you liked that movie....i do too!!! but that is the extent of me liking her movies, i have seen a lot of her other real famous ones, and they are okay, but they arent my favs.

 

yeah i knew ingrid said that about gary, especially during For Whom the Bell Tolls, and it makes you wonder why she was so anxious, other than the fact that she had this huge attraction to him, to make more movies with him.

 

that is a very intersting way to put that, "interior", but so true april. gary defintley had all the emotions to show in his face, and you can really see it too, in all his movies. i think it was the same way for greta too. they didnt use their body nearly as much as they expressed themsleves with that emotive characteristic, both of them posessed.

[CoopfanDan]

Hi Theresa, I got the movie you sent me today in the mail of Greer's and will be watching it tonight.

 

I am sure you already know that I am a very big Clinton supporter and rank him as one of the greatest presidents of all time but then again I am a die hard democrat of which I am the extreme minority I think in the war veteran and a born again christian crowd.

[coopsgirl]

*In fact Gary Cooper had at least 30 of the 100 greatest movies ever made all by himself in my view.*

 

You won't get any arguments from me on that. When I first started watching his movies I was just amazed at how much I loved everyone of them. I can't say the same for anyone else. There are lots of other actors and movies I like, but he's the only one that I genuinely love everything he did (except for that one and we all know what it is - ha!). Even genres that I don't typically like such as westerns, war movies, spy movies; if Gary was in it I knew I was gonna watch it and I ended up loving them. I have tried to watch some other westerns and war movies (don't ask me which ones b/c it's just whatever happens to be on TCM at the time ) and they just don't hold my interest. But I betcha if you filmed the same movie with Gary in it, I would love it.

[CoopfanDan]

I liked Garbo in Ninotchka very much, but still think that I enjoyed Bluebeard's eighth wife more. I think Ninotchka would have been a perfect movie with Gary Cooper in it. Here's a quote from John on this from a private email from 3 or 4 months ago. I save all this stuff for future reference.

Also, GC was first choice for Ninotchka, in the role Melvyn Douglas took. Lubitsch really loved GC's acting, as he did Garbo. But GC turned it down because of the poor reception the year before with Lubitsch's Bluebeard's Eighth Wife. I think he was wrong, Bluebeard's was simply ahead of its time.Audiences weren't prepared for GC to be that kind of character.

I don't think Gretta Garbo will ever be my favorite actress and will always like people like Bette Davis, Greer Garson and others more but I think she will become one of my favorites with maybe 5 to 10 actresses that I like more.

[MissGoddess]

I have yet to be quite as enthusiastic as you guys about Bluebeard's Eighth wife, but I think primarily at this point it's simply that I'm not warming to Claudette in this role. I usually love her comedies.

 

As for Garbo's ranking in my "favorite" actresses, she's fairly low in my top ten, but I still rate her as number one as far as ability as a screen actress. To me, she managed to reach the heights of artistry, something I normally don't ascribe to anything related to most motion pictures---and especially from actresses, much as I love them.

[butterscotchgreer]

wow you got it already? that was fast. they dont kid around when they say first class do they? heehee! im glad you got it. i hope you enjoy it, and you were right, it might just become one of your favs of greer and walter's movies together. its real good!!

 

yeah i seem to remember you saying something about you liking clinton. we all hav our favorites. heehee, i dont really have a favorite president, but i looooove lady laura bush. she is my fav first lady and i love reading anythin i can on what she is up to. as you already know, i am a republican, heehee! but that doesnt really matter right now. i dont like judging people by their political beliefs.

[CoopfanDan]

"I have yet to be quite as enthusiastic as you guys about Bluebeard's Eighth wife, but I think primarily at this point it's simply that I'm not warming to Claudette in this role. I usually love her comedies."

So Claudette was in other great comedies other than Bluebeard's Eighth Wife. I don't think she was in any movies with any leading men that I follow as I have only ever seen her in His Woman and Bluebeard's Eighth Wife. Can you name some of the comedies you liked better than Bluebeard or other movies. I may want to rent them out some time.

 

I did record Boom Town with clark Gable but havn't watched it yet. I don't think that was a comedy though. Pretty much unless I go out in search of an actress' movie I only get to see them in movies that had Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Ronald Colman, Clark Gable, Bogart ect in them. Oh and I did see It Happened One Night so I guess if it didn't have Cooper in Gable in it I haven't seen it or don't know anything about any of her other movies.

[coopsgirl]

Here are some more pics I found at the Corbis site.

 

Gary and William Powell 1933

 

 

Gary and Sophia Loren 1958

 

 

Gary and friends at Christmas party at his house 1933

 

 

Gary and Rocky at party in Sept 1947

 

 

Gary on phone with toy gun 1956

 

 

Love in the Afternoon

 

 

Love in the Afternoon

 

 

Love in the Afternoon

 

 

General Died at Dawn

 

 

Gary and Joan Fontaine with Oscars for 1941

 

 

For Whom the Bell Tolls

 

 

Bluebeard's Eighth Wife

 

[CoopfanDan]

Hey those are some great photos Angie. I really like the one from The General Died at Dawn and the one where he is with Joan Fontaine and their winning oscars. Joan was equally deserving to win one for her incredable performance in Rebecca that year.

[CoopfanDan]

That's a really nice one I haven't seen from Bluebeard's Eighth Wife as well.

[coopsgirl]

Here's a video I made using clips from Ball of Fire set to Jerry Lee Lewis's song Great Balls of Fire. I made it several days ago but have had a hard time getting it to upload.

 

 

[CoopfanDan]

Thanks for doing up this video. This was another good one where the music matched up very nicely to the movie.

[jemnyc]

Dan, regarding:

 

So Claudette was in other great comedies other than Bluebeard's Eighth Wife. I don't think she was in any movies with any leading men that I follow as I have only ever seen her in His Woman and Bluebeard's Eighth Wife. Can you name some of the comedies you liked better than Bluebeard or other movies. I may want to rent them out some time.

 

Since I really like Claudette Colbert, this list is perhaps skewed, but try:

 

The Palm Beach Story

Midnight

It Happened One Night (Kind of the template for the romantic comedy, deservedly so)

Under Two Flags (Not a comedy -- at least not intentionally -- but her co-star is one of your favorites, Ronald Colman)

Imitation Of Life (The original, and it's a fail safe plot, if you've ever watched the delicious Lana Turner version from the fifties)

It's A Wonderful World (Utter froth, but she and James Stewart are a terrific pair)

Drums Along The Mohawk -- Again, not a comedy, but a wonderful John Ford film, with Henry Fonda, and based on an actual upstate NY incident, circa Revolutionary War.

So Proudly We Hail (Again, no comedy, but WW II, the Pacific, Corregidor, from the nurse's POV, excellent)

Since You Went Away -- WW II, home front, very fine; makes a nice companion piece to Best Years Of Our Lives -- two great war films without a frame of actual battle)

Tomorrow Is Forever -- what today would be called a 'chick flick', it's a film unafraid to treat the emotional with respect. Welles is her co-star, they're terrific together.

Without Reservations

 

Her career rather evaporated post-war. As with too many actresses, the roles were simply not there for a maturing woman. However, she did loads of TV work in the fifties, a lot of which is available at the Museum Of Broadcasting in NYC, and possibly at the one in LA, though I can't say for sure.

 

Claudette Colbert could do it all.

[jemnyc]

Here's a video I made using clips from Ball of Fire set to Jerry Lee Lewis's song Great Balls of Fire. I made it several days ago but have had a hard time getting it to upload.

 

Angie, that is so damned clever! the visuals match the lyrics, hit their marks precisely.

 

Thanks much!

 

And, as usual, your photo uploads are amazing.

[coopsgirl]

I'm glad y'all liked the video. That one was really fun to put together. Well they all are actually but that movie is just so darn cute that I really enjoyed doing that one. I made another one too using clips from Christina Aguilera's video to "Ain't No Other Man" mixed in with clips from his movies so it's like she's singing the song about him during her video. I'll try and upload it later today. Sometimes I have a hard time getting them to upload b/c my wireless connection dies on me. The more they try to make technology easier and better the more it just seems to make life complicated - ha!

[jemnyc]

Great story about Quinn on The Plainsman set. From stories I've heard it sounds like Gary was probably one of the best actors to work with not only b/c of his wonderful talent, but also b/c he seems to have treated everybody with respect and stood up for the little guys too. I really admire people who use their celebrity and influence to help others instead of using it to just get as much as they can for themselves and acting like divas.

 

Here's another story from The Plainsman, along those lines, this from Iron Eyes Cody (You're too young to remember, Angie, but in the 70s, there was an anti-littering campaign, and they used a huge close up of a Native American, with a single tear rolling down his cheek; this was Iron Eyes Cody, whose Native American pedigree is somewhat suspect, apparently, but that's another story). Cooper grew friendly with a lot of the actual Souix who played in the exterior, Montana location footage on The Plainsman. Grew so friendly, in fact, that he went through the Sioux Medicine Man ceremony, becoming an honorable Sioux Medicine Man (It's a wicked initiation ceremony, and Cooper almost had to quit).

 

There were two separate areas where the crews stayed during the location work. One, with the stars, director, cinematographer, etc., in a well-appointed place, nice housing, booze, lots of food, all the amenities. The rest of the cast, the extras, crew members, etc., were in a second area, without virtually any of the amenities, including booze and all the food, etc. So, Cooper goes to the extra's encampment one night, gets a batch of the Native American extras, grips, etc., and after midnight, led a raid on the main encampment, filched booze, food, etc., brought it back for the other extras, low level crew members.

 

Also, De Mille had no intention of bringing the Sioux extras from Montana back to LA. Planned on using regular Hollywood extras for anything shot on the sets. Cooper argued that this wasn't fair, they deserved it. De Mille said it was too expensive. So, Cooper -- on his own dime -- flew dozens and dozens of Sioux down to LA, put them up in hotels, and they were used in the set-bound material. Iron Eyes Cody said that he did it a second time, but I couldn't figure out if he meant with Northwest Mounted Police or Unconquered.

 

Cody and Cooper remained friends until Cooper's death. Cooper got Cody extra work, stunt work, on many of his films, including Vera Cruz. Cooper was still separated at the time, having an on/off affair with a French model. Cody claimed that Cooper and Sarita Monteil had a fling, which goes against some of the comments from GC biographers, who wrote that he was turned off by Monteil's bathing habits. But I'd believe Cody first, since so many comments attributed to Cooper by biolgraphers don't jibe at all with the man that I though I uncovered.

 

Who knows?

 

One of the flat out dumbest things I've heard that I believe Hawks (I think it was him and not Wayne) said about High Noon was that if Kane was a good enough marshal he wouldn't need help from the townspeople.

 

How dumb is that, eh? Talk about the absurdity of macho raised to flashpoint.

[coopsgirl]

More great stuff as usual John. I don't remember the anit-littering commercials when they were actually on but I have seen them. Here's a pic of Cody from the commercials in case anyone here doesn't know who he is.

 

 

As nice and great a guy as it seems he was I just can't understand why he cheated so rampantly on his wife. It doesn't seem to jive with his personality of being such an upstanding guy. I'm sure it's hard to refuse when nearly every woman on the planet is throwing themselves at you (I'm sure I would have been in that group too which I guess doesn't make me any better) but still, have a little self control man (ha!). Of course it doesn't dampen my love of him, but I can imagine how hard it was on Rocky. My parents split up b/c of the same thing and it was a very difficult time for everybody.

 

Judging by her listing at imdb.com Sarita Monteil is still alive. Here's a pic of her and the caption said she was in America to do promo stuff for *Vera Cruz* so it must have been taken around '54. Now I'm intrigued about her "bathing habits". Did she just not bathe - ewww!

 

 

Here's one of her and Gary on the *Vera Cruz* set.

 

 

Is this the French woman he was having a fling with? The caption said "American actor Gary Cooper and his companion, French actress Gisele Pascal, at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival." Man she looks young!

 

 

Here's another of the pics I found at Corbis but forgot to post. I love the pics of him the best when he has a serious expression like this one.

 

[jemnyc]

Phones, mail boxes, stationery envelopes and pens are beginning to be obsolete; and it'll only be a matter of time until Back to the Future is a proven fact.

 

Mrs. C: in line with this (alarming?) news, studies are revealing that our memories are evaporating, all age groups, because we need use memory less and less. Examples cited are cell phones, where the number we dial is programmed in, we no longer need know it; check out counters in stores, where everything is computerized, and when the computer fails, out comes a calculator. There were scads of other examples, but these are two which have stuck in my increasingly faulty memory bank

[jemnyc]

Miss G, regarding:

 

Following an ex-con (Gary Cooper) who?s trying to procure a teacher for his small west Texas settlement,

 

I've always been confused a little by this---when O'Connell finagles the introduction of Julie London's character to Link, didn't he say she was looking for a job as a "teacher"? Yet, she later admits to working in "saloons"...which is true? Both? Was she going along with O'Connell to try and pull a fast one on Link? She does seem to want to be legitimate, if not as someone's wife then to work at a legitimate trade...did she honestly want a job as a teacher in the beginning is what I can't figure out.

 

I've always felt that O'Connell's shady con man had talked her into going along with him, pretend you're a teacher, let's scam the bumpkin. On the train when Link turns down O'Connell, London's expression as she glances at O'Connell is disgust, she's been used again by yet another male loser. In fact, that exquisite bit of non-verbal/body language performing by London perhaps belies the feeling that London wasn't up to some of the more complex emotional characterization that Mann had in mind?

 

Can anyone tell me what is a "Mexican standoff"?

 

A stalemate between more than two sides/guys (or gals, for that matter)/people. Not sure where he's referring to in Man/West. Good/Bad/Ugly has a classic standoff at the end, between Eastwood, Van Cleef and Eli Wallach.

 

And it features, as a major narrative vector, a constant threat of rape - Cooper, forced to take up with his old gang, must also protect a cabaret singer/schoolteacher (Julie London) from their brutal, lascivious advances. His two goals - destroying the gang and protecting London - are often at odds with one another, and it?s within this extraordinarily grey area that Mann finds the heart of his film, almost a moral treatise - wherein lies the duty of man? Is it to protect the forces/emblems of goodness, or is it to destroy the forces of wrong?

 

That's a remarkable point---one I've always felt but never articulated in my mind. As a woman, I react very deeply to that aspect of the story. Frankly, they could have found no better choice to play such a part than Gary. His innate sense of decency makes him ideal for it.

 

Man/West is such a deep film, seemingly bottomless in its meanings. It's that rare western--, no, that rare film which takes genuine chances, with characters, situations, motivations, plotting, visuals, etc.

 

The film ends, as many great westerns do, with characters riding out into the great abandon, but with them they bring the promise of the educational/political infrastructure that would eventually render the West moot. The west isn?t dying here - but it?s always darkest before the sun rises?

 

The writer apparently sees the ending quite optimistically, though he doesn't remark specifically on Billie's future. Her destiny seems to be the saddest...without a protector like Link, she seems doomed to go on to more of the kind of jobs she's weary of...until she's too old for them.

 

Again, it's so rich, so emotionally evocative, it can be read seven ways from Sunday. Not necessarily putting it in the class of Hamlet, but like Hamlet, it is open to so many valid interpretations,

 

Message was edited by: jemnyc

[MissGoddess]

Hey, Dan---Claudette's apex in comedy was probably reached in It Happened One Night and Midnight. Midnight is hard to find on dvd, which is a shame because it's one of the greatest screwball comedies. She was also very funny in Lubitsch's The Smiling Lieutenant, The Egg and I, No Time for Love (these last two with Fred MacMurray), Tovarich and The Palm Beach Story (directed by Preston Sturges).

[MissGoddess]

OH Angie I loved the picture of Gary with William Powell!!! I would have been so thrilled to have been at that party. What gorgeous times those must have been.

[MissGoddess]

>>>a lot of which is available at the Museum Of Broadcasting in NYC<<<

 

John, really? Anyone can go there? I knew there was the equivalent in L.A. but had no idea there was something in the city!! That's great news! I'll do an internet search.

[MissGoddess]

Thank you, John, for taking the time to address some of my questions, which were probably a bit redundant. You make me want to take a closer look at how Julie London played her part, because until now I've been quite satisfied that she did a fine job for someone who really was more of a singer (I thought) than actress. That initial scene between her, Cooper and O'Connell threw me a bit, and perhaps that is due in part to how she "reacted".

 

By the way, semi-related to the topic, I watched Anthony Mann's *Railroaded* yesterday, one of his early films noir. I definitely believe he learned a great deal and came a long, long way by the time of Man of the West. The characterizations in the former movie are so one-dimensional in comparison! However, he was already manifesting a strong grasp of stylish, intuitive camera work.

[jemnyc]

Miss G:

 

The Museum of Radio and Television is up on 52nd Street, just west of 5th, north side of the street. here's the website:

 

http://www.mtr.org/

 

Great place. When it first began, in the seventies, was known as the Museum of Broadcasting, now has changed names.

[MissGoddess]

Muchos gracias, Juanito.