BRIGHT LEAF

BRIGHT LEAF (1950). Director: Michael Curtiz.

Thrown out of the town of Kingsmouth, NC many years before by the wealthy tobacco man Major Singleton (Donald Crisp), Brant Royle (Gary Cooper) returns to make a fortune and stir up trouble. With the aid of John Barton (Jeff Corey), who has invented a machine for making and packaging cigarettes, and the financial help of gal pal Sonia Kovac (Lauren Bacall), he builds the Royle cigarette company into a giant that puts many of his tobacco competitors out of business. Sonia is in love with Brant, but he only has eyes for Singleton's lovely daughter, Margaret (Patricia Neal), and as the years go by he becomes more and more like her father, gaining power and prestige but treating people shabbily. Brant finds out that he may not have a friend left in the world ... Bright Leaf is a pot-boiler that slowly builds in dramatic intensity and features some effective performances. Cooper is better than usual in his portrayal of Royle; Neal is good but not great; and Bacall [Shock Treatment] has one of her best roles in this. Jack Carson and Jeff Corey are fine as Brant's business partners, Elizabeth Patterson [Out of the Blue] is terrific as the major's elderly sister; and Donald Crisp [The Old Maid] nearly steals the show as the implacable major -- one of the movie's best scenes has the major challenging Brant to a duel. As the love rivals, Neal and Cooper haven't any scenes together, unfortunately. A comical aspect of the movie is when Bacall tells Cooper that she's opened a "rooming house" when it is all too obviously a brothel! Smoothly directed by Michael Curtiz.

Verdict: This could be dismissed as a nearly two hour advertisement for cigarettes were it not for its sheer entertainment value. ***. 

SARATOGA TRUNK

Ingrid Bergman

SARATOGA TRUNK (1945). Director: Sam Wood.

"I don't have money, either, but I know how to turn a trick." -- Clint.

"Common. Common as dirt."  -- Angelique to Clio.

"Shut your mouth -- or I'll send you away somewhere to starve." -- Clio to Angelique.

After her mother's death,.Clio Dulaine (Ingrid Bergman) travels from France to New Orleans with a weird entourage consisting of old Angelique (Flora Robson), who takes care of her as she did her mother before her, and little person, Cupidon (Jerry Austin), who is only a couple of feet tall but feisty and fun. Clio is in New Orleans to get revenge on all of those who turned on her mother, a supposed murderess of her father, but this plot is quickly resolved once she meets cowboy Clint Maroon (Gary Cooper). After a love-hate courtship, Clint leaves for Saratoga and Clio follows, hoping to snare the wealthy if weak, supposedly mother-dominated Bartholomew Van Steed (John Warburton of Secret File Hollywood). But are Clio and Clint really sure that they are out of each other's systems? Saratoga Trunk is a weird movie that loses its focus and grip early on, but offers an excellent performance from Bergman -- who has never been photographed more beautifully -- and a good turn from Cooper. The problem with the film, among many, is that the most exciting scene has to do with a railroad clash -- and crash -- where two trains collide, men jump off the trains, and a rousing fight scene ensues -- unfortunately, none of this has much to do with the main plot of Saratoga Trunk (and the whole business with the railroad is tedious aside from the aforementioned scene). Apparently playing a black woman, British actress Robson [Caesar and Cleopatra] is wonderful as Angelique; Austin offers a winning performance as Cupidon; and there are splendid turns from Florence Bates [Rebecca] as a Saratoga society lady who helps Clio, and Ethel Griffies as the formidable termagant mother of Van Steed, who is out to expose Clio as a phony. Throughout the movie the love-hate badinage between Clio and Angelique is priceless. This is based on a novel by Edna Ferber.

Verdict: Lots of good things in this movie, a striking performance from Bergman, but a half-baked and over-boiled story that doesn't quite work. **1/2.

PATRICIA NEAL

Patricia Neal as she appeared in The Breaking Point 1950

PATRICIA NEAL (1926 - 2010).

Patricia Neal was an attractive and very gifted actress who had a kind of roller coaster life. She shot to prominence with The Fountainhead, had a long love affair with co-star Gary Cooper, married writer Roald Dahl, recovered from a stroke, had a comeback and won an Oscar for Hud, and won even more acclaim for her performance in The Subject Was Roses. Neal successfully went from movie star and sex symbol to accomplished and admired working actress. One of her favorite films -- and one of her best performances -- was in Three Secrets. This week we look at that film, as well as The Breaking Point, Happy Mother's Day, Love George, and The Hasty Heart. Oddly, Neal also wound up in a 99 cent item called Stranger From Venus, a rip-off of her The Day the Earth Stood Still -- we take a look at that film, too. There's also a review of an excellent biography of the actress.

PATRICIA NEAL: AN UNQUIET LIFE

PATRICIA NEAL: AN UNQUIET LIFE. Stephen Michael Shearer, University Press of Kentucky; 2006.

This well-researched and well-written biography looks at the life and career of unusual movie star, Patricia Neal. Unusual, in that, while her career was important to her, it wasn't necessarily the end-all and be-all of her life. Neal shot to stardom with The Fountainhead, and she had a painful affair with her married leading man, Gary Cooper. Going from one extreme to another, Neal married the plug-ugly author Roald Dahl, almost as if she wanted to get as far away from a Cooper-type as she could. Neal's marriage to the arrogant and unsympathetic Dahl managed to last for thirty years, although it wasn't really a happy union, and he eventually left Neal for a younger woman. Just as big a challenge was Neal having a stroke, due to an aneurysm, when she was only in her thirties (during this difficult time, Dahl stood by her). Periodically returning to the stage, Neal became a highly respected actress even after her relatively brief period of Hollywood stardom was over. During her long career she appeared on the stage in everything from The Children's Hour revival to Another Park of the Forest, where she originated the role of the younger Regina from The Little Foxes. Neal's movies include The Day the Earth Stood Still (which the author wildly overpraises), The Breaking Point, Bright Leaf (also with Gary Cooper), Three Secrets (one of her favorite films), The Hasty Heart, and A Face in the Crowd; she won an Oscar for her performance in Hud with Paul Newman. Along the way the book goes behind the scenes of many of Neal's movies as well as her other romantic entanglements, such as with the actor Peter Cookson.

Verdict: Thorough, engaging look at the life of Patricia Neal. ***1/2.

GARDEN OF EVIL

Gary Cooper contemplates eternity

GARDEN OF EVIL (1954). Director: Henry Hathaway.

"Age before beauty." -- Richard Widmark to Gary Cooper.

Down in Mexico, a desperate woman, Leah Fuller (Susan Hayward), importunes a group of strangers to take a long trip through Apache country to rescue her husband, John (Hugh Marlowe), who is trapped in a mine. The strangers consist of Hooker (Gary Cooper), Fiske (Richard Widmark), Luke (Cameron Mitchell), and Vincente (Victor Manuel Mendoza). As they effect this rescue, the restless Apaches are keeping watch ... That's the slight storyline to this mediocre picture that does boast some stunning CinemaScope photography (Krasner and Stahl), beautiful location settings, and a score by Bernard Herrmann that is much, much better than the movie deserves. As for the acting, Cooper is listless, Mendoza is fine, Marlowe [Elmer Gantry] is relatively terrible, Hayward is just okay, Widmark [The Tunnel of Love] has a bit more vitality, and Mitchell [Man-eater of Hydra] comes off best as the deceptively friendly Luke. In its attitude towards Native Americans, this is not a progressive western, but then in this pretentious and weak screenplay all of the characters are paper thin. Rita Moreno shows up very briefly as a saloon singer.

Verdict: Great to look at and listen to, but that's it! **.

BLOWING WILD

BLOWING WILD (1953). Director: Hugo Fregonese.

When Mexican bandits drive them off from their new well, Jeff Dawson (Gary Cooper) and Dutch Peterson (Ward Bond) look for work. They get hired to drive some nitro over bumpy roads. Before this can turn into The Wages of Fear or Violent Road, they next run into old pal Paco (Anthony Quinn), a wealthy fellow who hires them to work on his latest well. Two women get involved in the action: Paco's wife Marina (Barbara Stanwyck), who still has a hankering for her former lover, Jeff;  and stranded nice gal Sal (Ruth Roman), who develops feelings for Jeff as well. This domestic situation is not a good one, and there are still those pesky bandits to deal with. Blowing Wild has its moments -- the bandits chasing after Jeff and Dutch as they careen inside their truck with the nitro; a race between Paco in his car and Marina on her horse -- but the movie can't overcome the fact that the storyline has been done too often and is a little stale. At fifty-two Cooper looks and acts much older, and his semi-love scenes with Stanwyck are never convincing. As for Stanwyck, she really delivers in key scenes, but by and large she (surprisingly for her) just walks through her other sequences with that typical once-removed "Hollywood" acting that often afflicted other stars. Roman and Bond are okay, while Quinn almost walks off with the picture. Juan Garcia is vivid as the slimy bandit leader. Dimitri Tiomkin's score is a decided asset. Frankie Laine sings the title song in his usual over-wrought style.

Verdict: The script nearly defeats this before it begins. **1/2.

LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON

Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper

LOVE IN THE AFTERNOON (1957). Director: Billy Wilder.

Ariane (Audrey Hepburn), the daughter of a private detective, Chavasse (Maurice Chevalier), saves a playboy, Frank Flannagan (Gary Cooper), that her father has been tracking, from a jealous husband (John McGiver). Ariane and Frank eventually begin seeing each other, and she tries to make him jealous by reciting all of the mythical men she has been with before (even though she's hardly old enough to have had so many affairs). Wanting to know the truth about Ariane, and not knowing her true identity, he hires her own father to find out more about her. Said to be Wilder's tribute to Ernst Lubitsch, this lacks the "Lubitsch Touch" and is rather slow at times. If it was meant to be a screwball comedy it doesn't work on that level, and the characters are too one-dimensional to make them really interesting. The whole bit with the aging playboy who finally finds the right girl is as old as "The Affairs of Anatol" and then some, and the whole movie has a distinctly old-fashioned quality even for the fifties. A big problem is that Hepburn [The Children's Hour] was 28 but looks ten years younger, and Cooper was 56 but (due to illness) looks ten years older -- Cooper is given only two closeups and they are not good --  so it looks as if Ariane is in love with a man old enough to be her grandfather. Exploring the sexuality of senior citizens is a perfectly worthwhile project, but Flannagan is not supposed to be as old as he looks, and he would come off much better with a more age-appropriate female on his arm. A bigger problem is not the age difference, but that Flannagan is a bit of a pig, even a vulgarian, making the allegedly "happy" ending more tragic than anything else. He is also an uncultured nincompoop (a la Donald Trump) who acts like an eight-year-old during the gorgeous overture of Tristan and Isolde in the opera house, another example of someone who has lots of money but absolutely no taste. The film never explores the reality that Flannagan's millions and ostentatious lifestyle would certainly influence Ariane's feelings toward the man. Hepburn may be bony, but she's wonderful in the movie, as are Chevalier and McGiver. Cooper does his familiar "cutesy" act but it's especially off-putting by this time; he basically just walks through the movie. Wilder directed some great movies, such as Double Indemnity and Witness for the Prosecution, but this picture hasn't aged at all well.

Verdict: Given the talent involved, this is a major disappointment. **.

THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE

Charlton Heston explores the wreck

THE WRECK OF THE MARY DEARE (1959). Director: Michael Anderson.

John Sands (Charlton Heston) of the salvage vessel Sea Witch comes across what he thinks is a derelict ship, the Mary Deare, in the middle of the ocean. There is one person aboard, however, Captain Gideon Patch (Gary Cooper), who insists that he did not give the order to abandon ship. There is also a corpse in the hold that Patch tries to cover up. Exactly what happened on the ship and why it happened unfolds in a courtroom sequence and in the finale back on the ship as the hold is explored for a certain cargo ... Mary Deare is a fast-paced suspense film that features good performances from Heston and Cooper, as well as Virginia McKenna [The Chosen] as the daughter of the original captain who died at sea; Ben Wright as Sands' partner in the salvage operation; Richard Harris as the eternally smirking sailor, Higgins; Michael Redgrave as a lawyer in the court of inquiry; and others. The ending is a touch dragged out, perhaps, but this is an absorbing and well-acted movie.

Verdict: Worth a look. ***.

MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN

Jean Arthur and Gary Cooper

MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN (1936). Director: Frank Capra. NOTE: This review reveals some plot points in the movie.

A wealthy man dies in an accident and leaves twenty million dollars to a content, small-town fellow named Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper). Brought to New York by lawyer John Cedar (Douglass Dumbrille), Deeds turns out to be not as dumb as he seems, although he falls for the hunger act put on by newspaper reporter Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur), who at first only sees him as a story and mocks him in the paper. The two fall in love, but when Deeds discovers that Babe was the one behind the articles ... The film ends with a lengthy courtroom scene in which Deeds' sanity is brought into question. Frankly, Mr. Deeds is contrived and phony from the get-go. Deeds is seen as a fine, amiable fellow [who settles arguments with his fists!] but it doesn't occur to him to use the money to help other people until a starving farmer storms his mansion with a gun. When Cedar argues that Deeds isn't really responsible enough to handle twenty million dollars [because he wants to give it all away], the fact remains that Cedar is probably right -- in that Deeds doesn't know the right way to go about establishing a charitable fund. Robert Riskin's screenplay presents the quaint and preposterous notion that all big city dwellers are nasty "slickers" and small-town people are the salt of the earth [sure!]; caricatures wealthy opera fans [as if only the rich are cultured!]; and features a lead character, like John Doe, who never seems entirely real. To say all this becomes quite tiresome is an understatement. Deeds isn't so wonderfully noble -- he doesn't care about the money because he already seems to be well-off, owning more than one home and employing a live-in housekeeper. The only really amusing moments come in the climactic courtroom scene, especially with the little old ladies who think Deeds -- and virtually everyone else -- is "pixillated." Cooper is okay, Dumbrille is excellent, and Arthur as vital and wonderful as ever, the movie's saving grace. But this is far, far below the level of Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. A further minus is the irritating presence of Lionel Stander.

Verdict: Pure Capra-corn. **.

FRIENDLY PERSUASION

"Will Pleasure you:" Suggestive ad for the movie

FRIENDLY PERSUASION (1956). Director: William Wyler.

Although the Quakers in a small town in South Indiana are warned that they may have to defend themselves and their homes against rebel soldiers, Jess Birdwell (Gary Cooper) is determined that his grown son, Josh (Anthony Perkins), will not fight in the Civil War as it's against his religion. Although the one battle scene late in the picture is well done, the war almost seems like an after-thought in this movie in which Cooper plays it too cute by far in a role that cries out for a more talented and appropriate character actor. Perkins is quite good, however, as is Phyllis Love as his sister Mattie; Mark Richman as her boyfriend Gardner; Richard Eyer [The 7th Voyage of Sinbad] as Josh's younger brother; and Robert Middleton as a friend and rival of Jess's. Dorothy McGuire is all wide-eyed and beatific as Jess' wife, Eliza. Although Marjorie Main is as good as ever, the whole business with her and her three marriage-minded daughters [see photo] seems dragged in from an Abbott and Costello movie. Wyler's direction is solid, and there is excellent photography courtesy of Ellsworth Fredericks/Fredricks -- he used both spellings -- and a nice score by Dimitri Tiomkin. Joel Fluellen [Monster from Green Hell] and Robert Fuller [Brain from Planet Arous] have smaller roles. The talented Phyllis Love appeared almost exclusively on television. A goose named Samantha has nearly as much to do as Gertrude the Duck in Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Verdict: Not bad for what it is, but not for every taste. **1/2.

MEET JOHN DOE

MEET JOHN DOE (1941). Director: Frank Capra.

"For the John Does all over the world, many of whom are homeless and hungry."

When her paper is sold and streamlined and she gets fired, columnist Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) decides to fake a letter from a "John Doe" threatening suicide for her last submission. The column causes a big stir, increases circulation, and gets Mitchell her job back -- now they have to find someone who can pretend to be the real John Doe. [Only in a Hollywood movie will the man they choose just happen to be as handsome as a movie star!] The guy who gets the job is unemployed, hungry John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), who gives a speech -- written by Ann -- in which he suggests people should act toward one another as if it were Christmas 365 days a year [not exactly a radical idea]. This leads to the formation of John Doe clubs, neighbors helping neighbors, people finding jobs instead of hand-outs and getting off relief, and so on. Then publisher D. B. Norton (Edward Arnold) wants to start a John Doe party with himself as presidential nominee, which does not sit well with Willoughby. Worse, what happens if perchance "John Doe" is exposed as a phony...?

Meet John Doe takes a while to get going and its simplistic premise is never quite as solid as, say, that of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but eventually the movie and its various elements begin to click. Although Robert Riskin's screenplay doesn't really give Cooper a fully dimensional character to play, the actor nevertheless gives one of his best performances. Barbara Stanwyck is as terrific as she always is, impassioned and dynamic in equal measure. The movie has some lovely scenes: editor James Gleason talking about his father dying in front of his eyes during the war; Regis Toomey telling Cooper how he and his wife (an uncredited but excellent Ann Doran) reached out to a grumpy old neighbor and it snowballed into a committee of neighbors helping one another with their problems, and "John Doe" begins to realize what might actually be accomplished by his deception. [On the debit side, Walter Brennan's character, who thinks a man is "free" when he's broke, is an idiot and a pure Hollywood concoction.] Irving Bacon and Spring Byington are also in the cast. Capra wasn't able to use the bittersweet ending that he wanted, but the alternative he came up with works nearly as well. 

Verdict: Despite obvious flaws and perhaps an unreal air about it, this is another Capra winner. ***1/2.

GARY COOPER: AMERICAN HERO

GARY COOPER: AMERICAN HERO. Jeffrey Meyers. William Morrow. 1998.

This is a fine biography of the late actor from his beginnings in the silent film industry to his painful death by cancer many decades later. The portrait that emerges in this book is less of an American “hero” than a fairly conservative (if not rockbound) icon who lived life the way he wanted to (including numerous affairs which negatively affected his wife and daughter) then later regretted his actions and found Catholicism. Even Cooper didn't think he was much of an actor, although Meyers analyzes his distinct if limited abilities with aplomb, and several of his colleagues offer testament to his deceptive “genius.” Cooper was a star of extremely limited range, but he got better as he got older and played characters who were closer in line with the real Gary Cooper. His best performances were in High Noon, The Naked Edge (his final film), and Ten North Frederick, in which he played a middle-aged man in love with a much younger woman (a situation he was not exactly unfamiliar with). Meyers goes into Cooper's affair with Patricia Neal with depth, although some readers may wish for more details on other, less important affairs, not to mention his youthful relationships with actor Anderson Lawler and other gay males [or the true reasons for his hatred of Cary Grant]. Meyers does not neglect Cooper's films, thank goodness, and perceptively examines both their strengths and weaknesses and how (and whether or not) they advanced Cooper's art. Meyers also goes into Ernest Hemingway's friendship with, and jealousy, of, the handsome actor, as well as Cooper's relationship with HUAC.

Verdict: This is an intelligent, well-written biography. ***1/2.

TALLULAH!

TALLULAH! The Life and Times of a Leading Lady. Joel Lobenthal. ReganBooks; 2004.

A very readable and thorough look at the life of Tallulah Bankhead, from her childhood, to her years on the London stage, her brief forays into Hollywood, and her triumphs and flops on Broadway – and her mostly upfront life as a "bisexual" adventuress. The book successfully debunks many of the myths about Bankhead, including her alleged lack of talent [many saw her merely as a personality], her supposed bad relations with Hitchcock during the making of Lifeboat [they actually got along quite well], etc. A problematic section of the book deals with her relationship with and pandering to gay fans of a certain stripe According to Lobenthal, Bankhead would try to give serious performances in plays but the gay fans – at least some gay fans -- would hoot at any halfway suggestive line and after awhile she catered some of her performances to this contingent, to the detriment of her art. [Lobenthal doesn't quite make it clear that these obsessive fans hardly constituted the entire gay community and that not every gay fan came only for Bankhead's camp value]. There are many solid interviews and good documentation of Bankhead's final years and performances. And plenty of humor, such as when Bankhead lies in wait in Gary Cooper's dressing room and he comes “bounding out with lipstick printed from forehead to chin.” The book is peppered with amusing anecdotes of Bankhead's sexual and alcoholic escapades but is always written with compassion and understanding.

Verdict: Good read. ***.

THE COURT-MARTIAL OF BILLY MITCHELL

THE COURT-MARTIAL OF BILLY MITCHELL (1955). Director: Otto Preminger.

Gary Cooper offers a low-key, occasionally wooden, but overall effective enough performance as the flying officer who deplored the conditions of the United States' military planes in the days after WW1 and before there was an Air Force. Poorly maintained and falling apart, the planes are responsible for the deaths of many military men, including some of Mitchell's colleagues. The problem is that few in the Army or Navy believe that planes will be the key to warfare in the future [despite their use in WW1, oddly enough] and are too short-sighted to see how sophisticated and fast planes will become and how they might be used to attack the U.S. in the future. Mitchell, on the other hand, can describe how easily, for instance, the base at Pearl Harbor could be wiped out by planes [which, of course, happened a few years later]. Statements deliberately made to the press after a friend dies gets Mitchell court-martialed, through which he hopes to get across his point of view to the military and the American people. Charles Bickford is excellent as his lawyer, who fears that Mitchell will be muzzled before he can say a word in his defense, and Rod Steiger plays one of the prosecutors with an oddly epicene oiliness that isn't quite as mesmerizing as he might have intended. This is an interesting if imperfect film, however, with an attention-holding courtroom climax.

Verdict: Worth a look, especially for Cooper fans. **1/2.