High Noon

High Noon

High Noon is about a recently freed leader of a gang of bandits in the desert who is looking to get revenge on the Sheriff who put him in jail. A legendary western film from the Austrian director Fred Zinnemann.

Directed by Fred Zinnemann. 85mins. (1952)

Gary Cooper - Marshal Will Kane
Grace Kelly - Amy Fowler Kane

Also starring Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Otto Kruger, Harry Morgan and Lon Chaney Jr.

One of the highest rated westerns ever made and an iconic role for Gary Cooper.

The film tells it's story in real time.

High Noon cost $750,000 and went on to gross $8m in the U.S.

Ranked #27 on the AFI's 100 Greatest American Films list (2007).

And #2 on the AFI's 10 Greatest Westerns list (The Searchers is no.1)

Nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, winning 4 - Best Actor (Gary Cooper), Best Music (Dimitri Tiomkin), Best Song and Best Film Editing.

WGA Award winner for Best Written American Drama.

Selected for Preservation by the National Film Registry 1989.

Tagline - The story of a man who was too proud to run.

IMDB rating 8.2

MARIA’s NOTES

Nobody involved in the making of High Noon thought they were making more than just another, hopefully, good little Western which cost all of $750,000. It was not filled with the expected action of cowboys vs. Indians chasing each other across the plains. However, in the talented hands of several artists from the Writer Carl Foreman to Director Fred Zinnemann, to its star, my father, Gary Cooper, the beautiful ladies Grace Kelly and Katy Jurado, the sinister villains including Lee Van Cleef and the wonderful theme song composed by Dimitri Tiomkin, this “little Western” turned into an iconic film that has affected and touched world leaders from Japan to Poland and shook up American politics at the time of one of our more shameful periods – the McCarthy hearings. According to those hearings, there was a Communist under every bed. My father was extremely close to High Noon’s writer Carl Foreman, in fact, he called him Uncle Carl and when the film’s producer Stanley Kramer wanted to take him off the film because of alleged Communist propaganda, my father simply said, “If Foreman goes, Cooper goes.”

Many books and articles have been written about High Noon. The story exposed the cross currents buried in human nature and politics. We see in the film a reflection of our own inner conscience and its struggle between fear and doing what you know is right – to do what you have to do for a greater good, or in the name of justice – concepts which are not limited to any one era. In fact, there’s a very interesting parallel between High Noon and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea – both challenge our own personal definitions of Honor, Courage, Justice and Fear. My father won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Marshal Kane. It was the first time the “hero” of a film was shown to be human and vulnerable.

I strongly recommend for further reading the recent book,High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glenn Frankel.

Maria Cooper Janis

For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going on and Jordan who has joined up on the side that appeals most to idealists of that era — like Ernest Hemingway and his friends — has been given a high-risk assignment up in the mountains. He awaits the right time to blow up a bridge in a cave.

Directed by Sam Wood. 170 mins. (1943)

Gary Cooper - Robert Jordan
Ingrid Bergman - María

Also starring Akim Tamiroff, Vladimir Sokoloff, Fortunio Bonanova and Katina Paxinou.

Based on the best-selling novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1940.

Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman were Hemingway's choices for the main roles.

Nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor (Gary Cooper), Best Actress (Ingrid Bergman) and Best Supporting Actor (Akim Tamiroff), winning 1 - Best Supporting Actress (Katina Paxinou).

Tagline - From the most thrilling novel of our years !

IMDB rating 7.0

Casanova Brown

Casanova Brown

Casanova Brown

Directed by Sam Brown 94 mins (1944)

Gary Cooper – Casanova Brown

In this hilarious romantic comedy, Gary Cooper gets a lesson in diapers and formula after stealing his child from his ex-wife (Teresa Wright), who had plans to give it up for adoption.

Also starring Teresa Wright, Frank Morgan, Anita Louise and Edmund Breon

Based on a play named “Little Accident”, this film introduces Cas Brown who is about to marry for the second time; his first marriage, to Isabel, was annulled. But when he discovers that Isabel just had their baby, Cas kidnaps the infant to keep her from being adopted. Isabel's parents hunt for the child and discover that Cas and Isabel are still hopelessly in love. The movie was shown to soldiers in outdoor theatres across newly liberated France.

Nominated for 3 Oscars.

MARIA’s NOTES

This film is a very different Cooper type role. He plays a sweet, rather awkward and naive man…not your typical Gary Cooper heroic character. My father was a co-producer on this movie followed by Along Came Jones, however wearing those 2 hats cured him of the “producing “ bug. He was co-starred with Teresa Wright, the wonderful wife of Lou Gehrig in the Pride of The Yankees, but not so wonderful in Cassanova Brown. The husband/wife relationship was quite the opposite, in fact dramatically so!The comedy that plays thru this film did not work all the time.  That was a frustration for my father, as he in fact had a real flair and natural timing for comedy, something that is shown off wonderfully well in his film Bluebeard’s 8th Wife with Claudette Colbert, written by that master Billy Wilder and directed by Ernst Lubitch. Claudette Colbert and her husband Dr. Joel Pressman were close friends of my family, and we spent many happy weekends together at our tennis court and around the swimming pool.

Maria Cooper Janis

The Westerner

The Westerner

Directed by William Wyler. 100 mins. (1940)

Gary Cooper - Cole Harden

Drifter Cole Harden is accused of stealing a horse and faces hanging by self-appointed Judge Roy Bean, but Harden manages to talk his way out of it by claiming to be a friend of stage star Lillie Langtry, with whom the judge is obsessed, even though he has never met her. Tensions rise when Harden comes to the defense of a group of struggling homesteaders who Judge Bean is trying to drive away.

Also starring Walter Brennan, Doris Davenport, Forrest Tucker, Chill Wills, Lilian Bond and Dana Andrews.

Classic western noteworthy for Walter Brennan's Oscar-winning performance as Judge Roy Bean, Brennan's third and last Oscar win.

Nominated for 3 Oscars winning Best Supporting Actor (Walter Brennan)

Tagline - The Raw Untamed Adventurous West... Lives Again!

Maria’s notes

One of my father’s favorite directors to work with was William Wyler, from “The  Westerner” in 1940, their first collaboration - to "Friendly Persuasion "in 1956. Both films created an important impact on the film career and character of Gary Cooper.

This unusual story/film- some half-truth and half-fiction was in the beginning a source of tremendous irritation and resentment between my father and producer Samuel Goldwyn’. My father thought that he would be portraying the historical, colorful and infamous Judge Roy Bean. To his shock he discovered that Goldwyn had cast Walter Brennen in that plum part. When Cooper objected strongly, Goldwyn tried to placate him by saying don’t worry we will he will expand your part!

His role in the shooting script did not please my father at all, but he finally agreed to - fulfill his contractual obligations “under a formal written protest”!

It was another one of those tough physical locations in the desert near Tuscan, Arizona with extreme temperature fluctuations endured by the cast and crew.The role GaryCooper inhabited- a character named Cole Harden, has to use his wit, cleverness and devious tendencies in order to save his own skin, when Judge Bean wants to see him DEAD. To avoid being hung, Harden cleverly plays on Bean’s obsession with the real-life famous beauty, singer and entertainer of the day, Lily Langtry, Walter Brennen and my father became buddies while making the film. They joked around with each other with Brennen making phone calls to my father impersonating Sam Goldwyn’s angry diatribes at Cooper!! The screenwriter Niven Bush and my father also became friends as he praised how helped his writing with the factual knowledge of the real was that was so important in developing the story line.

Maria Cooper Janis

The Pride of the Yankees

The Pride of the Yankees

Directed by Sam Wood 128 mins (1942)

Gary Cooper – Lou Gehrig

This film was made as a Biopic which showcases the life of Lou Gehrig, the famous baseball player who played in 2130 consecutive games before falling at age 37 to a deadly nerve disease which now bears his name as Lou Gehrig’s disease.  Gehrig is followed from his childhood in New York until his famous 'Luckiest Man' speech at his farewell day in 1939.

Also Starring Babe Ruth, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan and Dan Duryea

The life of Yankee baseball great Lou Gehrig known as the 'Iron Horse' from his childhood, through his baseball career, battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to his final tribute where he declared that he was "the luckiest man on the face of the earth." 

Nominated for 10 Oscars, winning  for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture 

Tagline - The Crowd Worshipped Him... One Woman Understood Him!

Sergeant York

Sergeant York

Directed by Howard Hawks. 134 mins (1941)

Gary Cooper – Alvin C York

Based on the real life of Alvin York who managed to achieve status as one of the most celebrated American serviceman despite a humble background which included many instances of drunken behaviour. Under the influence of his mother, and further to being struck by lightning he finds religion. Despite attempting to be a conscientious objector , he joins the infantry where he serves with valour , capturing a large number of Germans and saving the lives of many men.

Also starring Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias and Stanley Ridges

The true story of a marksman drafted in World War 1 who becomes one of the wars most celebrated heroes.

Nominated for 10 Oscars, winning 2 for Best actor in a lead role, Best Film editing and another 3 awards.

Tagline - Missiles! Jets! Tanks! ...It's still the Guy with Guts and a Gun who Wins the War!

Maria’s Notes

The intersection of lives is a fascinating occurrence as it unfolds in time. The lives of Sergeant Alvin York World War 1 hero and the life of film actor Gary Cooper were melded together when Alvin York told Hollywood that theonly way he would allow his story to be told would be if Gary Cooper portrayed him. It won my father his first Academy Award and it spread the story of York’s  heroism to millions of moviegoers around the world.

Some 75 years later at an event paying tribute to the WW1 medal of honor winners in the historical Park Ave. Armory hosted an evening at which both the Cooper family and the York family were together  listening to a beautiful song — Song for a Hero composed by Maria Cooper Janis’s concert pianist husband Byron Janis  written as a tribute to heros everywhere. It was beautifully sung by singer opera/ broadway artist Frank Basille. Following that was a one act play newly written about Alvin York by… I am so glad to meet and be getting to know the York family, both Col. Gerald York and last year met with one of York’s sons Andrew Jackson York at an event when each of us unveiled  US Postal service stamps depicting our fathers. A truly unique and moving moment

A most memorable moment for me happened a few years ago when I found myself sharing a stage with one of the sons of Sergeant Alvin York. We both unveiled 2 large paintings of our Fathers, commissioned by the US Postal Service, as the images for one of the new “forever” stamps that were going to be circulated in post offices around the country.This was held at the amazing World War 1 Museum in Kansas City on the anniversary of Armistice day November 11th.York had become such an American hero—though a reluctant one- as he was a pacifist and did not believe in fighting or killing. Hollywood tried  to woo the uninterested  and elderly Alvin York, who refused to give the rights to his story to any film makers…unless… they could get Gary Cooper to portray him in a life story movie. My father was so extremely honored and humbled by York's request and, the challenge to take on that role. The two men met and got along beautifully. And so, a beautiful film was made, an inspiring story told, and Gary Cooper won his first Academy Award.

Maria Cooper Janis

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Directed by Frank Capra. 115 mins (1936)

Gary Cooper – Longfellow Deeds

Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.

Also starring Babe Bennett,  George Bancroft, Lionel Stander and Douglass Dumbrille 

Based on Clarence Budington Kelland’s short story “Opera Hat”, a simple-hearted tuba playing greeting card poet is thrust into a world of city slickers, phonies and embezzlers… and the wily reporter who gains his trust….

Nominated for 7 Oscars, winning one for Best Director. 

Morocco

Morocco

The Foreign Legion marches in to Mogador with booze and women in mind just as singer Amy Jolly arrives from Paris to work at Lo Tinto’s cabaret. That night, insouciant legionnaire Tom Brown catches her inimitably seductive, tuxedo-clad act. Both bruised by their past lives, the two edge cautiously into a no-strings relationship while being pursued by others. But Tom must leave on a perilous mission: is it too late for them?

Directed by Josef von Sternberg. 92mins. (1930)

Gary Cooper - Tom Brown
Marlene Dietrich - Amy Jolly
Adolphe Menjou - La Bessiere

Also starring Ullrich Haupt, Eve Southern and Francis McDonald.

Based on "Amy Jolly, the Woman from Marrakesh" by French-German novelist Benno Vigny.

The film was controversial at the time for the scene where Marlene Dietrich kisses a woman while dressed in a tuxedo.

Nominated for 4 Oscars - Best Director, Best Actress (Marlene Dietrich), Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.

Meet John Doe

Meet John Doe

As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed “John Doe,” who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate “Doe.” Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it’s worth, until the made-up “John Doe” philosophy starts a whole political movement.

Directed by Frank Capra. 122mins. (1941)

Gary Cooper - John Doe / John Willoughby
Barbara Stanwyck - Ann Mitchell

Also starring Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan, James Gleason and Gene Lockhart.

Based on a story by Richard Connell and Robert Presnell, Sr.

In one of the various endings tested on preview audiences around the country John Doe succeeds in commiting suicide at the climax but, surprise surprise, preview audiences hated that ending and they went with the happy ending.

Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay.

IMDB rating 7.7

Desire

Desire

Madeleine steals a string of pearls in Paris and uses US engineer Tom, who is driving on his vacation to Spain, to get the pearls out of France, but getting the pearls, back from him proves to be difficult without falling in love.

Directed by Frank Borzage. 95 mins. (1936)

Marlene Dietrich - Madeleine de Beaupre
Gary Cooper - Tom Bradley

Also starring John Halliday, William Frawley, Akim Tamiroff and Alan Mowbray.

Romantic drama, a remake of a 1933 German film.

Tagline - “Love was her precious loot!”

IMDB rating 7.1

Beau Geste

Beau Geste

Directed by William A. Wellman. 112mins. (1939)

Gary Cooper – Beau Geste

Epic Adventure….When three brothers join the Foreign Legion to escape a troubled past, they find themselves trapped under the command of a sadistic sergeant deep in the scorching Sahara. Now the brothers must fight for their lives as they plot mutiny against tyranny and defend a desert fortress against a brutal enemy. Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Beau Geste has been universally acclaimed by generations of critics and audiences alike as a true motion picture classic.

Also starring Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, and J. Carrol 

Based on the classic adventure novel by P.C. Wren, first published in 1924. The  Film was honored on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued 23 March 1990 honouring classic films released in 1939. The stamp featured Gary Cooper as Beau Geste. The other films honoured were Stage Coach, Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.

Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Brian Donlevy) and Best Art Direction.

Tagline - AGAIN...the three Geste’s face a thousand dangers of the Sahara for each other...and love!

Ball of Fire

Ball of Fire

Directed by Howard Hawks. 111mins. (1941)

Gary Cooper - Prof. Bertram Potts
A group of academics have spent years shut up in a house working on the definitive encyclopedia. When one of them discovers that his entry on slang is hopelessly outdated, he ventures into the wide world to learn about the evolving language. Here he meets Sugarpuss O’Shea, a nightclub singer, who’s on top of all the slang and, it just so happens, needs a place to stay.

Also starring Barbara Stanwyck, Oskar Homolka, Henry Travers, Richard Haydn and Dana Andrews.

Classic screwball comedy .Partly based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with 7 eccentric professors representing the dwarfs. To pick up authentic slang for the film script, screenwriters Billy Wilderand Charles Brackett visited the drugstore across the street from Hollywood High School, a burlesque house and the Hollywood Park racetrack.

Nominated for 4 Oscars 

Wings

Wings

Directed by William A. Wellman. 144 mins (1927)

Gary Cooper – Cadet White

Two young men, one rich, one middle class, who are in love with the same woman, become fighter pilots in World War I. After the USA enters WWI, both join the Air Corps and become aces. They remain friends, but the relation to the girl threatens their friendship.

Also Starring Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Richard Arlen and Jobyna Ralston

A movie in which two men from different social classes are united by the call to war. Their friendship is tested and a tragic twist in the tale is played out at the battle of Saint-Mihiel, and a bitter-sweet story of forgiveness is told.

Nominated for 5 Oscars, winning for Best Picture and Best Effects, Engineering Effects

Vera Cruz

Vera Cruz

Directed by Robert Aldrich. 94mins. (1954)

Gary Cooper - Benjamin Trane

After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz.Ben and Erin find that the stagecoach is transporting three million U.S. dollars in gold hidden below the seat, and they scheme to steal it. Along their journey, betrayals and incidents happen changing their initial intentions.

Also starring Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Cesar Romero, Sara Montiel, George Macready, and Charles Bronson.

Thought to be a big influence on the spaghetti westerns of the 1960’s, this big budget western, one of the  biggest hits of 1954, was filmed on location in Mexico is set during the Mexican Rebellion of 1866.

Tagline - The Giants Battle In The Biggest Spectacle Of Them All!

You’re in the Navy Now

You're in the Navy Now

Directed by Henry Hathaway. 93 mins (1951)

Gary Cooper - Lt. John W. Harkness

When Lt. John Harkness is assigned as the new skipper of a submarine chaser equipped with an experimental steam engine, he hopes that the U.S.S. Teakettle’s veterans will afford him enough help to accomplish the ship’s goals. Unfortunately, he finds the crew and its officers share his novice status or only have experience in diesel engines.

Also starring Jane Greer Millard Mitchell, Eddie Albert, John McIntire, Ray Collins, Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.

This comedy was set on a US warship and was originally entitled  “USS Teakettle”. It served as a film debut for Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson and received a WGA nomination for Best Written American Comedy.

Tagline - Hilarious Comedy About A Snafu Ship!

Variety Girl

Variety Girl

Directed by George Marshall 93 mins (1947)

Gary Cooper – Gary Cooper

Dozens of star and character-actor cameos and a message about the Variety Club (a show-business charity) are woven into a framework about two hopeful young ladies who come to Hollywood, exchange identities, and cause comic confusion (with slapstick interludes) throughout the Paramount studio.

Also Starring  - Almost anyone under contract to Paramount pictures at the time!

This comedy musical which includes a five-minute color Puppetoon segment "Romeow and Julicat" by George Pal, includes stars such as Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Barbara Stanwyck and Alan Ladd.

Unconquered

Unconquered

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. 146 mins. (1947)

Gary Cooper - Capt. Christopher Holden

Intrepid frontiersman Chris Holden foils the political and personal ambitions of renegade Martin Garth in the Ohio Valley following the French and Indian War.

Also starring Paulette Goddard, Howard Da Silva, Boris Karloff, Cecil Kellaway, Henry Wilcoxon and Ward Bond.

Based on "Unconquered, a Novel of the Pontiac Conspiracy" by Neil Swanson, this epic historical adventure is set in the American colonies, 1763. Ever the Englishman,  Boris Karloff had tea breaks at 4 pm written into his contract, as did Goddard. Cooper and Paulette Goddard would join them for tea and biscuits. 

Oscar nomination for Best Special Effects.

Tagline - Crimson-haired slave girl . . . desired by a man of destiny! Together they shared the thrills of the most daring spectacle De Mille ever filmed!

Today We Live

Today We Live

Directed by Howard Hawks and Richard Rosson 113 mins. (1933)

Gary Cooper - Bogard

Two lovers are living together and are not married and they hesitantly explain this to her brother. They had made a promise as children to get married when they grew up, but they “didn’t wait.” It’s an important plot point as it drives Cooper’s actions when he discovers that Crawford and Young are living in sin.

Also starring Joan Crawford, Robert Young, Franchot Tone and Roscoe Karns

The only film pairing of Joan Crawford and Gary Cooper. Contemporary news stories of the day reported Crawford insisted on Cooper as her co-star. Cooper had to be borrowed from Paramount for this picture. Joan Crawford met Franchot Tone while working on this picture. They would marry two years later (her second, his first) - and divorce in 1939.

They Came to Cordura

They Came to Cordura

Directed by Robert Rossen. 123mins. (1959)

Gary Cooper - Major Thomas Thorn

An army major, himself guilty of cowardice, is asked to recommend soldiers for the Congressional Medal of Honour during the Mexican Border Incursion of 1916.

Also starring Rita Hayworth, Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Richard Conte and Michael Callan.

This Western set in Mexico, 1916 is based on the novel by Glendon Swarthout, published in 1958. It won a Golden Laurel Award for Top action Performance by Gary Cooper

Tagline - Slashing story of a desert warrior who fought his way from hell to glory!

the First Kiss

The First Kiss

Directed by Rowland V Lee 60 mins. (1928)

Gary Cooper – Mulligan Talbot

The story of a decadent family along Maryland's Chesapeake Bay.

While shooting a scene on a boat in the Chesapeake Bay with Gary Cooper, Fay Wray accidentally fell overboard. Cooper dove in and pulled her out.

This film is lost. Check your attic!