Now & Forever
Director Henry Hathaway 81 mins (1934)
Gary Cooper - Jerry Day
Young freewheeling wanderer Jerry Day and his beautiful wife Toni are at odds over their lifestyle. Jerry can’t accept responsibility but Toni yearns for a family and a settled life. Then the Days ‘rediscover’ Jerry’s young daughter Pennie, who has been living with his rich deceased wife’s family. Pennie appears to be just what Jerry needs to mend his swindling ways and lead a straight life. Despite the responsibility of his new family, Jerry is swayed by the corruptible influence of jewellery thief Felix Evans. When Evans lures Jerry into a job, it puts the continuation of his new family life at risk.
Also starring Carole Lombard, Shirley Temple, Guy Standing and Charlotte Granville
When Gary Cooper first met Shirley Temple on the set of this movie, he asked her for her autograph.
Shirley Temple memorized every line of dialogue in this movie, and whenever Gary Cooper forgot or fumbled his lines, Temple prompted him, much to Cooper's annoyance.
Maria’s Notes
As Now and Forever was made in 1934 my father was still kind of “newlywed"(1933 marriage) and he didn’t want to accept more than one picture that year. My memories years later of his comments about that film revolved mainly around one very little, cute, adorable…and highly annoying little girl named Shirley Temple who played his daughter. She already had made a name for herself in the industry. He admired a lot her intelligence and talentbut was highly irritated with her annoying habit of knowing not only her own, but everybody else’s lines when shooting a scene. Little Shirley was not shy about speaking up and correcting you in front of the cast if you made a dialogue mistake and said “and” instead of “but”. Understandably, this is never done and it drove him crazy!!!But he overcame that frustration and they actually got along very well. and their relationship and scenes together are touching and memorable. By contrast, his co-star Carol Lombard and he have an explosive relationship in the film. The contact and dynamics work very well for the story. Off screen Carole was a family friend and there was many a weekend afternoon with the Coopers and she and Clark Gable who were madly in love with each other, just relaxing, playing tennis, swimming. I have been told she could hold her own with the guys when it came to swearing—quite a shock coming from this very feminine blond!The movie was a “sleeper” and a much better picture than popularly acknowledged by the critics at the time. But the public was very happy!
Maria Cooper Janis