The Naked Edge

The Naked Edge

Directed by Michael Anderson. 97 mins (1961)

Gary Cooper - George Radcliffe

Five years after George Radcliffe was the chief witness in a high profile murder case, his wife receives a blackmailing letter accusing him of the crime.

Also starring Martha Radcliffe, Eric Portman, Diane Cilento, Hermione Gingold and Peter Cushing.

Thriller based on the novel "First Train to Babylon" by Max Ehrlich. Gary Cooper's final film, completed December 1960. After "The End" is flashed on the screen and fades out, a disembodied voice is heard under the black screen asking the audience not to reveal the identity of the killer.

Tagline - Only the man who wrote Psycho could jolt you like this!

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer

The Lives of a Bengal Lancer

Directed by Henry Hathaway. 109mins (1935)

Gary Cooper - Lieutenant McGregor

The 41st Bengal Lancers are stationed on the Northwest Frontier of British India, guarding against Afridi invaders led by wily Mohammed Khan. Experienced (though insubordinate) Lieut. McGregor is joined by two new arrivals, haughty Forsythe and callow Donald Stone...son of the commanding colonel. We follow the three through varied adventures and hardships. Will they uphold the honor of the regiment? Will Stone and the Colonel come to terms with their difficult relationship?

Also starring  Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, Guy Standing, C. Aubrey Smith, Kathleen Burke and Douglass Dumbrille.

Based on the book by Francis Yeats-Brown, published in 1930 and one of the biggest hits of the year.This is the film where Douglass Dumbrille says, "We have ways of making men talk," although everybody remembers it as, "We have ways of making you talk."

Nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, winning 2 - Best Assistant Director and Best Assistant Director.

Tagline - Set in the spectacle of mystic India with its glittering mosques, oriental palaces, weird music, bronzed nautch dancers

The Legion of the Condemned

Legion of the Condemned

Directed by William A Wellman 80 mins. (1928)

Gary Cooper – Gale Price

Finding his sweetheart, Christine, in the arms of a German officer, Price joins the French Air Legion. Christine is later revealed to be the spy whom Price has been ordered to drop behind enemy lines. They are reconciled, are captured by the Germans, and are rescued by his unit.

Also starring Fay Wray, Barry Norton, Lane Chandler and Francis McDonald

This silent film, which is presumed lost, has a scene featuring a plane attack on a German troop train was originally a scene cut from Wings (1927) after its original premier.

The Last Outlaw

The Last Outlaw

Directed by Christy Cabanne 62 mins (1936)

Gary Cooper – 

After serving 25 years in prison for robbery, Dean Payton returns to his home town to see his daughter, Sally, who is unaware he is her father. He befriends Cal Yates, the now semi-retired assistant sheriff who originally caught him, and Chuck Wilson, a young rancher who has eyes for Sally. Wanted criminal Al Goss holds up the local bank and makes his getaway, taking Sally hostage. Showing he still has what it takes, Payton, along with Yates and Wilson, take off into the hills on horseback to try to track Goss down. 

Also starring Harry Carey, Hoot Gibson, Tom Tyler and Henry B Walthall

The Hanging Tree

The Hanging Tree

Directed by Delmer Daves. 107mins (1959)

Character study of a Doctor who saves a local criminal from a mob who are trying to hang him, but then tries to control the life of the young man, realising that he can exploit his secret.

Gary Cooper - Dr. Joseph Frail
Also starring Maria Schell, Karl Malden, George C. Scott, Karl Swenson, Virginia Gregg and Ben Piazza.

Western based on the novel of the same name by Dorothy M. Johnson, published in 1957. It was left ambiguous whether the doctor had killed his unfaithful wife.

Oscar nomination for Best Song.

Tagline -  A Picture Of Thundering Power!

Maria’s Notes

The Hanging Tree is a film that was particularly close to my father’s heart. Certain things resonated for him relating to his Montana childhood, the lure of the gold rush days in 1873 and many of the flaws in our human nature so graphically depicted in the plot of the film. As the main character, a doctor named Joe Frail, it also provided my father with a chance to play a much darker role than usually attributed to Gary Cooper. The atypical Cooper role in the persona of Dr. Frail is not one his public was used to seeing him in and he relished the chance to play a role that stretched him. The superb cast of Maria Schell (her first American film), the wonderful Karl Malden, seasoned director Delmer Daves, came together to make this the unique film that it is. Del Daves sometimes seemed to vanish from the camp near Yakima, Washington. In the course of filming, it was discovered that he was an avid amateur geologist and rock/mineral collector and he would venture off on his own personal expeditions to find a special kind of ancient rock formation – or perhaps it was the remnants of some gold nuggets flushed out of the mountains after a heavy rain. At one point, Daves took ill and Karl Malden came to the rescue encouraged by my father to take the reins as needed. I still have a gold nugget from the site that my father made into a pendant.

As I watched my father Gary Cooper's film The Hanging Tree now, 60 plus years after it was made, I am more aware than ever of how natural Gary Cooper’s acting style was - though I don’t think he would have referred to himself as having an “acting style.” He worked at immersing himself in the character and then let his intuitive feelings and emotions about who that character was, what drove him to be and do the things he did, come naturally then he said, “I don’t have to act.” As an unusual Gary Cooper type in The Hanging Tree, he portrays a much “darker” hero and his face reflects layers of inner conflicts not usually identified with a typical Western hero, particularly Gary Cooper. His character, a doctor named Joe Frail, is trying to escape his past memories - most raw, his personal wounding by his betrayal by his wife with his own brother. Maria Schell, the beautiful talented actress from Germany, is given her first American film and she is given a more complex female role than those usually handed to women in a Western film - she is neither a prostitute nor a school marm. There is a haunting musical score by Max Steiner and performed by Marty Robbins that threads through the film as it captures the emotional drama of anger, sadness and ultimately love which is portrayed at the end of the film.

Maria Cooper Janis

The General Died at Dawn

The General Died at Dawn

Directed by Lewis Milestone. 98 mins (1936)

Gary Cooper - O'Hara

In revolution-torn China, American mercenary O’Hara (Gary Cooper) is entrusted with a perilous mission, to get arms for the helpless authorities in a province ravaged by warlord General Yang (Akim Tamiroff). On the train to Shanghai, he meets Judy Perrie (Madeleine Carroll), whose father is in league with Yang. Will Judy regret agreeing to lure O’Hara to his doom, and if so, can she make it up to him? The balance of power seesaws to a perilous conclusion.

Also starring Madeleine Carroll, Akim Tamiroff, Dudley Digges, Porter Hall and William Frawley.

Future novelist John O Hara made his only acting appearance as a reporter on a train. Twenty-two years later Gary Cooper would star in the screen adaptation of O'Hara's novel Ten North Frederick.

Nominated for 3 Oscars - Best Supporting Actor (Akim Tamiroff), Best Cinematography and Best Music Score (Boris Moross).

The Fountainhead

The Fountainhead

Directed by King Vidor 114 mins (1949)

Gary Cooper - Howard Roark

An uncompromising, visionary architect struggles to maintain his integrity and individualism despite personal, professional and economic pressures to conform to popular standards.

Also starring Patricia Neal,  Raymond Massey, Kent Smith, Robert Douglas and Henry Hull.

Drama based on the best-selling novel by Ayn Rand, published in 1943. Director King Vidor wanted Humphrey Bogart for the lead role but author Ayn Rand insisted on Gary Cooper. The courtroom speech by Gary Cooper  was the longest in film history up until that time.

Tagline - No Man Takes What's Mine!

The Cowboy and the Lady

The Cowboy & The Lady

Directed by H.C Potter 

Gary Cooper – Stretch Willoughby

Mary Smith decides after a lifetime of being a shut-in to do something wild while her father is out campaigning for the presidency, so she takes off for the family’s home in West Palm Beach and inadvertently becomes romantically entangled with earnest cowboy Stretch Willoughby. Neither the dalliance nor the cowboy fit with the upper class image projected by her esteemed father, forcing her to choose.

Also starring Merle Oberon, Patsy Kelly, Walter Brennan, Fuzzy Knight, Henry Kolker and Mabel Todd

The role of Mary's father, Horace Smith, was originally assigned to Thomas Mitchell, but due to various production issues, shooting was delayed. As a result, Mitchell, who had a previous commitment, had to leave before his scenes were completed. All of his previously shot scenes were scrapped, and his part was recast with Henry Kolker, who quickly re-shot all of Mitchell's scenes.

Nominated for 3 Oscars, winning one, Best Sound, Recording.

The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell

The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell

Directed by Otto Preminger. 100 mins (1955)

Gary Cooper - Col. Billy Mitchell

A dramatization of the American general and his court martial for publically complaining about High Command’s dismissal and neglect of the aerial fighting forces.

Also starring Charles Bickford, Ralph Bellamy, Rod Steiger, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jack Lord, Peter Graves and Darren McGavin.

Based on real events. Gen. Frank R. McCoy, one of the court-martial's judges, served as a pallbearer at Mitchell's funeral in 1935, ten years after the trial. The appearance of Major H. H. ("Hap") Arnold, played by Robert Brubaker in the film, is significant, for it was he who would authorize the famed Doolittle air attack on Tokyo in April 1942. The raid consisted of B-25 Mitchell bombers - named in honor of Billy Mitchell.

Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay. 

Tagline - He defied the army and navy . . . and they gave him a Court Martial!

The Betrayal

The Betrayal

Director Lewis Milestone 80 mins (1929)

Gary Cooper – Andre Frey

She risks all for love! All he can give her is home, position, life devotion. And she wants love. She steals it! She learns the joy and heartbreak that love really is. And you will thrill to the- REVELATION!

Also starring Emil Jennings, Esther Ralston, Douglas Haig and Jada Weller

This film was Gary Cooper’s last silent drama film.

The Adventures of Marco Polo

The Adventures of Marco Polo

Directed by Archie Mayo. 104 mins (1938)

Gary Cooper - Marco Polo

Marco Polo travels from Venice to Peking, where he quickly discovers spaghetti and gunpowder and falls in love with the Emperor's daughter. The Emperor Kublai Khan is a kindly fellow, but his evil aide Ahmed wants to get rid of Kublai Khan so he can be emperor, and to get rid of Marco Polo so he can marry the princess. Ahmed sends Marco Polo to the West to fight barbarians, but he returns just in time to save the day.

Also starring Basil Rathbone, Sigrid Gurie, Binnie Barnes, Alan Hale, H.B. Warner and Lana Turner.

Lana Turner later recalled that her "fancy black oriental wig" had been glued around her face with spirit gum, while she felt extremely uncomfortable in her costumes and, worse yet, had her eyebrows shaved off at the insistence of Samuel Goldwyn himself, and replaced with false slanting black ones.

10 North Frederick

10 North Frederick

Directed by Phillip Dunne 102 mins  (1958)

Gary Cooper  - Joseph B. “Joe” Chapin

At his father's funeral, Joe Chapin thinks back over the last five years of his life, years of apparent political and personal failure dominated by a selfish and dissatisfied wife and eased only by alcohol. But it starts to emerge that there was in fact one brief and unsuspected period of happiness and love.

Also starring  Geraldine Fitzgerald, Diane Varsi, Ray Stricklyn, Barbara Nichols, Tom Tully and Stuart Whitman.

The film is based on the 1955 National Book Award-winning novel by John O'Hara. In the novel, Ann Chapin has an abortion. That was considered too volatile for 1950s audiences, so in the film she has a miscarriage.

Nominated for a Golden Globe and winning Golden Sail at Locarno International Film Festival.

Task Force

Task Force

Directed by Delmer Daves. 116 mins (1949)

Gary Cooper - Jonathan L. Scott

After learning the finer points of carrier aviation in the 1920s, career officer Jonathan Scott and his pals spend the next two decades promoting the superiority of naval air power. But military and political “red tape” continually frustrate their efforts, prompting Scott to even consider leaving the Navy for a more lucrative civilian job. Then the world enters a second World War and Scott finally gets the opportunity to prove to Washington the valuable role aircraft carriers could play in winning the conflict. But what will it cost him and his comrades personally?

Also starring Jane Wyatt, Wayne Morris, Walter Brennan, Julie London and Jack Holt.

The entire film is in black and white except for the last 18 minutes which were shot in color.

In the film, Gary Cooper is offered a copy of the book "A Farewell To Arms" by a fellow officer. Cooper starred in the 1932 film adaptation of Hemingway's novel.

Starlift

Starlift

Directed by Roy Del Ruth  103 mins (1951)

Gary Cooper – Gary Cooper

To impress a movie star, a U.S. Air Force crewman pretends he is soon to see combat. When his lie gets out, chaos ensues.

Also starring Doris Day, Gordon MacRae, James Cagney, Randolph Scott and Ruth Roman

The plot involves a  cavalcade of movie stars who are in San Francisco for a world movie premiere. Because of a chance meeting with a couple of air force men, some of those movie stars, including Doris Day and Ruth Roman, head to Travis Air Force Base outside of the city. Seeing the life of the enlisted men heading off to the Korean War, the movie stars decide to visit with the returning wounded men and put on a show at the base. Things turn chaotic though…..

Springfield Rifle

Springfield Rifle

Directed by Andre de Toth 93 mins (1952)

Gary Cooper - Maj. Alex  “Lex” Kearney

Major Lex Kearney, dishonorably discharged from the army for cowardice in battle, has actually volunteered to go undercover to try to prevent raids against shipments of horses desperately needed for the Union war effort. Falling in with the gang of jayhawkers and Confederate soldiers who have been conducting the raids, he gradually gains their trust and is put in a position where he can discover who has been giving them secret information revealing the routes of the horse shipments.
Western set during the Civil War.

Also starring Phyllis Thaxter, David Brian, Paul Kelly, Philip Carey and Lon Chaney Jr.

While filming at Lone Pine, California, at the base of Mount Whitney, a mushroom cloud from a nuclear device was seen on the horizon coming from a Nevada nuclear test site. The test site was operational from 1951 until 1992.

Tagline - The Gun That Made One Man The Equal Of Five!

Souls at Sea

Souls at Sea

Directed by Henry Hathaway

Gary Cooper – Michael “Nuggin” Taylor

Michael ‘Nuggin’ Taylor and Powdah save lives during a sea tragedy in this story about the slave trade on the high seas during 1842.

Also starring George Raft, Frances Dee, Henry Wilcoxon, Harry Carey and Olympe Bradna

Loosely based on the real sinking of the American ship William Brown in 1841, after hitting an iceberg 250 miles off Newfoundland.When Nuggin and Powdah are in a tavern, the bartender immerses a hot iron into their beer mugs. This was most likely part of making a popular sailor's drink at the time called a "flip". It was made with beer, rum, sugar or molasses (and possibly a spice like cinnamon or cloves). The hot poker caramelizes the sugar. The technique was also just a quick way to warm beer during the winter.

Nominated for 3 Oscars

Seven Days’ Leave

Seven Days Leave

Director Richard Wallace 80 mins (1930)

Gary Cooper – Kenneth Downey

A young Canadian soldier is wounded while fighting in World War I. While recovering from his wounds in London, a YMCA worker tells him that a Scottish widow without a son believes that he is in fact her son. To comfort the widow, the soldier agrees to pretend to be her Scottish son. After fighting with British sailors who make fun of his kilts, he wants to desert, but moved by his mother's patriotism he returns to the war front and is killed in battle. Later the proud Scottish widow receives the medals that her "son" was awarded for bravery.

Also starring Beryl Mercer, Daisy Belmore, Nora Cecil and Tempe Pigott

Based on the play The Old Lady Shows Her Medals by J.M. Barrie.

Saratoga Trunk

Saratoga Trunk

Directed by Sam Wood 135 mins (1945)

Gary Cooper – Colonel Clint Maroon

An opportunistic Texas gambler and the exiled Creole daughter of an aristocratic family join forces to achieve justice from the society that has ostracized them.

Also starring Ingrid Bergman,  Flora Robson, Jerry Austin, John Warburton and Florence Bates.

Romantic drama based on the novel by Edna Ferber, first published in 1940. The word "trunk" refers to a railroad's main line - a "trunk" line - in this case, between Albany and Binghamton, New York on the Delaware and Hudson.

Due to wartime rationing shortages, most of the vegetables in the New Orleans, Louisiana market scene were fake.

Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress (Flora Robson).

Return to Paradise

Return to Paradise

Directed by Mark Robson 100 mins (1953)

Gary Cooper – Mr. Morgan

An American drifter comes to a remote Polynesian island controlled by a Puritanical missionary and turns the social life of the island upside-down.

Also starring Barry Jones, Roberta Haynes, Moira Walker and John Hudson

Roberta Haynes said she adored working with Gary Cooper, who she noted was ill and on medication during filming on location in British West Samoa.

Peter Ibbetson

Peter Ibbetson

Directed by Henry Hathaway 85 min (1935)

Gary Cooper – Peter Ibbotson

Architect Peter Ibbetson is hired by the Duke of Towers to design a building for him. Ibbetson discovers that the Duchess of Towers, Mary, is his now-grown childhood sweetheart. Their love revives, but Peter is sentenced to life in prison for an accidental killing. Mary comes to him in dreams and they are able to live out their romance in a dream world.

Also starring Ann Harding, John Halliday, Ida Lupino, Douglas Dumbrille and Virginia Weidler

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider

Nominated for an Oscar