Love in the Afternoon

Love In the Afternoon

Directed by Billy Wilder

Gary Cooper – Frank Flannaghan

A private investigator reveals to his client that his wife is having an affair with a notorious womanizer, the wealthy Frank Flannagan. His client decides to shoot Flannagan at his hotel. Overhearing this, the investigator's daughter rushes to Flannagan to prevent his murder, and the two eventually become attracted to each other.

Also starring Audrey Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, John McGiver, Van Doude and lise Bourdin

A line was dubbed into the release print to dispel the impression that Audrey Hepburn’s and gary Cooper’s characters actually have sex in their many afternoon meetings in his hotel room. As he is moving out of frame in Maurice chevalier’s office, Cooper obviously replaces a different filmed line in voiceover, and says, "I can't get to first base with her." This appears to be an effort at self-censorship, given the clear implications of sexual intimacy that come before this scene.

Nominated for 4 awards winning 2 Golden Laurels and 1 from WGA

Lilac Time

Lilac Time

Directed by George Fitzmaurice 80 min (1928)

Gary Cooper – Capt. Philip Blythe

All of those handsome young men in their flying machines are billeted in a field next to the Widow Berthelot’s farmhouse in France. Her daughter Jeannine is curious about the young men fighting for England in World War I and their airplanes. Then one of the aviators is killed. His replacement is Captain Philip Blythe who can’t help but notice Jeannine. When he lands the first time, she is standing in the middle of his “runway.” She makes a more favorable impression when he sees her later by the lilacs. When all of the young men depart on a mission, Blythe promises to return.

Also starring Colleen Moore, Eugenie Besserer, Burr McIcintosh, and Kathryn McGuire

To enhance the viewing experience, a Boston theater put oil of lilac in the ventilation system during the showing of this film in 1929.

It’s a Great Feeling

It’s a Great Feeling

Directed by David Butler

Gary Cooper – Gary Cooper

A waitress at the Warner Brothers commissary is anxious to break into pictures. She thinks her big break may have arrived when actors Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan agree to help her.

Also starring Dennis Morgan, Doris Day, Jack Carson, Bill Goodwin and Irving Bacon

Nominated for 1 Oscar

It’s a Big Country

It’s a Big Country

Directed by Clarence Brown, Don Hartman, john Sturges, Richard Thorpe, Charles Vidor, don Weis and William A. Wellman 89 mins (1951)

Gary Cooper – Texas

Comprised of eight unrelated episodes of inconsistent quality, this anthology piece of American propaganda features some of MGM Studios’ best directors, screenwriters and actors; it is narrated by Louis Calhern. Stories are framed by the lecture of a university professor. In one tale a Boston resident becomes angry when the census forgets to record her presence. Another sketch chronicles the achievements of African Americans while still another pays tongue-in-cheek tribute to Texas

Also starring Ethel Barrymore, Keefe Brasselle, Nancy Reagan, Janet Leigh and Gene Kelly

If I Had a Million

If I Had a Million

Directed by James Cruze, H. Bruce Humberstone, Ernst Lubitsch, Norman Z. McLeod, Lothar Mendes, Stephen Roberts, William A. Seiter and Norman Taurog 88 mins (1932)

Gary Cooper – Steve Gallagher

Tycoon John Glidden, dying though still vigorous, is so dissatisfied with his relatives and associates that, rather than will his money to any of them, he decides to give it away in million-dollar amounts to strangers picked from the city directory. He picks a meek china salesman; a prostitute; a forger; two ex-vaudevilleans who hate road hogs; a condemned man; a mild-mannered clerk; a boisterous marine; and an oppressed inmate of an old ladies' home

Also starring Charles Laughton, George Raft, Jack Oakie, Richard Bennett and Charles Ruggles

Although he is billed first, Gary Cooper does not appear until 54 minutes into the film

His Woman

His Woman

Directed by Edward Sloman 76 mins (1931)

Gary Cooper – Capt. Sam Whalen

Tough Caribbean freighter Captain Sam Whelan engages Sally Clark, a tramp masquerading as a missionary's daughter, to care for an abandoned baby on board his ship. En route to New York, ships mate Gatson sexually attacks her. The Captain knocks Gatson overboard in an ensuing scuffle. A romance developing between the Captain and Miss Clark is put to the test in New York after an assault investigation uncovers the girl's questionable past.

Also starring Claudette Colbert, Averil Harris, Joseph Calleia and Hamtree Harrington.

Good Sam

Good Sam

Directed by Leo McCarey 114 mins (1948)

Gary Cooper – Sam Clayton

Sam Clayton has a good heart and likes to help out people in need. In fact, he likes to help them out so much that he often finds himself broke and unable to help his own family buy the things they need–like a house.

Also starring Ann Sheridan, Ray Collins, Edmund Lowe, Joan Lorring and Clinton Sundberg

Director Leo Mccarey shot two different endings and let remarks by preview audiences determine which one to use.

Garden of Evil

Garden of Evil

Directed by Henry Hathaway 100 mins (1954)

Gary Cooper – Hooker

Three Americans are headed by ship around the cape to the California gold fields when they are put ashore for several weeks in a sleepy little Mexican village. While there, they are offered the job of following a lady deep into the Indian-infested mountains of Mexico to rescue the lady's husband trapped by a cave-in at their gold mine. For the job they are promised $2000 each. While each contemplates their own chances for getting the lady and/or the gold mine, if they can survive to enjoy it.

Also starring Susan Hayward, Richard Widmark, Hugh Marlowe, Cameron Mitchell and Rita Moreno.

Many of the musical motifs in Bernard Herrmann's score are reminiscent of those he used a few years later in Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo."

Friendly Persuasion

Friendly Persuasion

Directed by William Wyler

Gary Cooper – Jess Birdwell

A Quaker family live a peaceful and productive life in a prosperous Indiana farming community during the Civil War. Jess Birdwell, his wife Eliza and their children live their faith and their beliefs every day. They are friendly, open, honest and welcoming. They live an almost idyllic life. They also preach non-violence and remain neutral as far as the war and fighting goes. They are against slavery but don't feel men should be killed over the issue. Their eldest daughter Mattie is sweet on Gard Jordan who is now a Union Lieutenant but they think no less of him for that. Their peaceful coexistence with the war is tested, along with their faith and their beliefs, when a Confederate army threatens their area.

Also starring Dorothy McGuire, Anthony Perkins, Richard Eyer, Robert Middleton and Phyllis Love

This was President Ronald Reagan's favourite film. In May 1988 he presented Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev with a VHS copy.

Nominated for 6 Oscars, winner at Cannes Film Festival

Fighting Caravans

Fighting Caravans

Directed by Otto Bower and David Burton 92 mins (1931)

Gary Cooper – Clint Belmet

Clint Belmet is a bit of a firebrand and is sentenced to at least 30 days in jail, but his partners, Bill Jackson  and Jim Bridger talk a sympathetic Frenchwoman named Felice into telling the bumbling, drunken marshal that Clint had married her the previous night. Clint is released so he can accompany Felice on the wagon train heading west to California.

Also starring Lili Damita, Ernest Torrence, Trully Marshall and Fred Kohler

Doomsday

Doomsday

Directed by Rowland Lee 60 mins (1928)

Gary Cooper – Arnold Furze

A woman must choose between a life on the farm and a life of luxury.

Also starring Florence Vidor, Lawrence Grant and Charles A Stevenson

The New York Times critic Mordaunt Hall wrote at the time that Cooper's acting in this silent film is "wonderfully natural" and gives the character "an ingratiating personality". 

Distant Drums

Distant Drums

Directed by Raoul Walsh 101 mins (1951)

Gary Cooper – Capt. Quincey Wyatt

After destroying a Seminole fort, American soldiers and their rescued companions must face the dangerous Everglades and hostile Indians in order to reach safety.

Also starring Mari Aldon, Richard Webb, Ray Teal and Robert Barrat

Cooper loved the adventure of making Distant Drums. His old friend and longtime stand-in and stunt double Slim Talbot later said, "I never doubled a stunt for Cooper in this one. And he never worked harder. But he was doing the things he likes and wouldn't pass them up for the world."

Two Americans sharing a flat in Paris, playwright Tom Chambers and painter George Curtis, fall for free-spirited Gilda Farrell. When she can’t make up her mind which one of them she prefers, she proposes a “gentleman’s agreement”: She will move in with them as a friend and critic of their work, but they will never have sex. But when Tom goes to London to supervise a production of one of his plays, leaving Gilda alone with George, how long will their gentleman’s agreement last?

Devil and the Deep

Devil and the Deep

Directed by Marion Gering 78 mins (1932)

Gary Cooper – Lt. Semper

Naval commander Charles Storm has made life miserable for his wife Diana due to his insane jealousy over every man she speaks to. His obsessive behavior soon drives her to the arms of a handsome lieutenant. When Charles learns of their affair, he plots revenge.

Also starring Tallulah Bankhead, Charles Laughton, Cary Grant and Paul Porcasi

At no point is the navy that Charles Laughton, Cary Grant and Gary Cooper and belong to named. That the officers are English and others American would not make sense in the British or U.S. navy, but no flags or emblems are seen, and their uniforms belong to no known country on earth.

Design for Living

Design for Living 

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch. 91mins. (1933)

Gary Cooper - George Curtis

A woman cannot decide between two men who love her, and the trio agree to try living together in a platonic friendly relationship.

Also starring Frederic Maarsh, Miriam Hopkins, Edward Everett Horton, Isabel Jewell and Jane Darwell.

Based on the play of the same name by Noel Coward, this was the tenth most popular movie at the U.S. box office for 1933.

Dallas

Dallas

Directed by Stuart Heisler 94 mins (1950)

Gary Cooper – Blayde “Reb” Hollister

Land, a family, a future. They’re “dreams, fried up, short order” for Blayde Hollister (Gary Cooper). Rightly or wrongly, this ex-Confederate from Georgia has waged his own war to settle past injustices. Now he’s a wanted man. And he can feel the law closing in on him. Posing as a Boston dandy, he comes to the boom town with a gun and a plan: to smoke out the notorious Marlow brothers (including Steve Cochran and Raymond Massey), then give ’em a whiff of gunsmoke. Director Stuart Heisler (Along Came Jones) keeps the pace flowing like the local saloon’s liquor. Max Steiner’s score gallops like a hell-for-leather posse and screenwriter John Twist fires scene after scene with lines like “you’ll get your pockets picked in a graveyard”. Dallas, here we come!

Also starring Ruth Roman, Steve Cochran, Raymond Massey and Barbara Payton

Reed Hadley played the part of Wild Bill Hickok in this film. Gary Cooper starred as the same character in "The Plainsman" (DeMille, 1936).

Cloak and Dagger

Cloak and Dagger

Directed by Fritz Lang 106 mins (1946)

Gary Cooper – Prof. Alvah Jesper

In this Fritz Lang’s compelling World War II espionage thriller, Gary Cooper stars as Alvah Jasper, a shy and retiring physics professor at a midwestern university. When government agents press Jasper into joining them in an effort to curtail the Nazis’ efforts to attain atomic secrets, his life takes a dramatic turn.

Also starring Robert Alda, Lilli Palmer, Vladimir Sokoloff and J. Edward Bromberg

During one scene while Gary Cooper is walking, there is a shot of his ankle, shoe and pant leg and what appears to be a "leg brace". Cooper limped due to a car accident as a younger man. There is no indication in the film that the prosthetic was planned or a deliberate and part of the character.

MAria’s notes

This film was made in 1946 cast my father very much against type. his role as a nuclear scientist names Alvah Jasper was what the Austrian director Fritz Lang wanted to do, and he always said he based the character Jasper on our famous atomic scientist J. R. Oppenheimier.

I remember going out with my parents to visit Cal Tech  where the studio had arranged for him to get a “little coaching” from the scientific community there. To get into the skin of an atomic scientist was not a role my father did with ease. He was coached in order to learn to speak with ease, some of the technical dialogue and  acquire some information about  the ‘splitting of atoms”!! He was in awe  as we stood in the back of the classroom/laboratory and watched the professor  fill a huge blackboard  with numbers, diagrams, equations: He wrote so fast the images seemed to explode all over the board, like a meadow of Paul Klee creatures come to life. In an unusual way this was a challenging film for my father and he was nervous about delivering his scientific dialogue with enough conviction and knowledge. As for the physical ‘action” there are rough fights in this film and he did not use a double  in spite of was suffering from an old hip and back injury.

The “message” of the movie about the dangers of Atomic Energy and its misuse in the wrong hands, created controversy. In a speech that Jasper gives he passionately says— “ Peace? There is no peace. It’s year ONE of the AtomicAge and God have mercy on us all——if we think we can wage other wars without destroying ourselves etc…”. It got thrown out by the studio and they insisted Jasper/Cooper deliver a bland, innocuous speech, which for me undermined some of the guts of the story.

Poppa loved working with Lily Palmer in this, her first American film. She became a close family friend as well a his co-star, and he felt was an extremely  fine actress. This is a very different Gary Cooper film, but he always wanted to try out different personas …another facet of his versatile acting talents.

Maria Cooper Janis

City Streets

City Streets

Directed by Rouben Mamoulian 83 mins (1931)

Gary Cooper – The Kid

Nan, a racketeer's daughter, is in love with The Kid, a shooting gallery showman. Despite Nan's prodding, The Kid has no ambitions about joining the rackets and making enough money to support Nan in the lifestyle she's accustomed to. Her attitude changes after her father implicates her in a murder and she's sent to prison. During her incarceration, her father convinces The Kid to join the gang in order to help free Nan. When Nan is released, she wants nothing more to do with the mob and tries to get The Kid to quit, but she may be too late.

Also starring Sylvia Sidney, Paul Lukas, William “Stage” Boyd and Wynne Gibson

The first sound flashback. Dialogue heard earlier in the film was repeated over a huge close-up of Sylvia Sydney’s tear-stained face as she recalls the past.

Children of Divorce

Children of Divorce

Directed by Frank Lloyd 70 mins (1927)

Gary Cooper – Edward D. “Ted” Larrabee

A young flapper tricks her childhood sweetheart into marrying her. He really loves another woman, but didn’t marry her for fear the marriage would end in divorce, like his parents’. Complications ensue.

Also starring Clara Bow, Esther Ralston, Einar Hanson and Norman Trevor

James Hall was originally chosen to play the male lead in this silent movie, but the role was given to Gary Cooper at the insistence of star Clara Bow. The role helped to propel Cooper towards superstardom.

Bright Leaf

Bright Leaf

Directed by Michael Curtiz 110 mins (1950)

Gary Cooper – Brant Royle

In 1894, Royle returns to a southern town which he and his father had been forced to leave by Singleton, the biggest and richest tobacco-grower in the area. Royle, among other plans, intends to marry Singleton's daughter, Margaret, and gain possession of Singleton's fabulous mansion, "Bright Leaf." He gets the need financial support to compete against Singleton from an old flame, Sonia, and he eventually does so, and drives Singleton to suicide. To complete his business affairs, he marries Margaret. But Margaret also has a plan or two, none of which bode well for her new husband.

Also starring Lauren Bacall, Patricia Neal, Jack Carson, Donald Crisp and Gladys George.

This was the last film in Lauren Bacall’s seven-year contract with Warner Brothers.To add accuracy to the film, an authentic, turn-of-the- century cigarette maker was purchased as a prop.

Bluebeard’s 8th Wife

Bluebeard’s 8th Wife

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch 85 mins (1938)

Gary Cooper – Michael Brandon

US multi-millionaire Michael Brandon marries his eight wife, Nicole, the daughter of a broken French Marquis. But she doesn’t want to be only a number in the row of his ex-wives and starts her own strategy to “tame” him.

Also starring Claudette Colbert, Edward Everett Horton, David Niven and Elizabeth Patterson.

This film was based on a French play by Alfred Savoir that was translated into English by Charlton Andrews and produced on Broadway. The New York production opened on Sept. 19, 1921 at the Ritz Theatre and ran for 155 performances. It has previously been produced as a silent film starring Gloria Swanson – Bluebeard’s 8th Wife.