Let's Spam About Gary Cooper - The TCMR Edition

[MissGoddess]

Hi - I have to post here, too, and hopefully here I can keep up!

I LOVE Bengal Lancers. I think it's just about the perfect buddy picture. In fact, if I could find a picture of it, I'd like it for my avatar. I looked around yesterday and didn't find a good one. With all three heros.

Julie

Julie, this weekend I'll try to go through my gazillion pix on Photobucket and see if I can find something that can be shrunk but still recognizable.

[pktrekgirl]

I don't think Gary's skills are the fireworks type which calls attention to itself. He is so self-effacing and seemingly controlled in his demeanor, not to mention he does not use a wide range of vocal inflections, so it's easy to dismiss him as "wooden" and not exciting. It's when you take the closer look and the time to pay closer attention that you realize the magic at work. I wonder if part of the problem in my case, anyway, is seeing his movies on TV. I bet I would have "gotten" his star quality sooner had I seen him on the big screen from the start.
[/color]

Yes...wasn't it one of the directors who said that during shooting, they often thought (paraphrased) "OMG! This is gonna be the worst picture EVER! He is just terrible!" But then, they would get into the rushes and say "OMG! This is gonna be the best picture EVER! He is just fabulous!"



Do you remember who that was??

To me, that comment speaks volumes about Coop's acting. Understated...but very 'real'. He was almost not acting...but simply living the part.

[pktrekgirl]

Hi - I have to post here, too, and hopefully here I can keep up!

I LOVE Bengal Lancers. I think it's just about the perfect buddy picture. In fact, if I could find a picture of it, I'd like it for my avatar. I looked around yesterday and didn't find a good one. With all three heros.

Julie

Julie, this weekend I'll try to go through my gazillion pix on Photobucket and see if I can find something that can be shrunk but still recognizable.

Well, even if it can be cut down to something that can be made into an avatar, it would be swell. If I had a full sized version of the photo I have, I could have cut it down to a shoulder shot sort of thing and made it into an avatar...but the copy I have is so small to begin with that it wouldn't have worked.

There are so many photos of him with all of the leading ladies...but there doesn't seem to be as many photos from this film...particularly ones with all three of them in there.

[feaito]

There quite a few favorites I left out MissGoddess...

Of course I loved "The General Died at Dawn", a very unique film of its kind. "Lives of a Bengal Lancer" is also a favorite, one of the best adventure films of the 1930s. Ditto "Beau Geste". You already might have guessed that I was madly happy when The Gary Cooper Franchise Collection was issued by Universal.

"Mr. Deeds" is another top film of his I had forgotten to mention and so is "The Plainsman", an excellent adventure film with a gorgeously-looking Jean Arthur as a glamorized version of Calamity Jane.

Have you seen Gary in "One Sunday Afternoon"? That's one I ought to see. "The Wolf Song", "Souls at Sea", "Today We Live", "Devil and the Deep", "Blubeard's Eight Wife", "City Streets" and "The Shopworn Angel" are also on my list.

[JulieMarch4th]

Miss G and Pktrekgirl--

thanks for your help in trying to find a good image of this movie. I found the small one on Thursday and hoped a better one could be found.

About Coop and the camera -- I think I'd heard the same thing about Garbo? That in life, it didn't look like anything, but on film the performance was amazing?

Julie

[MissGoddess]

Yes...wasn't it one of the directors who said that during shooting, they often thought (paraphrased) "OMG! This is gonna be the worst picture EVER! He is just terrible!" But then, they would get into the rushes and say "OMG! This is gonna be the best picture EVER! He is just fabulous!"



Do you remember who that was??

Yes I think it was Sam Wood, during filming of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Ingrid made similar remarks in her autobiography. She told how Gary seemed to be doing nothing, giving nothing at all to their scenes and how astonished she was when she viewed the rushes.

Gary, like Garbo and Marilyn Monroe, had a unique relationship with the camera, and understood what he could do, implicitly. It is not a thing that can be taught. I can just imagine how amused he must have been by people's reactions and seeing their frustration.

And to really get them going, he would promptly fall asleep between takes for quickie cat-naps. Lol! I wish I had that ability.

[MissGoddess]

Well, even if it can be cut down to something that can be made into an avatar, it would be swell. If I had a full sized version of the photo I have, I could have cut it down to a shoulder shot sort of thing and made it into an avatar...but the copy I have is so small to begin with that it wouldn't have worked.

There are so many photos of him with all of the leading ladies...but there doesn't seem to be as many photos from this film...particularly ones with all three of them in there.

I don't think I have a lot of pix from Lancer, but I will look through them and see what I can find. I know I have a couple of those with the girls, but hopefully that's not all I saved.

[MissGoddess]

Miss G and Pktrekgirl--

thanks for your help in trying to find a good image of this movie. I found the small one on Thursday and hoped a better one could be found.

About Coop and the camera -- I think I'd heard the same thing about Garbo? That in life, it didn't look like anything, but on film the performance was amazing?

Julie

I hope I can find one for you, Julie.

As for comparisons between Coop and Garbo, you are absolutley right and Billy Wilder even went a giant step further: he jokingly insisted they were the same person. He declared they looked exactly alike, especially the eyes. *lol* I'm sure he was referring to when they were much younger, during the silents. Ever since I read that, I look at them both and try to see the resemblance, and there is something about their eyes that is remarkably alike. They both did most of their "acting" with their eyes, and so it's not surprising they became such giants in their field, for aren't the eyes the windows of the soul?

[pktrekgirl]

Yes I think it was Sam Wood, during filming of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Ingrid made similar remarks in her autobiography. She told how Gary seemed to be doing nothing, giving nothing at all to their scenes and how astonished she was when she viewed the rushes.

Gary, like Garbo and Marilyn Monroe, had a unique relationship with the camera, and understood what he could do, implicitly. It is not a thing that can be taught. I can just imagine how amused he must have been by people's reactions and seeing their frustration.

And to really get them going, he would promptly fall asleep between takes for quickie cat-naps. Lol! I wish I had that ability.

Yes, I'm sure you have seen that one photo of him lying on the grass with the cowboy hat over his face, taking a nap between takes.

That is hilarious...and you have to wonder what the other actors thought.

"Does this guy even care AT ALL???"

Although after a while, he probably got somewhat of a reputation for sleeping on the set and such and they ceased to be surprised.

[pktrekgirl]

As for comparisons between Coop and Garbo, you are absolutley right and Billy Wilder even went a giant step further: he jokingly insisted they were the same person. He declared they looked exactly alike, especially the eyes. *lol* I'm sure he was referring to when they were much younger, during the silents. Ever since I read that, I look at them both and try to see the resemblance, and there is something about their eyes that is remarkably alike. They both did most of their "acting" with their eyes, and so it's not surprising they became such giants in their field, for aren't the eyes the windows of the soul?

You know, looking at these to photos, you do see some resemblance. I wouldn't say they looked exactly alike or anything...and certainly in other photos they look quite different than this in any event. But certainly there is enough resemblance for them to have been related.

I wonder then, why I don't like Garbo more than I do? I mean, I'm pretty much cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs over Gary Cooper...but I can take or leave Garbo most of the time, to be honest.

I love her in her silents...but she often gets on my nerves in the talkies - all of that moaning and sighing she does drives me batty. She was beautiful...and had a lovely voice. But the moaning just grates on me.

[MissGoddess]

You know, looking at these to photos, you do see some resemblance. I wouldn't say they looked exactly alike or anything...and certainly in other photos they look quite different than this in any event. But certainly there is enough resemblance for them to have been related.

I wonder then, why I don't like Garbo more than I do? I mean, I'm pretty much cuckoo-for-cocoa-puffs over Gary Cooper...but I can take or leave Garbo most of the time, to be honest.

I love her in her silents...but she often gets on my nerves in the talkies - all of that moaning and sighing she does drives me batty. She was beautiful...and had a lovely voice. But the moaning just grates on me.

I really like Garbo but I used to simply adore her. My "ardour" has cooled somewhat, or moved on to other stars but I do, like you, prefer her silents now. Except for Ninotchka and Conquest (with Boyer---boy, you know I like it for him as much as anything and I'm sure you do too ).

She was never more beautiful than in her silents, especially in The Single Standard and A Woman of Affairs.

I have to be "in the mood" to watch her films---in an exotic mood. She is not for every day, for me at least. A special star and perhaps an acquired taste for some. Still, though some of her movies are not huge favorites with me, I've never seen her give a bad, so-so or even boring performance. She is quite mesmerizing to me, in spite of some of her roles.

[MissGoddess]

Great news, if anybody is in the New York area April 25 - May 6th (and I will post this elsewhere so Stanwyck fans will be sure to see it), The Brooklyn Academy of Music is putting on a series of screenings to celebrate Barbara Stanwyck's centennial, and included are Ball of Fire and Meet John Doe!!!! I'm too thrilled for words and you just know I will be there. My first opportunity to see Gary on the big screen!

Lots of other fabulous Stanwyck movies will be shown, so it's a must for any fans in the area.

Here is the link for details:

http://www.bam.org/film/series.aspx?id= ... ble%20Bill

[pktrekgirl]

I really like Garbo but I used to simply adore her. My "ardour" has cooled somewhat, or moved on to other stars but I do, like you, prefer her silents now. Except for Ninotchka and Conquest (with Boyer---boy, you know I like it for him as much as anything and I'm sure you do too ).

Well, anything with Charles Boyer in it falls into a completely different category. I could easily put up with two hours of Garbo moaning...IF there were equal parts Charles Boyer talking.

LORD HAVE MERCY!!! I could listen to that man forever.

Second favorite among the talkies would be anything with Melvyn Douglas in it. He makes every picture better, IMO. And I can take Grand Hotel as well because there are so many other stars to focus on in that one.

I think the picture that just put me over the edge was Camille. That one just grates on my nerves. I'm not the biggest Robert Taylor fan to begin with, and Garbo doesn't help by moaning and sighing her way though that entire film - WAY more than is necessary. I'll watch the Valentino version of Camille innumerable times - Nazimova was breathtaking, Valentino was EXCEEDINGLY breathtaking, Rambova's sets were breathtaking.

But the Garbo/Taylor version? I could go the rest of my life without seeing that film again.

She was never more beautiful than in her silents, especially in The Single Standard and A Woman of Affairs.

I have to be "in the mood" to watch her films---in an exotic mood. She is not for every day, for me at least. A special star and perhaps an acquired taste for some. Still, though some of her movies are not huge favorites with me, I've never seen her give a bad, so-so or even boring performance. She is quite mesmerizing to me, in spite of some of her roles.

Oh, there is no doubt about it, Greta Garbo was breathtakingly beautiful. And I've not seen a single one of her silents that I didn't enjoy. I particularly love the ones with John Gilbert...but anything silent, I'll watch.

I guess I don't see her as exotic though. Maybe because my threshold for exotic might be bumped up to a really high level as a result of watching WAY more Valentino than is good for a woman's health and sanity.

Watching the tango scene of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse over and over for about 10 times in a row....or watching Sheik Ahmed Ben Hassan drag Lady Diana off of her horse at top speed a few times generally fills my need for 'exotic'.

I am SUCH a fangirl.

[MissGoddess]

I really must see more Valentino movies. I'll never forget the huge impression he made on me as a young girl, when I happened upon his Son of the Sheik on television one night. I think that was my first exposure to that particular flavor of exotic eroticism. Such themes were really the vogue in the 1920s, influencing literature, fashion and decor, and especially films. Is SotS on dvd? If it is, I will definitely rent it on Netflix.

[jdb1]

Yes...wasn't it one of the directors who said that during shooting, they often thought (paraphrased) "OMG! This is gonna be the worst picture EVER! He is just terrible!" But then, they would get into the rushes and say "OMG! This is gonna be the best picture EVER! He is just fabulous!"



Do you remember who that was??

Yes I think it was Sam Wood, during filming of For Whom the Bell Tolls. Ingrid made similar remarks in her autobiography. She told how Gary seemed to be doing nothing, giving nothing at all to their scenes and how astonished she was when she viewed the rushes.

Gary, like Garbo and Marilyn Monroe, had a unique relationship with the camera, and understood what he could do, implicitly. It is not a thing that can be taught. I can just imagine how amused he must have been by people's reactions and seeing their frustration.

And to really get them going, he would promptly fall asleep between takes for quickie cat-naps. Lol! I wish I had that ability.

An interesting sidelight, not about Cooper, though. Richard Burton told a similar story of his first professional encounter with Elizabeth Taylor. He said he felt that she was giving nothing in their scene, and complained to the director. He was told "Wait until you see the rushes." And, to his amazement, Taylor was amazing, and dominated the screen (and he was no slouch himself when it came to blowing other actors away in his scenes). There's no question, some actors just have "It" and don't really have to do much else but just stand there in front of the camera. Cooper was definitely one of those.