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Post by Coopsgirl on Jun 15, 2009 11:27:30 GMT -6
I think Gary worked best with Barbara Stanwyck, Jean Arthur, Ingrid Bergman, and Patricia Neal.
He didn’t have flings with Barbara or Jean but he did with Ingrid and he had a four year affair with Patricia. Because of this I think there is a sweeter type of chemistry between he and Barbara and Jean and there’s real crackling sexual tension between him, Ingrid, and Patricia. They were also very talented actresses.
My least faves are Sigrid Gurie, Tallulah Bankhead, Miriam Hopkins, and Grace Kelly. All these chicks just get on my nerves and I try to avoid their films.
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Post by bellapisces on Jun 15, 2009 19:13:27 GMT -6
See, I found Patricia Neal annoyingly melodramatic opposite Gary Cooper in The Fountainhead. [I've yet to see anything else she's been in, so I don't know if it was just the character of Dominique Francon or Patricia Neal overacting.] But my taste may be questionable, considering I'm one of those rare people who enjoys You're In The Navy Now. [The scene where Ellie (Jane Greer) tells Johnny (Gary Cooper) they should go home to change before the dance at the Officers' Club -- "Take a shower. Freshen up. You know... change." His subsequent "oh", and the way he follows her out, once he gets what she's insinuating. -- is quite charming.]
Aside from Patricia Neal, Sigrid Gurie [the way she said "Marco Polo" worked my nerve every time] and Helen Hayes were the only ones that I didn't care for. [I've yet to see a number of Gary Cooper films, so that may change.]
As for the two different types of chemistry, I think the one he shared with Teresa Wright [both in The Pride Of The Yankees and Casanova Brown] was one of the sweetest. While him and Madeleine Carroll seemed to convey a more sexual attraction [in The General Died At Dawn].
Also, I know his role in Love In The Afternoon was criticized [i.e. too old, miscast, blah, blah], but I loved the Frank/Ariane dynamic. [Yes, I recognize the vast age difference. I'm the age Audrey Hepburn was when she made this movie.] That scene of them under the table is especially swoon-worthy. And the ending is touching.
But of all of them, Anna Sten [The Wedding Night] is probably my favorite. She was heartbreaking.
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Post by Coopsgirl on Jun 16, 2009 13:05:01 GMT -6
The Fountainhead is my least fave of his films and I’ve only seen it all the way through once. If that was all I knew of Pat I wouldn’t think she was a very good actress. That was only her second film (even though it was her first to be released) and the material was just terrible and no one did a good job in that turkey. The scenes though where there isn’t much is any dialogue (the quarry and bedroom scenes) however crackly with sexual tension and they are very good together in those. Their affair didn’t begin until after filming so the tension between the two was very real.
My dad and I both like You’re in the Navy Now as well as many other Coop fans so you’re not alone in that one. That scene you mentioned is very cute and it’s a really funny film.
I also hate the way Sigrid says “Marco Polo”. I think she was trying too hard to be sweet and naïve and instead she comes off very irritating. I do like that one but not b/c of her. Gary, Alan Hale, Binnie Barnes, Basil Rathbone, and Ernest Truex (who played Gary’s sidekick) make the movie fun to watch as they all did a good job.
I’m not real crazy about Helen Hayes but it’s not b/c of her acting. This maybe really weird but the first thing I saw her in was Anastasia and she was older then. As a compliment to how well she aged, I think she looked very similar when she was young so it’s just kind of off-putting to see her all lovey-dovey with a young Gary in A Farewell to Arms. I keep wanting to tell that old lady to get away from him – ha!
It’s a real shame about Anna Sten. She was a perfectly good actress but Samuel Goldwyn built her up as the next Garbo for an entire year before she made her American film debut. She just couldn’t live up to the hype.
I nearly forgot about Doris Davenport who played his love interest in The Westerner. She only made eight films and was only credited in five of those. This was her next to last film and I can see why, she just wasn’t very good. William Wyler who directed this one originally cast his own wife in the role but Samuel Goldwyn (again thinking he had a great new star as he did with Anna Sten) replaced her with Doris, he latest ingénue. She’s very blah and wooden.
A lot of people do complain about him being too old for Love in the Afternoon but that was kinda the point of his character and I love that one and think he and Audrey were very good together.
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Post by bellapisces on Jun 16, 2009 16:24:15 GMT -6
Ha-ha! Turkey. Yeah, the forty seconds of outtakes from the film are more enjoyable than the actual film: Nuts! (2:22 min. - 3:06 min.) Ah, good. Homer Dickens' book says that the critics liked it, but the public didn't [i.e. box-office bomb]. And it doesn't seem to be mentioned amongst the highlights of his filmography in anything I've read/heard, so I figured it wasn't well-liked. Speaking of leading ladies and William Wyler films: Dorothy McGuire in Friendly Persuasion. I found her chemistry with Gary Cooper charming. I bought them as a married couple. [The scene where the daughter catches them making out is the cutest thing. I love their different reactions to it; he's all nonchalant about it, while she's all flustered.] I was initially put off by the obvious age gap between the two, but once I saw the movie that faded. He's endearingly attractive, and she's absolutely lovely. And I love how it progresses between them.
Oh, and one more of his leading ladies: Claudette Colbert. I was so-so on her after watching It Happened One Night on TCM. Maybe 'cause I'd read/heard so much hype about it, and her, but I thought it/she was just okay. After watching her with Gary Cooper in Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, I'm still so-so on her. While I didn't think she had the best romantic chemistry with him, I did think the movie was funny and enjoyable.
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Post by superduper on Sept 5, 2010 14:47:45 GMT -6
As we all know, casting Coop in "Love In The Afternoon" has been highly criticized, but who better to play the role than Coop? The answer is no one. Not only were there very few other suitable actors available, but perhaps more importantly, no one had more insight into the role than Coop.
Despite his wholesome screen image, Coop was an infamous lady-killer in reality, allegedly having had affairs with numerous leading ladies throughout his career (just like the notorious playboy Frank Flannagan). Both men were extremely GQ and wealthy too. Coop also knew a little about relationships with much younger women (Patricia Neal among others), so when the role of Frank Flannagan came up, perhaps no one knew this character better than Coop.
The best clue about the casting is this: Coop once said about acting that, "Naturally, the nearer the character you play comes to the character you are, the more authenticity you give it. You are not acting so much as being. The result is realism."
Thus, I believe his approach to the role of Frank Flannagan may have been to just "be himself." Many critics pan his performance as uninspiring. They said he was neither believable nor did he appear to put much effort into the role. I think that was by design. However, in his desire to appear natural, he came off to some as unnatural.
I have watched the movie several times trying to understand what Coop's frame of mind may have been. My conclusion at this point is that I appreciate his performance not necessarily as a thing of great acting but more for the realism he brought to the role. I try too see in Frank the similarities to Coop the man who was both flawed but a genius for his ability to make us fall in love with him and his characters. Frank Flannagan was a cad for most of the movie; however, who out there was not overwhelmed with emotion when Frank the cad became Frank the hero when in the last scene, he swept Ariel off her feet and made her an honest woman? If anyone could play the hero, it was Coop.
No one could pull that scene off like Coop. If we look closely, we may see the honesty in his performance and some insight into the man himself.
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Post by maggiejones on Sept 5, 2010 15:12:02 GMT -6
Hear ! Hear well put.
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Post by itsadogslife on Feb 16, 2011 10:48:35 GMT -6
I agree I could care less about The Fountainhead but in a way I do enjoy it, Patricia Neal's character and I happen to share the same first name. Fill in the blanks. I did enjoy his work with Jean Arthur - I love Mr. Deeds and even though Barbara Stanwyck has never been one of my favorites, she did good work and Coop and Babs had chemistry. Claudette Colbert was fun to watch in Bluebeard's Eighth Wife but yes, no chemistry there. Doris Davenport, yeah, she may not be the world's greatest actress but she had her moments in The Westerner alongside Coop, especially the more romantic scenes.
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bet1
Bit Part Player
Posts: 4
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Post by bet1 on Jun 12, 2011 19:17:34 GMT -6
Greetings. Thanks for this wonderful website. Question: In the movie "Cinema Paradiso", in the final scene, is there any GC kiss and from what film? I've identified EF/OdeH twice in that montage, but the rest escapes me. i53.tinypic.com/o53ol1.jpgi56.tinypic.com/2vi0zrr.jpgIf this is off topic, please remove.
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Post by Coopsgirl on Jun 13, 2011 4:44:01 GMT -6
The scene in your pictures is of Gary and Helen Hayes in A Farewell to Arms (1932).
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Post by misabel on Feb 10, 2012 15:46:48 GMT -6
Minus Patricia Neal, I agree. I don't know if it was her robotic voice or her cold demeanor, but I didn't care for her in The Fountainhead. (Though I covet everything she wears in that film.) Well, to be honest, I didn't care for The Fountainhead, period.
I think Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper had good, if not great, chemistry in the first two films they co-starred in. (I didn't care for Blowing Wild either.) The darkened motel room scene in Ball Of Fire, especially; when Bertram (Cooper) mistakenly believes he's speaking to one of the other professors and confesses that he wants to take Sugarpuss (Stanwyck) in his arms and that he thinks of her "every waking moment."
It's a shame that the original idea of making Mr. Smith Goes To Washington a sequel to Mr. Deeds Goes To Town wasn't ultimately possible. It would've been a treat to see Jean Arthur and Gary Cooper re-teamed as those characters. They had a charming and lovely chemistry.
As for Ingrid Bergman, she was luminous with Gary Cooper. Especially in For Whom The Bell Tolls, a film that was really carried by their physical beauty in technicolor and their magnificent chemistry.
It's so subjective, but I think for the most part Gary Cooper had chemistry with his leading ladies. There was a conveyable connection there. With a few exceptions, of course. If I had to pick an absolute favorite, it would probably be Madeleine Carroll right now. I just re-watched The General Died At Dawn, and she and Gary Cooper have such a sexy, yearning chemistry.
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