Seven Days Leave - 1930

[Coopsgirl]

This film costarred Beryl Mercer and was based on a popular play "The Old Lady Shows her Medals".

[magenta1000]

OOH I love your pictures for this.

I saw this movie. That kilt was fascinating. More fascinating was all the old ladies in the movie having some strange obsession with his leg hair.

[montana]

Well, to each his own ... some of us (including me) seem to be really into the chest hair!! ;-)

[Coopsgirl]

Y’all are cracking me up!! ;D

I love the old lady who seems drunk all the time. There’s just something innately hilarious about grannies drinking. That scene where Gary and Beryl are walking down the street and she lifts his kilt up a little in the back so her friends can see his hairy legs is so funny!! I also prefer his chest hair, but any opportunity to see those beautiful, skinny legs is welcome.

I wish there was a better copy of this one floating around out there so we could see him more clearly in the scene where he’s wedged in the little bathtub.

There are several scenes in some of his films where they are trying to fit him in something that is too small and I just love it b/c it makes him look even bigger.

[magenta1000]

That was my favorite scene. I love the grannies. It's so hilarious to hear old women discuss a man's legs (Especially Gary's XD). I never even considered it before.

I also prefer the chest hair. That makes 3, yay!

Oh I know! I just saw The General Died at Dawn. He towered over everyone and had to duck to get through doorways. 'Twas glorious.

[Coopsgirl]

There’s a scene in Morocco where he’s leaving the jail and he has to duck about a foot to get through the door. Then he kinda turns back around and gives the low door frame a dirty look. I love it!!

[magenta1000]

*squeeeee* I haven't seen Morocco. I REALLY need to.

[Coopsgirl]

You do need to see Morocco, it’s a fun movie and he plays a really sexy, smooth character – you’ll love it!! It’s part of the Marlene Dietrich Glamour Collection and you should be able to find it at Amazon for about $20. There’s one scene where we get a close up of him taking a big bite very slowly from an apple and just thinking about it I can feel my cheeks blushing right now. I’ve never wanted to be a piece of fruit so bad . I may have to post some screencaps of that.

Rocky, who would marry him three years after Morocco came out, was 17 when she and her friends went to see it and she fell for him just like the rest of us have.

[maggiejones]

I can hear you guys drooling from here. Do you think that Kevin Costner would be todays Gary. They have the same look.

[Coopsgirl]

You’ve brought up an interesting discussion topic Maggie.

I’m email pals with John Mulholland, film historian and Gary Cooper expert, and he’s talked about this before. When Kevin Costner was beginning his career he was compared to Gary as was Clint Eastwood in his early days. There may have been some vague similarities early on, but as their careers progressed, they went down their own unique paths.

One of Costner’s more recent films, Mr. Brooks, was about a serial killer who seems to lead a perfectly normal life. One review of the film said “imagine Gary Cooper as a serial killer”. I was floored when I read that b/c that is one thing I can’t imagine as Gary never played a bad guy.

In John’s radio show, Icons Radio that is broadcast on the internet, he and fellow film historian Meir Ribalow did two back to back episodes about Westerns. In it they discussed Gary and Eastwood quite a bit. John explained that in one of Eastwood’s films (sorry I don’t remember which one) his character walks into a bar and shoots an unarmed man to get revenge for something. They then contrasted that with Gary and how he never did anything like that in his films. They specifically mentioned the scene in High Noon where he first confronts the bad guys. He sneaks up from behind but instead of shooting them in the back, he calls out to them with his gun still in its holster. They turn around and then Gary draws and shoots one of them. Meir cracked me up when he said if that was him, he would have taken out as many as he could even if that meant shooting them in the back. But that was not in Gary’s character as Will Kane was an honorable man who always tried to do the right thing even if it may mean losing his own life.

I think another thing that makes Gary, and practically all other classic era actors different from today’s crop, is that due to the production code you would not have seen explicit sex or as much graphic violence as there is today so for me, it’s hard to imagine those people working today and thus hard to find similarities sometimes between them and the new guys and gals.

I can think of a couple of examples though if you look at Field of Dreams and Gran Torino (my fave films of Costner and Eastwood respectively). There is quite a bit of profanity in the latter, but the characters in both films have a lot of similarities to some of Gary’s characters. I would say Costner in FofD is similar to Mr. Deeds in that he has a crazy idea (building a ballpark in his corn field) but he just knows it’s the right thing to do and his faith is justified in the end. Eastwood’s character in Gran Torino reminds me of the types of characters Gary played near the end of his career – the tough, somewhat grizzled older man who deep down still has a soft heart and does the right thing.

What’s funny though is in Gary’s own time other actors were compared to him as being the new “Gary Cooper”. During parts of ’31 and ’32 when he was on hiatus recovering from being overworked by the studio, Paramount was grooming a young actor to take his place is their wayward star did not return. That actor was Cary Grant, who like Costner and Eastwood, would make his own unique reputation and mark on the film world.

garycooperscrapbook.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=articles1930s&action=display&thread=25

Gary himself was not immune to comparison’s of actors who came before him as you can see by another article on this site. They ask if Gary is the new William S. Hart who had been a star mostly in Westerns during the teens and early 20s (and is one of my faves as well).

garycooperscrapbook.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=articles1930s&action=display&thread=15

To sum up my thoughts on this, I don’t think there will ever be another “Gary Cooper”. Every now and then we may see flashes of him in others, but no one who is the complete package.

I said I was gonna sum up but now I’ve thought of something else . Costner is a great example of someone who had quite a bit of success but then dropped off considerably and kinda became a joke in that more often than not his films do poorly at the box office and also receive less than glittering praise. It can be hard to maintain a high level of popularity and consistency throughout a lengthy career in the entertainment world as tastes are fickle and seem to change every few years. So someone who once was a star, may now be a joke.

This never really happened with Gary. Most people would say the post war years (1946-1951) was his roughest stretch and I agree but, he was still an A list caliber star and did produce many good films during that period including Unconquered and Task Force which were probably the most well received during that time. He was also a guest on many popular radio shows and frequently mentioned on many others, especially on Jack Benny’s show, as well as being featured with articles and other tidbits in the movie mags. I have one pic on the site from 1950 with Gary and Jane Wyman receiving awards from a French magazine that did a popularity poll for movie stars which they had won. For a long stretch during the 30s and 40s he was consistently in the top ten of box office draws and in 1953, after 28 years in the business, he was ranked the number one box office star of that year. That’s some kind of staying power .

[maggiejones]

WOW !! what did you say you do for a living ! So glad I'v found you. I have tried to sum up what it is, apart from his beauty and the fact that he was a fantastic actor, that hurts so much now he's not here any more in person for us. It can be painful at times. Would love your take on that

[Coopsgirl]

I'm a number cruncher/statistician for the state government. I know that sounds very boring but I love it. As you may have noticed, I love classic movies and when it comes to Gary, I could talk about him all day and then some.

It is hard to exactly pinpoint what it is about Gary that stands out and makes such an impression on people. He was so beloved by people all around the world during his life and still is decades after his passing. There are a lot of good looking people out there (though none quite as good as Gary) and a lot of talented actors as well but Gary just had something else that makes you want to pay attention and watch him.

I'm one of those people who have a lot of crazy dreams and I usually remember them and I tend to dream about things I like or that are on my mind so it's no surprise that I dream about Gary a lot. I have a journal that I've been keeping where I have all my Gary dreams written down. It's getting very full. In regards to your question about how it hurts sometimes not having him still around, I think I can answer that by telling you one of my favorite Gary dreams.

It started and I was getting off a plane at the airport. I had on the prettiest outfit with a camel and white dress, white coat, camel and white hat and the most gorgeous shoes in the old two tone spectator style that were also camel and white. I looked like I was dressed in a 30s style but it was actually 1961, you'll see in a minute how I knew the exact year. So I was walking through the airport and I went into the fancy V.I.P. lounge to wait for my husband to come and pick me up. Dreams are so crazy though and when Gary came in I was stunned to realize he was my husband. He was 60 (so what that he'd be 28 years my senior, I didn't care ) and he looked great. He was wearing a long sleeve baby blue polo type shirt (tucked in of course b/c he would never look sloppy in public) and a nice pair of khaki pants. He was so excited to see me and he smiled and gave me a big hug. He apologized for being late and said he was helping his pal Hemingway with something. I was trying to play it cool and I told him I missed him too and all the while I thought I was about to cry b/c I was so happy to see that he was alive and healthy since he only really lived six days after his 60th birthday. I remember thinking too "I can't believe I'm married to Gary Cooper". It was a beautiful dream.

Now here's the freaky part. I love going to antique and vintage clothes stores and a couple weeks ago while I was out and about I found a pair of shoes exactly like the ones in my dreams and they were in my size. They are Ferragamo's too which are a great brand. I feel like Cinderella with her glass slippers. ;D

[maggiejones]

Love the shoes Cinderella, and the feed back

[Marina]

It's nice of you sharing your dreams with us, Coopsgirl
Nice shoes!! I'm just crazy about vintage stuff too. I love the 1920's and 1930's fashion look. I'm always wearing something that reminds me of that era.

[Coopsgirl]

Hey Marina,

The 20s and 30s are my fave era and I just found a couple good books at Amazon about the fashions of that era. They have lots of good color pics and stuff. I'll start a new thread in the general board later this evening and we can talk more about that stuff there if you're so inclined .