I have to admit, these "gems" have something too many of today's movies lack...call it sentiment, call it class, call it grace or nostalgia or elegance. The photography is nuanced, the direction sweetly awkward, the storylines basic (good is good, and evil is evil and you know which is which), the costumes classic. O'Hara was a sardonic writer who poked holes in the hypocrisies of the rich, the status-conscious, the prosaic who prized power and appearances above love. He tore the curtain away from the Wizards to reveal fraud and duplicity, and good old Gary Cooper and Suzy Parker were his tools. Nothing like it today, even tho the story is as old as mankind. Woe is us...
I'm over twenty years older than was Cooper when he made this flick, yet he looks older in it than I am. Maybe he "burned the candle at both ends", as did fellow actor Errol Flynn (dead at 50).
What a Terrific movie.I loved the story and the characters. I was captivated,all the way through.The acting was perfect, and Gary Cooper, was very convincing as a victim,of self destruction and a lost soul,trapped in a miserable marriage.
Thank you for posting this moving little gem. Such a simple, but yet so touching story, about feelings and people. Beautifully acted, warm ambiance, music, etc. Everything in depth. 🙏🏻❤
What a great story....such despicable, punch deserving politicos and a venomously correct wife...Gary Cooper did a marvellous job as a man finding his way thru the maze of Life...and finding one true Love...and the ending made a great finale to lives wrought with doubt and unhappiness created by etiquette.
"He was a gentleman in a world that has no further use of gentlemen." How true. Playing fair and being decent is seen as weakness now, and the Barracudas always come out on top. Well acted, beautifully filmed in B&W, it's a fine movie that exposes the snobs of the world, showing the hypocrisy and cruelty they live by. TY-great post.
Always liked this movie, underrated. One of Gary Cooper's best performances. Stuart Whitman steals the picture in a small role. Suzy Parker is gorgeous.
Lovely, sad story with a silver lining. Good actors and script etc Cooper was 30 years older than Parker. Is that really too much of a difference, second time? They could have had 20 happy years before he popped off at 70 and she would have been a widow of 45......... Thanks.
Gary Cooper had prostate cancer that spread to his colon, lungs and bones that took him at the still young age of 60. He was married to one woman and had one daughter, although he and his wife had separations and Cooper had many, many affairs with his female co-stars. And by the way, age 70 is still a fairly young age to just "pop-off" these days. Loved Gary Cooper, are there any actors comparable to him now?
@@nnvincent3 Agreed, although 70-ish would be an average then. As for current stars....... there are none really, especially combined with good acting as then. I've seen so many recently - Conte, Palance, Mason, Power et al.
@@ant7936 True, 70-ish was the average life expectancy a few decades ago. Maybe I'm feeling a bit defensive because I'll be 71 next month LOL! I love the old Hollywood stars and my DVD collection reflects it.
Great acting, well written storyline that leaves you with unanswered questions. Geraldine Fitzgerald plays a great Mary Todd Lincoln like character. Sad to see Gary Cooper play such a beaten down weary part. My only complaint is with wardrobe and makeup: This was supposed to be 1945 with flashback to 1940 and then back to 1945. Except for the cars, everything looked like 1958. No big deal, Tora,Tora, Tora made the same mistake when everyone was dressed and groomed for 1970 instead of December 7, 1941. May seem trivial but it does hurt the overall picture given the timelines. This movie deserves a 9 out of 10.
I agree costumes, hair styles, demeanor are often failed in period pieces. I agree the "set" design was "Oh **** 'em." However, this wasn't near the disaster movies made in the 1970s were.
Great flick! I almost didn't watch it because it was in the "romance" genre. I am heartily sick of romance movies. But this was really about the age-old dilemma of " which do I follow?...my feelings? or social convention?
Gary Cooper lived and loved pretty hard, plus he drank and smoked heavily, so much so I defy you to find an off-screen shot of him without a cigarette attached to his hand. Coop had a constant stream of affairs, a particularly stressful but long love affair with Patricia Neal - in which they had to deal with an unplanned pregnancy. A few years after TNF, Gary got sick with cancer. You should see his last film not his best but still worth a watch. They used special filters and techniques to film him so he didn't appear unwell. Despite a terminal illness, he continued working very close to the end of his life. Today's 'stars' cough, cough, have all kind of tools in their wheelhouses to look younger! Diets, botox and various injectables, face masks creams ectera, ectera. I won't even begin to list all the surgeries one can have now to improve one's aging facade. Also, let's not forget this was all before the age of sunscreens. Coop grew up on a ranch in Montana. All his life, he enjoyed outdoor pursuits. He loved skiing, fishing, hunting, and shooting. It's unfair to expect the same aging process out of the stars from the Classic Hollywood period.
ah yes, the old record player that you could stack the records on and they would automatically drop and continue playing.... we could stack them L.P.'s 10 high and there would be music all evening without lifting a finger.......so tell me, how much have we really progressed?
Geraldine Fitzgerald is quite the actress! 19 years earlier she was in Dark Victory and played such a sweet, loving, and caring friend and in this movie played such a nasty, resentful, vindictive and miserable witch wife. Every husband's worst nightmare!
Let me tell you. Geraldine Fitzgerald is the consummate actress. Her class as the sweet best friend in "Dark Victory" then to be this vile person in this movie. It is hard to be liked and be vile at the same time.
I like Gary Cooper, but they always make the female 20+ years younger than the man. They did that with Cary Grant. Do they think we are so stupid that they can't find beautiful women their age. Is this day and time, it's pretty despicable even though I still like the actors.
Com on.. it's not despicable..even in real life most men prefer younger women..especially rich and famous one.. Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, George Clooney and Brad Pitt etc..
Have been gifted with an unexpected relationship with an 89 man who treats me so respectfully, considerately, gently, and genuinely interested in me, my values, my development - such an unfortunate contrast to many younger men today. Grateful for my good karma..
I have noticed rather recently that we do improve greatly with age. I'm 63 and just celebrated my 31st anniversary (33 years together). Oh, how I have learned, improved, mellowed (a bit), and learned how to show respect to a woman. A hint to all guys: it doesn't matter how you mean it, it only matters how she perceives it. And all respect you show her must be entirely on her terms and definitions, not yours. You're welcome. Penelope, enjoy your life with your gentleman. I'll bet he thinks the world of you. You sound like a genuinely good person.
Gary Cooper is supposed to be 50 in this picture? He looks much older than 50. Look at Brad Pitt in his 50s. What a difference. Brad is so good looking.
Unlike Brad Pitt (or Gary Cooper in reality), average people worked harder and aged earlier. Smoking and a lack of certain products etc. played a role for most normal everyday people, including their lifestyle which made 50 look like a fully lived and worked 50. Its kind of silly to compare a 50 year old in the 1940s to Brad Pitt, who I am sure does some work to make himself look younger.
Too much reality? I think it was a fine change for him. He showed his talent without having to make only films made to exploit talent to entertain and make $.
Seems to me it is the daughter who is reflecting at her father's funeral, tho we also see what she and her brother didn't know about his secret life. They were awful parents, caring nothing for their children's happiness, but only their own selfish social climbing. The one bright spot in the film is FDR getting reelected, and dashing all the nasty Republican hopes.
Read-up on the pre- and post-war ties between the U.S. 'élite' and their German counterparts who put Hitler in. Particularly prominent was the peripatetic John McCloy, the Wall Street lawyer who had worked in the U.S. for the powerful I.G. Farben chemicals cartel (of Auschwitz slavery fame).McCloy and the post-war W. German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer were even linked by marriage into the J.P. Morgan banking dynasty, and both men sought for and achieved the early release from prison of war-criminals who should have rotted in their cells for decades.
@@herminepursch2470 🤣. What about Joe Kennedy institutionalizing his daughter, subjecting her to a Lobotomy? Her name is Rosemary! Nobody EVER talks about her and the horrific life she existed in! Her effing parents subjected her to endure a surgery that is catastrophic! Stop your promotion of the democrats! BOTH sides are CORRUPT!
