My Father, the Blacklist and ‘High Noon’

For filmmaker Carl Foreman, resisting McCarthyism was a patriotic duty, even if it meant the end of his career in the U.S.

By Amanda Foreman

Sept. 15, 2023 at 9:00 pm ET

Americans who worry that “cancel culture” is a growing threat to democracy may find it cathartic to watch “High Noon on the Waterfront,” a short documentary by directors David Roberts and Billy Shebar. Released last year, the film explores the meaning of moral courage in the 1950s, when the U.S. was in the grip of McCarthyism. In Hollywood, the hunt for communists and alleged subversives resulted in a blacklist that robbed the industry of some of its brightest talent for almost two decades and destroyed the lives of hundreds of people.

The documentary focuses on the divergent fates of two filmmakers, Carl Foreman and Elia Kazan, who have come to symbolize the stark polarities of the era. Both men were former members of the Communist Party, and known for tackling socially progressive themes in their work. Both were subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and subsequently made films that were allegories of the blacklist. But the similarities end there.

Foreman admitted he had belonged to the Communist Party in his youth but refused to provide names of other party members. “I realize that there are some people who will never be convinced of my ‘loyalty’ to the United States…unless I name all persons I knew to be members of the Party during my own period of membership. My life would be much easier if I could oblige them. But I cannot, and will not, do so,” he stated. As a result, he was classified as an uncooperative witness and blacklisted in Hollywood.

Kazan, on the other hand, opted for self-preservation. At his HUAC hearing in 1953, he named eight people as former Party members and was allowed to continue making films.

Foreman (third from right) and actors watch daily footage on the set of ‘High Noon,’ 1952. PHOTO: ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

When Foreman received his subpoena he was working on the movie “High Noon.” Knowing what was to come, he intended the script to be his personal testimony against the blacklist. The film’s protagonist is a small-town sheriff named Will Kane who is faced with a difficult moral choice. He must decide whether to follow his conscience and try to stop a gang of outlaws from taking over the town, or listen to the townspeople who say that appeasement is the safer course of action. In the end Kane, played by Gary Cooper, confronts the outlaws alone.

Elia Kazan made a contrasting moral statement in the 1954 film “On the Waterfront,” which he directed from a script by Budd Schulberg, who cooperated with HUAC. It depicts the heroic struggle of a longshoreman, played by Marlon Brando, at the mob-controlled dockyard in Hoboken, N.J., who decides to testify against his corrupt bosses, despite intense pressure and threats.

To the end of their lives, Foreman and Kazan were each adamant that they had made the right decision about whether to name names. “High Noon on the Waterfront” lets the men speak for themselves, juxtaposing excerpts from their personal writings with clips from the two films. The voices of Foreman and Kazan are supplied by Edward Norton and John Turturro, respectively, adding dramatic intensity.

Carl Foreman was my father, and when I saw the documentary I found it unnerving, to say the least, to hear him speaking in Edward Norton’s voice. That is partly because I struggle to recall his real voice. I was 15 years old when he died and more interested in imitating Madonna than making clear memories of him. Just a few more years would have changed all that. But his death in 1984, when he was 69, froze our relationship at its most awkward and superficial stage.

My father’s unique stance had made him equally unpopular with the left and the right.

My father’s HUAC testimony took place many years before I was born. All I really knew about it was that his unique stance had made him equally unpopular with the left and the right. He was hardly alone in refusing to name names, but he also denounced Soviet communism and disassociated himself from the American Communist Party. To the committee, not naming names made him a subversive; to his former comrades, rejecting communism made him a turncoat.

Carl Foreman testifies before HUAC in Los Angeles in 1951. PHOTO: EVE WILLIAMS JONES AND WRITERS GUILD FOUNDATION

Watching “High Noon on the Waterfront” made me confront the fact that I didn’t know what my father really believed or why he had acted as he did. Why refuse to name names in the way that would cause him the most harm and suffering?

I couldn’t find the answer to this conundrum in any books on the period, so I went back to his private papers. Searching through years of correspondence, I finally found it in a letter he wrote to his agent in 1956, four years after being blacklisted. “I can give you no greater proof of my loyalty to America” than refusing to name names, my father wrote. “Everything we say about the freedom of the individual in America becomes meaningless if the individual is forced to conform to other people’s ideas of what constitutes loyalty, and if we continue to insist that everybody thinks and acts alike in our country we will not only lose the Cold War but in the long run we will find ourselves thinking and acting exactly like the Russians while professing to be their exact opposites.”

For Carl Foreman, liberty and civic virtue were democratic values worth sacrificing for. To be a good American he was prepared to be punished as a bad one. This was true moral courage.

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Also, posted on WSJ - https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/history/my-father-the-blacklist-and-high-noon-80e0db77

“My Father Would be Proud: The Academy is finally apologizing to Native Americans”

If my father Gary Cooper were alive today, you can bet where he would be on September 17th, 2022. He would be in the new Motion Picture Academy building in Beverly Hills to be part of celebrating Sacheen Littlefeather and be part of offering her the Academy apology for the wrongs vested upon her and Native Americans by the film industry. My father was always deeply upset at the way not only Hollywood but our country treated our Native American citizens both in reality and on screen. If he were invited to speak at this event, he might well quote Martin Luther King’s famous sentence, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” He would be happy the Academy is finally helping to bring that justice to fruition.

See article: hollywoodreporter.com

High Noon*

High Noon

High Noon is about a recently freed leader of a gang of bandits in the desert who is looking to get revenge on the Sheriff who put him in jail. A legendary western film from the Austrian director Fred Zinnemann.

Directed by Fred Zinnemann. 85mins. (1952)

Gary Cooper - Marshal Will Kane
Grace Kelly - Amy Fowler Kane

Also starring Thomas Mitchell, Lloyd Bridges, Katy Jurado, Otto Kruger, Harry Morgan and Lon Chaney Jr.

One of the highest rated westerns ever made and an iconic role for Gary Cooper.

The film tells it's story in real time.

High Noon cost $750,000 and went on to gross $8m in the U.S.

Ranked #27 on the AFI's 100 Greatest American Films list (2007).

And #2 on the AFI's 10 Greatest Westerns list (The Searchers is no.1)

Nominated for 7 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay, winning 4 - Best Actor (Gary Cooper), Best Music (Dimitri Tiomkin), Best Song and Best Film Editing.

WGA Award winner for Best Written American Drama.

Selected for Preservation by the National Film Registry 1989.

Tagline - The story of a man who was too proud to run.

IMDB rating 8.2

MARIA’s NOTES

Nobody involved in the making of High Noon thought they were making more than just another, hopefully, good little Western which cost all of $750,000. It was not filled with the expected action of cowboys vs. Indians chasing each other across the plains. However, in the talented hands of several artists from the Writer Carl Foreman to Director Fred Zinnemann, to its star, my father, Gary Cooper, the beautiful ladies Grace Kelly and Katy Jurado, the sinister villains including Lee Van Cleef and the wonderful theme song composed by Dimitri Tiomkin, this “little Western” turned into an iconic film that has affected and touched world leaders from Japan to Poland and shook up American politics at the time of one of our more shameful periods – the McCarthy hearings. According to those hearings, there was a Communist under every bed. My father was extremely close to High Noon’s writer Carl Foreman, in fact, he called him Uncle Carl and when the film’s producer Stanley Kramer wanted to take him off the film because of alleged Communist propaganda, my father simply said, “If Foreman goes, Cooper goes.”

Many books and articles have been written about High Noon. The story exposed the cross currents buried in human nature and politics. We see in the film a reflection of our own inner conscience and its struggle between fear and doing what you know is right – to do what you have to do for a greater good, or in the name of justice – concepts which are not limited to any one era. In fact, there’s a very interesting parallel between High Noon and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea – both challenge our own personal definitions of Honor, Courage, Justice and Fear. My father won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Marshal Kane. It was the first time the “hero” of a film was shown to be human and vulnerable.

I strongly recommend for further reading the recent book,High Noon: The Hollywood Blacklist and the Making of an American Classic by Glenn Frankel.

Maria Cooper Janis

For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Spain in the 1930s is the place to be for a man of action like Robert Jordan. There is a civil war going on and Jordan who has joined up on the side that appeals most to idealists of that era — like Ernest Hemingway and his friends — has been given a high-risk assignment up in the mountains. He awaits the right time to blow up a bridge in a cave.

Directed by Sam Wood. 170 mins. (1943)

Gary Cooper - Robert Jordan
Ingrid Bergman - María

Also starring Akim Tamiroff, Vladimir Sokoloff, Fortunio Bonanova and Katina Paxinou.

Based on the best-selling novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1940.

Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman were Hemingway's choices for the main roles.

Nominated for 9 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor (Gary Cooper), Best Actress (Ingrid Bergman) and Best Supporting Actor (Akim Tamiroff), winning 1 - Best Supporting Actress (Katina Paxinou).

Tagline - From the most thrilling novel of our years !

IMDB rating 7.0

Casanova Brown*

Casanova Brown

Casanova Brown

Directed by Sam Brown 94 mins (1944)

Gary Cooper – Casanova Brown

In this hilarious romantic comedy, Gary Cooper gets a lesson in diapers and formula after stealing his child from his ex-wife (Teresa Wright), who had plans to give it up for adoption.

Also starring Teresa Wright, Frank Morgan, Anita Louise and Edmund Breon

Based on a play named “Little Accident”, this film introduces Cas Brown who is about to marry for the second time; his first marriage, to Isabel, was annulled. But when he discovers that Isabel just had their baby, Cas kidnaps the infant to keep her from being adopted. Isabel's parents hunt for the child and discover that Cas and Isabel are still hopelessly in love. The movie was shown to soldiers in outdoor theatres across newly liberated France.

Nominated for 3 Oscars.

MARIA’s NOTES

This film is a very different Cooper type role. He plays a sweet, rather awkward and naive man…not your typical Gary Cooper heroic character. My father was a co-producer on this movie followed by Along Came Jones, however wearing those 2 hats cured him of the “producing “ bug. He was co-starred with Teresa Wright, the wonderful wife of Lou Gehrig in the Pride of The Yankees, but not so wonderful in Cassanova Brown. The husband/wife relationship was quite the opposite, in fact dramatically so!The comedy that plays thru this film did not work all the time.  That was a frustration for my father, as he in fact had a real flair and natural timing for comedy, something that is shown off wonderfully well in his film Bluebeard’s 8th Wife with Claudette Colbert, written by that master Billy Wilder and directed by Ernst Lubitch. Claudette Colbert and her husband Dr. Joel Pressman were close friends of my family, and we spent many happy weekends together at our tennis court and around the swimming pool.

Maria Cooper Janis

The Westerner*

The Westerner

Directed by William Wyler. 100 mins. (1940)

Gary Cooper - Cole Harden

Drifter Cole Harden is accused of stealing a horse and faces hanging by self-appointed Judge Roy Bean, but Harden manages to talk his way out of it by claiming to be a friend of stage star Lillie Langtry, with whom the judge is obsessed, even though he has never met her. Tensions rise when Harden comes to the defense of a group of struggling homesteaders who Judge Bean is trying to drive away.

Also starring Walter Brennan, Doris Davenport, Forrest Tucker, Chill Wills, Lilian Bond and Dana Andrews.

Classic western noteworthy for Walter Brennan's Oscar-winning performance as Judge Roy Bean, Brennan's third and last Oscar win.

Nominated for 3 Oscars winning Best Supporting Actor (Walter Brennan)

Tagline - The Raw Untamed Adventurous West... Lives Again!

Maria’s notes

One of my father’s favorite directors to work with was William Wyler, from “The  Westerner” in 1940, their first collaboration - to "Friendly Persuasion "in 1956. Both films created an important impact on the film career and character of Gary Cooper.

This unusual story/film- some half-truth and half-fiction was in the beginning a source of tremendous irritation and resentment between my father and producer Samuel Goldwyn’. My father thought that he would be portraying the historical, colorful and infamous Judge Roy Bean. To his shock he discovered that Goldwyn had cast Walter Brennen in that plum part. When Cooper objected strongly, Goldwyn tried to placate him by saying don’t worry we will he will expand your part!

His role in the shooting script did not please my father at all, but he finally agreed to - fulfill his contractual obligations “under a formal written protest”!

It was another one of those tough physical locations in the desert near Tuscan, Arizona with extreme temperature fluctuations endured by the cast and crew.The role GaryCooper inhabited- a character named Cole Harden, has to use his wit, cleverness and devious tendencies in order to save his own skin, when Judge Bean wants to see him DEAD. To avoid being hung, Harden cleverly plays on Bean’s obsession with the real-life famous beauty, singer and entertainer of the day, Lily Langtry, Walter Brennen and my father became buddies while making the film. They joked around with each other with Brennen making phone calls to my father impersonating Sam Goldwyn’s angry diatribes at Cooper!! The screenwriter Niven Bush and my father also became friends as he praised how helped his writing with the factual knowledge of the real was that was so important in developing the story line.

Maria Cooper Janis

The Pride of the Yankees*

The Pride of the Yankees

Directed by Sam Wood 128 mins (1942)

Gary Cooper – Lou Gehrig

This film was made as a Biopic which showcases the life of Lou Gehrig, the famous baseball player who played in 2130 consecutive games before falling at age 37 to a deadly nerve disease which now bears his name as Lou Gehrig’s disease.  Gehrig is followed from his childhood in New York until his famous 'Luckiest Man' speech at his farewell day in 1939.

Also Starring Babe Ruth, Teresa Wright, Walter Brennan and Dan Duryea

The life of Yankee baseball great Lou Gehrig known as the 'Iron Horse' from his childhood, through his baseball career, battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to his final tribute where he declared that he was "the luckiest man on the face of the earth." 

Nominated for 10 Oscars, winning  for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture 

Tagline - The Crowd Worshipped Him... One Woman Understood Him!

Maria’s notes

The season starts to change— it stays light a little later each day and, Good news “BASEBALL SPRING TRAINING starts in Florida…which brings my mind always- to one of my father’s favorite films. THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES in which he plays the role of Lou Gehrig, referred to as The Iron Horse. He batted .300 for 12 straight seasons. His baseball career and life was tragically cut short as he was afflicted by the disease: ALS (Amyatropic Lateral Sclerosis)— known even today as the Lou Gehrig Disease. How awful that even today some 75 years plus later, science and medicine have still not been able to find a cure.

My father was very honored to be chosen to play the role of Lou Gehrig, but he balked at first and he knew one of his major challenges would be to try to be “a lefty” as my father was right handed.Sam Goldwyn, the producer, engaged the ‘training” services of Yankee trainer Lefty O’Doul to coach my father how to throw and bat left handed… I love this photo where O’Doul who believed that chopping wood with a long ax and from the left shoulder— with the wood-chopping stride and rhythm was essentially the same as the batting swing… made an early comment about my father’s efforts… You throw a ball like an old woman tossing a hot biscuit!!”

“Poppa” worked out hard himself at home too, working with a large boxing/punching bag and practicing bowling with his left hand so that using it would become more natural.The idea of playing such a known and beloved person kind of intimidated my father. He said “You can’t “trick up” a part like this with mannerisms or gimmicks.” So many millions of people knew Gehrig, watched him and knew how he handled himself.

When Gehrig was honored at Yankee Stadium he gave one of the most famous ‘farewell” speeches heard either in real life or on the screen.Nothing needed to be added as he walked off the field to cheers, national public admiration and tears.Lou Gehrig continues to be an inspiration to  ballplayers and  people everywhere who know his story. My husband, concert pianist Byron Janis, who is a huge baseball fan and I brought this Lobby card from the movie as a gift to George Steinbrenner when we sat with him at an “Old Timers Day” game atYankee Stadium. He said ‘Oh, would you like me to take this down to the locker room and get the “boys” to sign it?” Of course I said”. Byron and I love looking at both sides!

Maria Cooper Janis

Sergeant York*

Sergeant York

Directed by Howard Hawks. 134 mins (1941)

Gary Cooper – Alvin C York

Based on the real life of Alvin York who managed to achieve status as one of the most celebrated American serviceman despite a humble background which included many instances of drunken behaviour. Under the influence of his mother, and further to being struck by lightning he finds religion. Despite attempting to be a conscientious objector , he joins the infantry where he serves with valour , capturing a large number of Germans and saving the lives of many men.

Also starring Walter Brennan, Joan Leslie, George Tobias and Stanley Ridges

The true story of a marksman drafted in World War 1 who becomes one of the wars most celebrated heroes.

Nominated for 10 Oscars, winning 2 for Best actor in a lead role, Best Film editing and another 3 awards.

Tagline - Missiles! Jets! Tanks! ...It's still the Guy with Guts and a Gun who Wins the War!

Maria’s Notes

The intersection of lives is a fascinating occurrence as it unfolds in time. The lives of Sergeant Alvin York World War 1 hero and the life of film actor Gary Cooper were melded together when Alvin York told Hollywood that theonly way he would allow his story to be told would be if Gary Cooper portrayed him. It won my father his first Academy Award and it spread the story of York’s  heroism to millions of moviegoers around the world.

Some 75 years later at an event paying tribute to the WW1 medal of honor winners in the historical Park Ave. Armory hosted an evening at which both the Cooper family and the York family were together  listening to a beautiful song — Song for a Hero composed by Maria Cooper Janis’s concert pianist husband Byron Janis  written as a tribute to heros everywhere. It was beautifully sung by singer opera/ broadway artist Frank Basille. Following that was a one act play newly written about Alvin York by… I am so glad to meet and be getting to know the York family, both Col. Gerald York and last year met with one of York’s sons Andrew Jackson York at an event when each of us unveiled  US Postal service stamps depicting our fathers. A truly unique and moving moment

A most memorable moment for me happened a few years ago when I found myself sharing a stage with one of the sons of Sergeant Alvin York. We both unveiled 2 large paintings of our Fathers, commissioned by the US Postal Service, as the images for one of the new “forever” stamps that were going to be circulated in post offices around the country.This was held at the amazing World War 1 Museum in Kansas City on the anniversary of Armistice day November 11th.York had become such an American hero—though a reluctant one- as he was a pacifist and did not believe in fighting or killing. Hollywood tried  to woo the uninterested  and elderly Alvin York, who refused to give the rights to his story to any film makers…unless… they could get Gary Cooper to portray him in a life story movie. My father was so extremely honored and humbled by York's request and, the challenge to take on that role. The two men met and got along beautifully. And so, a beautiful film was made, an inspiring story told, and Gary Cooper won his first Academy Award.

Maria Cooper Janis

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town*

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Directed by Frank Capra. 115 mins (1936)

Gary Cooper – Longfellow Deeds

Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.

Also starring Babe Bennett,  George Bancroft, Lionel Stander and Douglass Dumbrille 

Based on Clarence Budington Kelland’s short story “Opera Hat”, a simple-hearted tuba playing greeting card poet is thrust into a world of city slickers, phonies and embezzlers… and the wily reporter who gains his trust….

Nominated for 7 Oscars, winning one for Best Director. 

Maria’s notes

I have a new insight into the background of one of my favorite of my father's films, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, chosen by The New York Film Critic’s Circle as the Best Film of the Year (1936) and it garnered 5 nominations from the Motion Picture Academy - Frank Capra won for Best Director. 

It is one of the key films in the career of Gary Cooper and was directed by the great Frank Capra with Robert Riskin writing the screenplay. His daughter Victoria Riskin has written a most interesting book about her father and mother, Fay Wray, one of the beautiful actresses of that era which gives an extremely accurate and fascinating look into the Hollywood of that time.

When asked about her father and which films most closely reflected his personal philosophy, she named Mr. Deeds as one of them. His development of the character Mr. Longfellow Deeds embodies the fact of the essential goodness of ordinary people and the ability of one man to stand up to the corruption and power plays of the rich and influential.

The film comments on that and the vulnerability of human nature. This all came together marvelously as directed by Capra and sensitively portrayed by my father with some good bits of humor thrown in. The chemistry between Jean Arthur and Gary Cooper was hidden in the beginning but poignant when finally revealed. 

In January 2025, I had the wonderful experience of seeing Mr. Deeds on a big screen. It was shown as part of a Holiday series at the Film Forum in New York. One cannot compare the dramatic impact of watching a movie – any movie – as it was originally meant to be viewed. All aspects of the art form - from the acting, photography, sound effects, the impact of dialogue or the impact of silence  - can only fully be appreciated in this way and not reduced to a screen measuring inches instead of feet.

Maria Cooper Janis

Morocco*

Morocco

The Foreign Legion marches in to Mogador with booze and women in mind just as singer Amy Jolly arrives from Paris to work at Lo Tinto’s cabaret. That night, insouciant legionnaire Tom Brown catches her inimitably seductive, tuxedo-clad act. Both bruised by their past lives, the two edge cautiously into a no-strings relationship while being pursued by others. But Tom must leave on a perilous mission: is it too late for them?

Directed by Josef von Sternberg. 92mins. (1930)

Gary Cooper - Tom Brown
Marlene Dietrich - Amy Jolly
Adolphe Menjou - La Bessiere

Also starring Ullrich Haupt, Eve Southern and Francis McDonald.

Based on "Amy Jolly, the Woman from Marrakesh" by French-German novelist Benno Vigny.

The film was controversial at the time for the scene where Marlene Dietrich kisses a woman while dressed in a tuxedo.

Nominated for 4 Oscars - Best Director, Best Actress (Marlene Dietrich), Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction.

Maria’s Notes

The film Morocco stands out as a high point in Gary Cooper’s early career.

With his co-star Marlena Dietrich and his director, the infamous Josef von Sternberg it was quite a leap into the fire.The physical chemistry between Cooper and Dietrich was obvious on screenand off. This did not please their director who was obsessed with her and jealous.

He was known for being a tyrant on the set, but did get great performances from his primary love Marlena. My Father felt the rest of the cast was pretty much left on their own to lay their scenes. And no one ever “bullied” Gary Cooper. He stood up to Sternberg and told him offverbally and physically when the occasion arose.

His role as a devastatingly handsome American in the French Foreign Legion who, “loved women and left them”, was the epitome of the Wild Legionnaire. Coopers role was highly praised in this film of unrequited love, adventure, and those seeking revenge.

Maria Cooper Janis

Meet John Doe

Meet John Doe

As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed “John Doe,” who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate “Doe.” Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it’s worth, until the made-up “John Doe” philosophy starts a whole political movement.

Directed by Frank Capra. 122mins. (1941)

Gary Cooper - John Doe / John Willoughby
Barbara Stanwyck - Ann Mitchell

Also starring Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan, James Gleason and Gene Lockhart.

Based on a story by Richard Connell and Robert Presnell, Sr.

In one of the various endings tested on preview audiences around the country John Doe succeeds in commiting suicide at the climax but, surprise surprise, preview audiences hated that ending and they went with the happy ending.

Oscar nomination for Best Screenplay.

IMDB rating 7.7

Desire

Desire

Madeleine steals a string of pearls in Paris and uses US engineer Tom, who is driving on his vacation to Spain, to get the pearls out of France, but getting the pearls, back from him proves to be difficult without falling in love.

Directed by Frank Borzage. 95 mins. (1936)

Marlene Dietrich - Madeleine de Beaupre
Gary Cooper - Tom Bradley

Also starring John Halliday, William Frawley, Akim Tamiroff and Alan Mowbray.

Romantic drama, a remake of a 1933 German film.

Tagline - “Love was her precious loot!”

IMDB rating 7.1

Beau Geste*

Beau Geste

Directed by William A. Wellman. 112mins. (1939)

Gary Cooper – Beau Geste

Epic Adventure….When three brothers join the Foreign Legion to escape a troubled past, they find themselves trapped under the command of a sadistic sergeant deep in the scorching Sahara. Now the brothers must fight for their lives as they plot mutiny against tyranny and defend a desert fortress against a brutal enemy. Nominated for 2 Academy Awards, Beau Geste has been universally acclaimed by generations of critics and audiences alike as a true motion picture classic.

Also starring Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward, and J. Carrol 

Based on the classic adventure novel by P.C. Wren, first published in 1924. The  Film was honored on one of four 25¢ US commemorative postage stamps issued 23 March 1990 honouring classic films released in 1939. The stamp featured Gary Cooper as Beau Geste. The other films honoured were Stage Coach, Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind.

Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Brian Donlevy) and Best Art Direction.

Tagline - AGAIN...the three Geste’s face a thousand dangers of the Sahara for each other...and love!

MARIA’s NOtes

Beau Geste was made first as a silent movie in 1926 with Ronald Coleman as the major lead. In 1939 paramount did a remake “talkie” with my father Gary Cooper chosen to play one of theGeste brothers, who run off together to join the French foreign legion— the others portrayed by Robert Preston and Ray Milland.I remember my mother telling me that it was a very tough location, filmed in the Mojave Desert, some miles from Yuma, Arizona. The studio built a complete “movie town” with tents that had wooden floor and actual working bathroom for a crew of over 700 people.

I was told a dramatic story as I was growing up about how my father had gotten word that I was very sickbut with no details.  So being stuck out in the desert he highjacked a camel and rode at full gallop to the nearest highway, where he ties the camel to a telephone pole and hitchhiked into Yuma and to the nearest hotel telephone to “phone home” to see if I was alright. Well, I later learned that colorful story was totally dreamed upby an eager PR person who fed it to the tabloids of the day!!! The adventure story itself of Beau Geste praises courage and appealed to my father’s  early training and sense of values—and his belief in the importance of loyalty and self-sacrifice

Maria Cooper Janis

Ball of Fire*

Ball of Fire

Directed by Howard Hawks. 111mins. (1941)

Gary Cooper - Prof. Bertram Potts
A group of academics have spent years shut up in a house working on the definitive encyclopedia. When one of them discovers that his entry on slang is hopelessly outdated, he ventures into the wide world to learn about the evolving language. Here he meets Sugarpuss O’Shea, a nightclub singer, who’s on top of all the slang and, it just so happens, needs a place to stay.

Also starring Barbara Stanwyck, Oskar Homolka, Henry Travers, Richard Haydn and Dana Andrews.

Classic screwball comedy .Partly based on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with 7 eccentric professors representing the dwarfs. To pick up authentic slang for the film script, screenwriters Billy Wilderand Charles Brackett visited the drugstore across the street from Hollywood High School, a burlesque house and the Hollywood Park racetrack.

Nominated for 4 Oscars 

Maria’s Notes

This film is well described by delighted critics as a screwball comedy. It was originally titled The Professor and the Burlesque Queen. It gave my father the opportunity to stretch his “comedic chops” in his own subtle ways. He was happy to be working again, after the film Meet John Doe, with his old family friend and co-star Barbara Stanwyck who earned an Oscar nomination for her role as an exotic dancer named Sugar Puss O’Shea. Gary Cooper plays an English professor upgrading encyclopedias with his friends when some gangsters come into the plot and wonderful laughs ensue throughout the movie. I had never seen this on a big screen until the Gary Cooper Film Festival hosted by Southampton Playhouse, and the experience was wonderful.

Maria Cooper Janis

A Farewell to Arms*

A Farewell to Arms

Directed by Frank Borzage. 80mins. (1932)

Gary Cooper - Lt. Frederic Henry

A love story between a nurse (Catherine Barkley) and the Lieutenant Henry during First World War in Italy. The depth of the movie considers the purpose of war and fighting.
Also starring Helen Hayes, Adolphe Menjou, Mary Philips, Jack La Rue and Mary Forbes.

Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway, published in 1929.A Cinemascope with stereo sound remake starring Rock Hudson and Jennifer Jones was released in 1957.

Nominated for 4 Oscars including Best Picture, winning 2 - Best Cinematography and Best Sound.

Maria’s Notes

It does seem like Gary Cooper and Ernest Hemingway were destined to meet and become friends, although Farewell to Arms was made before those two men had encountered each other.My father’s co-star was Helen Hayes, the First Lady of the American theater. The story takes place in war torn Italy in World War 2, and the two of them fall in love. In real life Helen, by her own admission, became totally smitten by my father. She said “ …if only he had wiggled his finger at me tocome meet him, I would have left my husband, the writer Charles McArthur, and child and gone off with him.” She said that during one of their love scenes in the picture- in between ‘takes’ she was looking adoringly into Coopers eyes. Gary looked back at me, took me firmly by my shoulders- and said “ NO, HELEN , NO”. But they remained friends even through much of her acting life was still devoted to the theater and in New York City… The studio shot 2 different endings for the film…the Hemingway ending in which she dies in in her lovers arms, and the Hollywood “Happy Ending—she lives.. The theater  distributors opted for the happy ending. However when the movie was released in 1948 and the war had ended, the studio re edited it and used Hemingway ending-- she dies in Coopers arms. When I met Miss Hayes for the first time, my husband and I were invited to visit her at her home in Nyack, New York. She greeted us at the front door and as she opened it, saw me kind of silhouetted against the sunlight outside, she exclaimed “ Oh, you look just like Gary standing there, tall and quiet.” It was a very emotional moment for me…I really did not know what to say…only had  deep feelings running through me. And a long ago connection was still there. And how beautiful she was then and now…She was angel.

Maria Cooper Janis

Wings*

Wings

Directed by William A. Wellman. 144 mins (1927)

Gary Cooper – Cadet White

Two young men, one rich, one middle class, who are in love with the same woman, become fighter pilots in World War I. After the USA enters WWI, both join the Air Corps and become aces. They remain friends, but the relation to the girl threatens their friendship.

Also Starring Clara Bow, Charles “Buddy” Rogers, Richard Arlen and Jobyna Ralston

A movie in which two men from different social classes are united by the call to war. Their friendship is tested and a tragic twist in the tale is played out at the battle of Saint-Mihiel, and a bitter-sweet story of forgiveness is told.

Nominated for 5 Oscars, winning for Best Picture and Best Effects, Engineering Effects

Maria’s Notes

This film WINGS is about the use of airplanes in World War 1 and the talented and brave men who flew them to daredevil extremes. It notably won the First Best Picture of the Year Academy Award in Hollywood in 1927 and introduced on screen, oh so briefly, a young handsome unknown actor who we literally- hear say a only a couple of lines—his last words being “Luck or no Luck when your time comes you’re going to get it”! and he walks out of the tent. Brief minutes later we see a shadow pass over the tent, hear a loud crash, and we know the pilot’s luck ran out! The movie audiences reacted so strongly and flooded the studio with letters wanting to know who was that incredible looking young man who gets killed?  And so, a Star was born, who became one of the Icons of the Movie Industry. In those 90 seconds Gary Cooper captured the audience with a force of personality and a look in his eyes that overshadowed the 2 established stars of Wings, Buddy Rogers and Richard Arlen. Director William Wellman, a terrific pilot himselfwho was part of the group of American pilots who joined to fight for the French in WW1 called the Lafayette Escadrille, directed the air fight scenes. One scene called for a plane to cash into a farmhouse. None of the stunt men wanted to do it, and Bill said “Never mind- I’ll do it myself”. You have never seen air combat scenes like this anywhere on the screen—even today, and, with no trick photography! My father’s career was launched by Wings. He never forgot that humble beginning which introduced one of the most revered stars and actors of the 20th century. With his looks, personality and integrity Cooper came to represent the best a Hero can be …the best an American can strive to beon screen and off.

Maria Cooper Janis

Vera Cruz*

Vera Cruz

Directed by Robert Aldrich. 94mins. (1954)

Gary Cooper - Benjamin Trane

After the American Civil War, mercenaries travel to Mexico to fight in their revolution for money. The former soldier and gentleman Benjamin Trane meets the gunman and killer Joe Erin and his men, and together they are hired by the Emperor Maximillian and the Marquis Henri de Labordere to escort the Countess Marie Duvarre to the harbor of Vera Cruz.Ben and Erin find that the stagecoach is transporting three million U.S. dollars in gold hidden below the seat, and they scheme to steal it. Along their journey, betrayals and incidents happen changing their initial intentions.

Also starring Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Cesar Romero, Sara Montiel, George Macready, and Charles Bronson.

Thought to be a big influence on the spaghetti westerns of the 1960’s, this big budget western, one of the  biggest hits of 1954, was filmed on location in Mexico is set during the Mexican Rebellion of 1866.

Tagline - The Giants Battle In The Biggest Spectacle Of Them All!

Maria’s Notes

For my father going to Mexico both for work and vacation was eagerly anticipated or planned. Any time a film location was set for there he was delighted. Vera Cruzthe script was being worked on day by day, so no time to learn lines ahead of timenot my father’s favorite way to work. But the drama for himcame when he and Lancaster are in a cabin surrounded by the ‘bad guys” shooting out of windows to save their lives. Burt was standing behind my father and his gun went off by accident, shooting the “Blanks into my father’s left shoulder. An inch higher it would have taken off his left ear or scarred the side of his face. As it was, the wadding from the blank left a tattoo type of scar the size of a silver dollar in Poppas skin The tension between the two characters in the film builds— who gets the gold, who gets the woman??? And then---the final shoot out.

Maria Cooper Janis

You’re in the Navy Now

You're in the Navy Now

Directed by Henry Hathaway. 93 mins (1951)

Gary Cooper - Lt. John W. Harkness

When Lt. John Harkness is assigned as the new skipper of a submarine chaser equipped with an experimental steam engine, he hopes that the U.S.S. Teakettle’s veterans will afford him enough help to accomplish the ship’s goals. Unfortunately, he finds the crew and its officers share his novice status or only have experience in diesel engines.

Also starring Jane Greer Millard Mitchell, Eddie Albert, John McIntire, Ray Collins, Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson.

This comedy was set on a US warship and was originally entitled  “USS Teakettle”. It served as a film debut for Lee Marvin and Charles Bronson and received a WGA nomination for Best Written American Comedy.

Tagline - Hilarious Comedy About A Snafu Ship!