Today We Live
Today We Live
Directed by Howard Hawks & Richard Rosson. 113 mins. (1933)
Gary Cooper - Bogard
Two lovers are living together and are not married and they hesitantly explain this to her brother. They had made a promise as children to get married when they grew up, but they “didn’t wait.” It’s an important plot point as it drives Cooper’s actions when he discovers that Crawford and Young are living in sin.
Also starring Joan Crawford, Robert Young, Franchot Tone and Roscoe Karns
The only film pairing of Joan Crawford and Gary Cooper. Contemporary news stories of the day reported Crawford insisted on Cooper as her co-star. Cooper had to be borrowed from Paramount for this picture. Joan Crawford met Franchot Tone while working on this picture. They would marry two years later (her second, his first) - and divorce in 1939.
They Came to Cordura
They Came to Cordura
Directed by Robert Rossen. 123mins. (1959)
Gary Cooper – Major Thomas Thorn
An Army officer branded a coward is assigned to escort five decorated soldiers across the brutal Mexican desert during the 1916 Pancho Villa campaign, confronting questions of courage, honor, and moral responsibility along the way.
Also starring Rita Hayworth, Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, Richard Conte, and Michael Callan.
Based on the 1958 novel by Glendon Swarthout, the film presents a stark psychological Western set against the U.S. Army’s Mexican Border operations. Cooper received the Golden Laurel Award for Top Action Performance for his role as Major Thorn.
MARIA’S NOTES
I think no movie my Father made spelled out these age old questions more clearly than They Came to Cordura: “What is Courage? What is Cowardice?”
Cordura itself is not a place on a map, but a symbolic word, a refuge, meaning sanity in Spanish. Coopers’ character here is labeled a coward for hiding in battle, and is mockingly referred to as “yellow guts,” and demoted to being an ‘Awards Officer.’ He is sent out by the US Army to find 5 heroes to inspire recruits for fighting in WW1, then bring them back to their base so they can receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. What takes place along their journey is the “guts” of the story.
There is a TCM documentary about my father—Gary Cooper: American Life, American Legend, in which there is a theme composed by my husband Byron Janis called “Song For a Hero”. Part of the lyrics put forth the questions of this film:
WHY DOES ONE MAN RISK HIS FUTURE?
WHY DOES ONE MAN WALK THROUGH FIRE?
IS IT COURAGE? IS IT CONSCIENCE?
IS IT DUTY OR DESIRE?
My mother and I spent a few days on location with my father out in St. George, Utah. It was pretty desolate in those days, but they were shooting in beautiful, stark, dramatic land, desert harshness, cruel hot sun, and a railroad track that was constructed and led to nowhere. However there was a small paved road that led to Las Vegas some 120 miles to temptation!
That proved dangerous for one of the cast members who had a serious gambling habit. When daily shooting would finish, he would high tail it out of there and down to Vegas. It became necessary for someone to accompany him and scoop him back up into a car at 3 am to be ready for shooting the following day. He’s lucky they all had to look like hell for their roles at that point. He didn’t need any make-up!
By contrast, it was a grueling and hard location for my father, but he was deeply commitment to telling the greatest possible story. He enjoyed working with his co-stars, Van Heflin, Tab Hunter, and of course, Rita Hayworth.
There were moments at times when she had trouble with her lines. Nobody knew much really about Alzheimers then, and she was a real professional trying to keep it—her life & character––together. Talk about courage! She did so well, but there were rough and ignorant comments made behind her back which made my father furious.
His desire to always choose roles that portrayed “the best man can be” was manifested in this story. But it comes to it’s conclusion, not in a simple way, but through asking with important questions that make up so much of our lives.
The First Kiss
The First Kiss
Directed by Rowland V. Lee. 60 mins. (1928)
Gary Cooper – Mulligan Talbot
A restless young heir returns to his family’s decaying estate on Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, where forbidden love and long-buried tensions threaten the fragile honor of a once-prominent clan.
Also starring Fay Wray, Lane Chandler, Monroe Owsley, and Matthew Betz.
During production on the Chesapeake Bay, Fay Wray accidentally fell overboard while filming on a boat, and Cooper dove in to rescue her. The film is considered lost, with no known surviving prints.
The Wreck of the Mary Deare*
The Wreck of the Mary Deare
Directed by Michael Anderson. 105 mins. (1959)
Gary Cooper – Gideon Patch
A disgraced merchant marine officer remains aboard a sinking cargo ship to prove it was deliberately scuttled, risking his life to restore his honor and uncover the truth behind the doomed vessel.
Also starring Charlton Heston, Michael Redgrave, Emlyn Williams, Cecil Parker, Virginia McKenna, Alexander Knox, and Richard Harris.
Based on the 1956 novel by Hammond Innes. Charlton Heston, a longtime admirer of Cooper, readily ceded top billing and later recalled Cooper’s determination to perform portions of the demanding underwater sequences himself despite declining health. Alfred Hitchcock and screenwriter Ernest Lehman briefly considered adapting the novel before turning instead to North by Northwest.
MARIA’S NOTES
Not knowing what the next film my father was to do, our family was in the South of France on Cap d’Antibes and my mother, ever the adventurer, got the idea to hire a teacher and we all learned how to scuba dive. Of course, we did it all wrong – my mother and I foolishly and vainly did not want to get our hair wet – so we dove with our bathing caps on only to learn later we could have burst our eardrums!
But we loved the sport and back home took proper lessons from certified professional divers who then, after “graduation,” took us out on their boat to Catalina Island where we dove in the ocean swimming between the massive forests of kelp beds looking for groupers, sand sharks and Moray eels. My father loved it and one weekend we found ourselves a tourist attraction when the Marineland of the Pacific aquarium invited us to come and swim in their big tank which was home to hundreds of fish of all sizes enclosed in glass walls at every level so the visitors could look in and see Gary Cooper – wife and daughter – swimming and weaving our way among the giant turtles and Manta rays.
So when The The Wreck of the Mary Deare was presented to my father to do as a film with his old friend Charlton Heston, he jumped at it. It is a gripping story and it gave my father a chance to do his own stunt work and use his newfound skills underwater. Acting through a facemask and a breathing tube is a real challenge. He was able to do all his own shots though a little more difficult than falling off a horse.
Maria Cooper Janis
Wolf Song
Wolf Song
Directed by Victor Fleming. 80 mins. (1929)
Gary Cooper – Sam Lash
A restless frontiersman roaming the American West falls in love with a spirited young woman from a prominent Taos family, but struggles to reconcile married life with his enduring desire for freedom and adventure.
Also starring Lupe Vélez, Louis Wolheim, Constantine Romanoff, and Michael Vavitch.
One of Gary Cooper’s early leading roles, the film was shot on location in the American Southwest and helped establish his screen image as the laconic Western hero. Based on the novel The Lone Star Ranger by Harvey Fergusson.
The Winning of Barbara Worth
The Winning of Barbara Worth
Directed by Henry King. 98 mins. (1926)
Gary Cooper – Abe Lee
A young cowboy working on an ambitious irrigation project in the Southwestern desert finds himself in rivalry with an Eastern engineer for the love of a rancher’s daughter, as the fate of their struggling community hangs in the balance.
Also starring Ronald Colman, Vilma Bánky, and Charles Lane.
Gary Cooper’s first substantial screen role after years as a stunt rider, the film helped launch him as a leading man. Based on the bestselling 1911 novel by Harold Bell Wright.
The Wedding Night
The Wedding Night
Directed by King Vidor. 83 mins. (1935)
Gary Cooper – Tony Barrett
A disillusioned novelist retreats to his Connecticut farm to complete his latest book, only to form a forbidden bond with the daughter of a neighboring Polish immigrant family, leading to jealousy and tragedy on the eve of her arranged marriage.
Also starring Anna Sten, Ralph Bellamy, Helen Vinson, and Sig Ruman.
Screenwriter Edwin H. Knopf based the central couple on his close friends F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, reflecting themes of artistic ambition and destructive romance.
The Virginian*
The Virginian
Directed by Victor Fleming. 91 mins. (1929)
Gary Cooper – The Virginian
A principled ranch foreman in the Wyoming Territory finds his loyalty tested when he discovers that his closest friend has turned to cattle rustling, even as he courts the town’s new schoolteacher.
Also starring Walter Huston, Mary Brian, Richard Arlen, Helen Ware, and Eugene Pallette.
Based on Owen Wister’s landmark 1902 Western novel, the film was Gary Cooper’s first talking picture and first leading role in a Western. Though initially anxious about his speaking voice, Cooper later called the Virginian his favorite role.
MARIA’S NOTES
It’s hard to realize that in 1929 out of 20 thousand movie theaters only1500 were wired for sound. My father had a naturally deep voice that served him well as the “talkies” transformed the film industry. Owen Wister’s The Virginian hit the screens with a huge impact—the book itself from which the film was made had sold 1.6 million copies in those days, and it gave my father one of the classic lines in Western movie history… ”If you want to call me that, Smile”. The story is not ‘dated” and in fact there is a resonance with another film classic of Gary Cooper’s, High Noon. The point being you don’t run away from your duty- even as it puts your own life on the line. The romantic cowboy/hero image of my father pulls you into the very essence of the story, in fact, to the essence of Gary Cooper himself… on screen and off.
Maria Cooper Janis
The Texan
The Texan
Directed by John Cromwell. 79 mins. (1930)
Gary Cooper – Enrique “Quico” / The Llano Kid
A notorious Texas outlaw joins a swindler’s scheme to impersonate a wealthy woman’s long-lost son in Mexico, but unexpected affection and a chance at redemption compel him to betray his partner while a relentless lawman closes in.
Also starring Fay Wray, Emma Dunn, Oscar Apfel, and James A. Marcus.
Based on O. Henry’s short story The Double-Dyed Deceiver, the film blends Western adventure with themes of identity and moral transformation.
The Story of Dr. Wassell
The Story of Dr. Wassell
Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. 140 mins. (1944)
Gary Cooper – Dr. Corydon M. Wassell
During the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies in World War II, a dedicated American naval doctor risks his life to evacuate wounded sailors left behind in Java, leading them to safety against overwhelming odds.
Also starring Laraine Day, Signe Hasso, Dennis O’Keefe, Carol Thurston, and Carl Esmond.
Based on the true story of Dr. Corydon M. Wassell, who rescued injured crewmen of the USS Marblehead. One of the real survivors, Melvin Francis, appears in the film as himself, and Wassell is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Special Effects.
The Spoilers
The Spoilers
Directed by Edwin Carewe. 87 mins. (1930)
Gary Cooper – Roy Glenister
An independent gold miner in Nome, Alaska, battles corrupt officials attempting to seize valuable claims, while jealousy and deception threaten his romance with the woman he loves.
Also starring Kay Johnson, Betty Compson, William “Stage” Boyd, and Harry Green.
Based on Rex Beach’s bestselling 1906 novel, the film features a famously brutal saloon fight sequence during which Gary Cooper tore his hamstring and injured his back, enduring significant pain for the remainder of production.
The Real Glory
The Real Glory
Directed by Henry Hathaway. 96 mins. (1939)
Gary Cooper – Dr. Bill Canavan
In the early 1900s Philippines, a determined American army doctor helps train and support a small constabulary force defending remote villages from insurgent raiders after U.S. troops withdraw from Mindanao.
Also starring David Niven, Andrea Leeds, Reginald Owen, and Broderick Crawford.
Set during the Moro Rebellion, the film was reissued in 1942 as A Yank in the Philippines but later withdrawn at the request of the U.S. Office of War Information, as the Moro people had become American allies during World War II.
The Plainsman
The Plainsman
Directed by Cecil B. DeMille. 113 mins. (1936)
Gary Cooper – Wild Bill Hickok
Legendary frontiersman Wild Bill Hickok joins forces with Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill to confront gunrunners and defend the American frontier during the turbulent years following the Civil War.
Also starring Jean Arthur, James Ellison, Charles Bickford, Helen Burgess, and Anthony Quinn.
A sweeping fictionalized Western featuring historical figures including Hickok, Calamity Jane, Buffalo Bill, and George A. Custer. Director Cecil B. DeMille chose Gary Cooper over John Wayne for the role; an accomplished horseman, Cooper performed many of his own riding stunts.
The Naked Edge
The Naked Edge
Directed by Michael Anderson. 97 mins. (1961)
Gary Cooper – George Radcliffe
Years after testifying in a sensational murder trial, a respected London businessman finds his life unraveling when his wife receives an anonymous letter accusing him of being the true killer.
Also starring Deborah Kerr, Eric Portman, Diane Cilento, Hermione Gingold, and Peter Cushing.
Based on Max Ehrlich’s novel First Train to Babylon, the film was Gary Cooper’s final screen appearance, completed shortly before his death in 1961. Audiences were famously asked not to reveal the identity of the murderer as the film ended.
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer
Directed by Henry Hathaway. 109 mins. (1935)
Gary Cooper – Lt. Alan McGregor
On the volatile Northwest Frontier of British India, a seasoned but rebellious cavalry officer mentors two young lieutenants as they confront tribal insurgents, testing loyalty, courage, and the honor of their regiment.
Also starring Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, Guy Standing, C. Aubrey Smith, Kathleen Burke, and Douglass Dumbrille.
Based on Francis Yeats-Brown’s bestselling memoir, the film was one of 1935’s biggest hits and earned eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. It won Oscars for Best Assistant Director and Best Second Unit Direction.
The Legion of the Condemned
Legion of the Condemned
Directed by William A. Wellman. 80 mins. (1928)
Gary Cooper – Gale Price
After heartbreak in civilian life, a disillusioned American aviator joins the French Foreign Legion during World War I, only to confront a fateful mission involving the woman he once loved—now a suspected spy behind enemy lines.
Also starring Fay Wray, Barry Norton, Lane Chandler, and Francis McDonald.
This silent wartime drama reunited Gary Cooper with Wings director William A. Wellman and reused aerial combat footage originally shot for that film. Long considered lost, only fragments of Legion of the Condemned survive today.
The Last Outlaw
The Last Outlaw
Directed by Christy Cabanne. 62 mins. (1936)
Gary Cooper – Dean Payton
After serving decades in prison for robbery, a reformed outlaw returns to his hometown seeking redemption and a chance to know the daughter who never knew him, only to pursue a ruthless bank robber who has taken her hostage.
Also starring Harry Carey, Hoot Gibson, Tom Tyler, and Henry B. Walthall.
A Western drama centered on themes of forgiveness and second chances, the film united several prominent Western stars of the era alongside Gary Cooper in a rare ensemble of frontier legends.
The Hanging Tree*
The Hanging Tree
Directed by Delmer Daves. 107 mins. (1959)
Gary Cooper – Dr. Joseph Frail
A mysterious frontier doctor saves a wounded outlaw from a lynch mob in a Montana gold camp, then exerts a troubling hold over the young man’s fate while confronting secrets from his own past.
Also starring Maria Schell, Karl Malden, George C. Scott, Karl Swenson, Virginia Gregg, and Ben Piazza.
Based on Dorothy M. Johnson’s 1957 novel, the film blends Western drama with psychological tension; its haunting title song, performed by Marty Robbins, earned an Academy Award nomination.
MARIA’S NOTES
The Hanging Tree is a film that was particularly close to my father’s heart. Certain things resonated for him relating to his Montana childhood, the lure of the gold rush days in 1873 and many of the flaws in our human nature so graphically depicted in the plot of the film. As the main character, a doctor named Joe Frail, it also provided my father with a chance to play a much darker role than usually attributed to Gary Cooper. The atypical Cooper role in the persona of Dr. Frail is not one his public was used to seeing him in and he relished the chance to play a role that stretched him. The superb cast of Maria Schell (her first American film), the wonderful Karl Malden, seasoned director Delmer Daves, came together to make this the unique film that it is. Del Daves sometimes seemed to vanish from the camp near Yakima, Washington. In the course of filming, it was discovered that he was an avid amateur geologist and rock/mineral collector and he would venture off on his own personal expeditions to find a special kind of ancient rock formation – or perhaps it was the remnants of some gold nuggets flushed out of the mountains after a heavy rain. At one point, Daves took ill and Karl Malden came to the rescue encouraged by my father to take the reins as needed. I still have a gold nugget from the site that my father made into a pendant.
As I watched my father Gary Cooper's film The Hanging Tree now, 60 plus years after it was made, I am more aware than ever of how natural Gary Cooper’s acting style was - though I don’t think he would have referred to himself as having an “acting style.” He worked at immersing himself in the character and then let his intuitive feelings and emotions about who that character was, what drove him to be and do the things he did, come naturally then he said, “I don’t have to act.” As an unusual Gary Cooper type in The Hanging Tree, he portrays a much “darker” hero and his face reflects layers of inner conflicts not usually identified with a typical Western hero, particularly Gary Cooper. His character, a doctor named Joe Frail, is trying to escape his past memories - most raw, his personal wounding by his betrayal by his wife with his own brother. Maria Schell, the beautiful talented actress from Germany, is given her first American film and she is given a more complex female role than those usually handed to women in a Western film - she is neither a prostitute nor a school marm. There is a haunting musical score by Max Steiner and performed by Marty Robbins that threads through the film as it captures the emotional drama of anger, sadness and ultimately love which is portrayed at the end of the film.
Maria Cooper Janis
The General Died at Dawn
The General Died at Dawn
Directed by Lewis Milestone. 98 mins. (1936)
Gary Cooper – O’Hara
In war-torn China, an American soldier of fortune undertakes a dangerous mission to deliver arms to a besieged province, while falling for a woman whose loyalties may lie with the ruthless warlord he seeks to defeat.
Also starring Madeleine Carroll, Akim Tamiroff, Dudley Digges, Porter Hall, and William Frawley.
Based on a story by Clifford Odets, the film earned three Academy Award nominations, including Best Supporting Actor for Akim Tamiroff. Future novelist John O’Hara makes a brief on-screen appearance; Cooper would later star in the adaptation of O’Hara’s Ten North Frederick (1958).
The Fountainhead*
The Fountainhead
Directed by King Vidor. 114 mins. (1949)
Gary Cooper – Howard Roark
An uncompromising modernist architect defies convention and public opinion to pursue his visionary designs, refusing to sacrifice his artistic integrity despite mounting personal and professional costs.
Also starring Patricia Neal, Raymond Massey, Kent Smith, Robert Douglas, and Henry Hull.
Based on Ayn Rand’s 1943 bestselling novel and adapted by the author herself, the film cast Gary Cooper at Rand’s insistence over studio preference for Humphrey Bogart. Roark’s climactic courtroom speech was among the longest delivered on screen at the time.
MARIA’S NOTES
Ayn Rand, adored by many, disliked by many. Her philosophy and persona I find abhorrent. One of her famous novels, The Fountainhead, became the movie vehicle for my father to star in - playing a loosely reminiscent characterization of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In her novel, the character Howard Roark, adheres to her “philosophy of man as a heroic being with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life.” This is just so opposite to everything Gary Cooper stood for - it was a most curious artistic stretch for my father to portray that kind of person - someone whose life glorified selfish individualism. Just about the opposite as you could get from Mr. Deeds or Meet John Doe
Roark is a ruthless character and Ayn Rand insisted that Gary Cooper was the only person she wanted to play the role. Warner Brothers, who produced the film, originally thought of Humphrey Bogart to play my father’s part as they felt he could portray a man more fanatical and extreme. But he did not cut the mustard with Ayn Rand as she wanted the romantic figure that Gary Cooper represented - and she called the shots even to the point of writing the script herself. She was able to intimidate Warner Brothers and it was quite amazing that the film in those days got released because of quite sexually exploitive and violent scenes which the censors tried to curtail.
It was only the second film for the budding young actress Patricia Neal who fit the role of Dominique Francon, a sexually aggressive woman who is a manipulator, seducer and a destroyer. The relationship on screen between Howard and Dominique was volcanic and in many cases very over the top. The film, at the time, received very poor reviews but somehow through the years it has become a kind of cult classic.
Maria Cooper Janis