gary cooper Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Who Are Your Favorite Movie Professors?
Filed under: Fandom », Harry Potter »
You can't turn around in a movie without bumping into a professor. If it's not Nicolas Cage as the unlikeliest astrophysicist to be granted tenure at M.I.T. in Knowing, just released on DVD, it's the passel of professors that will undoubtedly be presented in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, due out in theaters next Wednesday. Which kind of professor do you prefer?
My early impressions were formed by seeing the distinguished, imposing Harvard law professor John Houseman dress down Timothy Bottoms in James Bridges' The Paper Chase: "Here is a dime. Take it, call your mother, and tell her there is serious doubt about you ever becoming a lawyer." My impressions changed dramatically when I saw Raiders of the Lost Ark. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones may have been more of a thrill-seeker than an academic, but he was driven by his love for archeology -- and a desire to share his knowledge with his students, no matter how distracted they were by his dreamy looks.
Movies have produced so many memorable professors that it's hard to narrow down the list, but here are my other favorites, and why:
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Gary Cooper, Ball of Fire (Good-hearted and modest).
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Orson Welles, The Stranger (Cold-hearted and scary; an alluring phony).
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Jerry Lewis, The Nutty Professor (Makes you feel better about yourself).
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Peter O'Toole, Creator (Zestful and enthusiastic; encourages free thinking).
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Robin Williams, Dead Poets Society (Funny, if a bit too manic and pushy).
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Michael Douglas, Wonder Boys (Wounded, but can still teach life lessons).
Who are your favorite movie professors?
'High Noon' is Getting a Remake
Filed under: Drama », Deals », Remakes and Sequels », Western »
Watch out, zombies! The cowboys are coming! As soon as that buzz hits the air, hinting that a new theme is going to traverse the cinematic seas, the news starts pouring in. Recently, Jerry Bruckheimer began to look into remaking The Lone Ranger. Now The Hollywood Reporter has posted that American Film Market has bought the remake rights to the 1952 classic that is most-requested by American presidents -- High Noon. However, the film, which starred classic names like Gary Cooper, Lloyd Bridges, Grace Kelly, and Lon Chaney Jr., is not only prime presidential entertainment. High Noon has a pretty memorable award record -- it won four Oscars, is considered to have suffered one of the biggest Oscar upsets (losing Best Picture to The Greatest Show on Earth), helped Katy Jurado to be the first Mexican Golden Globe winner, and is considered the 27th best film of all time by the American Film Institute. If all of this success never inspired you to see the classic western, it focuses on a marshal about to retire and marry when a man he put behind bars returns with a gang, thirsty for revenge.
Having secured the rights from late producer Stanley Kramer's wife, the new High Noon Productions is currently looking for a director and star, so they can begin production next year with a nice $20 million budget. Can they pull it off? Is there anyone who can fill Gary Cooper's shoes? Stay tuned!
Vintage Image of the Day: Pride of the Yankees
Filed under: Classics », Drama », Sports », Fandom », Vintage Image of the Day »
I just heard on the radio that -- in addition to being the birthday of Madonna, Steve Carell and my own illustrious brother -- today marks the 58th anniversary of the death of Babe Ruth. (It's also, oddly, the day the Yankees have chosen to break ground on the new Yankee Stadium -- yes, they're starting the slow death of the current House That Ruth built on the day he died.) Anyway, hearing that news immediately sent me on a search for an image from the wonderful The Pride of the Yankees, the 1942 film about Lou Gehrig in which Ruth makes a brief appearance as himself.
As for the movie itself, I'm too blinded by my desperate love for Gary Cooper to even know anymore if it's actually good -- I have a feeling that it might be too emotional for some, and too sporty for others. That said, however, anyone who can watch the thing without crying at least twice (Gehrig and his wife, each keeping his illness a secret in order to protect the other? That speech? Hell, I get chills just thinking about the echo.) has no soul.
Vintage Image of the Day: Ball of Fire
Filed under: Classics », Comedy », Vintage Image of the Day »
I read that yesterday was Howard Hawks' birthday -- he would be 110, but he died in 1977 -- and I immediately thought that I had to find and post a photo from Ball of Fire, one of his lesser-known but funniest movies. Turner Classic Movies showed a few films to commemorate the day, but instead of Ball of Fire, selected the weaker and lamer musical remake, A Song is Born. (Fortunately, TCM is showing the real deal on June 30.)
If the above photo doesn't intrigue you into wanting to see Ball of Fire, let me summarize the plot: Barbara Stanwyck is Sugarpuss O'Shea, a nightclub singer whose gangster boyfriend is in trouble and forces her to hide out from the law. She ends up in a gloomy mansion occupied by eight professors engaged in writing an encyclopedia. Seven are played by well-known character actors such as S.Z. Sakall (Casablanca), Henry Travers (It's a Wonderful Life), and Richard Haydn (Young Frankenstein). The eighth professor is Gary Cooper, who is surprisingly believable as a nerdy bookworm. The script was written by Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder; Wilder claimed that he spent a lot of time on the set of Ball of Fire, watching Hawks at work, learning to be a director so he could direct his own movies.
Ball of Fire is chock-full of hilarious dialogue: Cooper's professor is studying current slang terms, which provides a lot of humor, and Stanwyck could make any line sound wittier than it was. The cinematographer was Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane), and the scene in which Sugarpuss, in her sparkly nightclub dress, sashays into the professors' shadowy workroom and lights the place up is simply gorgeous. I also have a soft spot for Stanwyck's defense of Cooper at the end of the film, but I'm a terribly sappy romantic sometimes. Ball of Fire is out of print on DVD, so try to catch it on TCM or elsewhere when you can.
Vintage Image of the Day: Gary Cooper
Filed under: Classics », Drama », Fandom », Vintage Image of the Day »
Can you believe that Gary Cooper died nearly 50 years ago?! It seems impossible to me that he's been gone so long -- he was born 105 years ago yesterday, and died at the early age of 60. The fact that he was gone before I was even born probably goes a long way towards explaining why he seems so distant to me -- I'm one of those people who looks at old stars with an embarrassing devotion, but for some reason Cooper's always been in a different category for me than other favorites like Cary Grant and Gregory Peck. While there's something familiar and accessible about those two, Cooper has an aloofness to him, like he's on a different plane than the rest of us. Though, intellectually, I know that not everything he did was serious, I can't help but think of him in films like Meet John Doe, and High Noon and The Pride of the Yankees -- roles with such gravity that he seems almost unreachable, so somber is his life.
If you need a Cooper fix (Really, who doesn't?), Vera Cruz is all over the various Showtimes this month, and Turner Classic Movies will be showing both Sergeant York and A Farewell to Arms (speaking of serious) on May 27.
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