Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The Cowboy and the Lady

4/5

Gary Cooper made a career out of Westerns. He was a real-life cowboy from Montana who went to Hollywood to do stunt riding and then became a star. He also made almost a second career out of deflating his own myth. This is the first entry in a series of films that includes The Westerner, Along Came Jones and High Noon. Cooper and Oberon are both pretending to be something they're not. Oberon is a society dame pretending to be just another Rodeo groupie and Cooper is sensitive soul trapped in the life of a womanizing roughneck. This may not be a true Western as it has a contemporary setting and is really more about the jaded life a show business, but it is funny and sexy and has an above average script. My main exposure to Oberon was in Wuthering Heights and I was pleasantly surprised that she could handle light comedy. This fun little movie is in my top ten favorite Gary Cooper films.

3 comments:

kda0121 said...

I didn't know this review was here until I looked at "older posts". I really like this movie. It's Cooper being a cowpoke, falling for the girl and telling off the powerful folks. Very Capraesque, really. And with Merle Oberon as the leading lady, you can't go wrong. And I really love Patsy Kelly. What a sidekick! And let's not forget Walter Brennan, Coop's right hand man in so many movies. I know, it's not a GREAT movie, but I'm am very fond of it's one I can watch multiple times.

AbbyNormal said...

Added to the Netflix queue. I am such a loser for not having seen so many of these before! Why have I been wasting my life? :-)

kda0121 said...

Abby, I have been told the the opposite; that I have wasted my life watching movies all the time. Frankly, I wouldn't have it any other way.