I don't really care for this movie but I was struck by how much Cooper looks like James Dean (getting out of bed) or Brad Pitt. Admittedly he was very young here. He was always handsome in the later movies, but he looks much better here.
shareI just finished watching this and had the exact same thoughts!
shareGary Cooper had one of the great American faces of all time. He portrayed men as all men wished they were and seldom are.
shareYes, Gary was certainly very fetching in this movie. His eyes are really gorgeous.
I've seen various other movies with him (i.e. 'Meet John Doe' and 'Ball of Fire') and he's excellent but I was really touched by his woeful, heart-felt facial expression and reaction in the scene where Deeds finds out Babe/Mary is actually a reporter.
'There’s a name for you ladies, but it’s not used - Outside a kennel! (Crystal Allen in The Women)'
Bing Crosby's and Dean Martin's greatest talent lay in how both of them looked like they weren't trying at all, (even looking lazy, in fact!) as they crooned their numbers to the delight of their audiences.
Gary Cooper, in like manner, never looked like he was "trying" to act. I don't think he ever did stage work and I'm not aware of his ever having taken any extensive courses in acting, but he didn't need an acting education because his acting style was inborn and natural; and these qualities made him one of the best and greatest actors who ever lived. Even John Barrymore thought so: "This fellow is the world's greatest actor. He does without effort what the rest of us spend our lives trying to learn - namely to be natural."
Whatever you do, DO NOT read this sig--ACKKK!!! TOO LATE!!!
Wow, what a great movie! The scene where Longfellow Deeds is getting dressed by the men and going downstairs to meet with the opera board; I nearly swooned. He was wearing a smoking jacket thing and white scarf over a white shirt-- whoa!
shareYou can see a very young Coop in The Virginian or Wings.
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Think about what you learned today. One: Don't screw with me. Two: Invite me... to your crap!
If you think Gary Cooper looks young in this movie, watch the first Academy Award winning movie Wings made in 1927.
let's go and say a prayer for a boy who couldn't run as fast as I could
Don´t give a sh-t what he looks like, but his performance was indeed pretty much the only thing that made the film worthwhile - that plus some of the jokes that actually came out funny. This condescending, on-the-nose moralizing Capra always seemed to indulge in, though, gets really grating at times as do his broadly drawn characters, excessive revelling in outright schmaltz (in these regards, he´s no better than bloody Spielberg, really) and self conscious quirkiness. There´s something terribly dishonest and hypocritical about how this shameless populist peddles this kind of altruistic socialist utopia in such blatantly audience pandering commercial endeavour as Mr Deeds.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Well, this was one of the more pretentious comments I've read on IMDb. And that's saying something!
That’s a very interesting mixture of poetry and meanness.
Yes, recognizing overt manipulation and populism for what they are, is obviously "pretentious" (the word`s misused here to begin with). Guess some will always insist on being irrational no matter what; too damn strenuous to present an actual argument.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
Schmaltz sells.
I love it until I can't stand it anymore. Sort of like sweets.
@Franz
That's how 30's films were---this was a Depression film, and it was dealing with the realities of that era---people being out of work,standing in long brad lines and all that. And it's not all schmaltz and light-hearted jokes----there's definitely a scathing cynicism throughout the film about how the media can manipulate how someone is seen, how they can make or break people, about society in general, that kind of thing. Plus this is a fun flick, like a lot of well-made films from that era were. And, yeah, Gary Cooper )never a fave of mine or anything) was actually good-looking in this flick, and kind of a thoughtful lead. His character, though, should have sued the hell out of that lawyer for turning on him and taking up that insanity case against him,since the lawyer used to represent him---talk about conflict of interest! Good, fun, early Capra flick---heard of it, but never actually seen it---it's being shown on the MOVIES channel this week, of course.
Gary Cooper is defiantly yummy when he was young and older.
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