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The Gary
Cooper Collection |
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| Design For Living Starring: Frederic March, Gary Cooper, Miriam Hopkins, Edward Everett Horton
Directed by: Ernst Lubitsch
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Theatrical Release: 1933
DVD Release: 2005
Released by: Universal
Fullscreen
Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
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| Peter Ibbetson Starring: Gary Cooper, Ann Harding, Ida Lupino, John Halliday
Directed by: Henry Hathaway
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Theatrical Release: 1935
DVD Release: 2005
Released by: Universal
Fullscreen
Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
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| The General Died at Dawn Starring: Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, William Frawley
Directed by: Lewis Milestone
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Theatrical Release: 1936
DVD Release: 2005
Released by: Universal
Fullscreen
Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
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| Beau Geste Starring: Gary Cooper, Ray Milland, Robert Preston, Brian Donlevy, Susan Hayward
Directed by: William Wellman
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Theatrical Release: 1939
DVD Release: 2005
Released by: Universal
Fullscreen
Dolby Digital 2.0 mono
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| The Lives of a Bengal Lancer Starring: Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone, Richard Cromwell, Sir Guy
Standing
Directed by: Henry Hathaway |
Theatrical Release: 1935
DVD Release: 2005
Released by: Universal
Fullscreen
Dolby Digital 2.0 mono |
| Universal’s Franchise Series As Wes Marshall pointed out in his review of the Gary Cooper
Collection, which is from Universal’s Franchise Collection, Universal seems to
strive for bargain rates at the expense of frills. It is the opposite of the Criterion
Collection approach, where no stone is left unturned to present the most information
possible about a featured title. But Criterion titles come in at an average of $25 per
movie, and averaging out the Franchise Collection, I figure it’s about $5 per film,
give or take a bit.
In talking with viewers, I have found that many never play
the extras on DVDs. Never. For these folks, something like the Franchise Collection is
perfect, allowing a lower price and giving them just what they want. Though Wes is correct
about the quality of the prints in the Cooper Collection (a few are actually very good,
but The Lives of a Bengal Lancer is the worst-looking DVD I have ever seen), most
of the Franchise-series DVDs looked quite good. There seems to be no restoration, but
largely decent prints have been used, and the film-to-DVD transfers have been exacting.
The choice of material seems to revolve around a title and
its sequels, alternate versions of the same work, or movies made by one actor. The first
and last categories have their pitfalls. Brando, for instance, made most of his lesser
movies for Universal: The Night of the Following Day, The Ugly American, A
Countess from Hong Kong, The Appaloosa. His better movies were made for
other studios, so Universal cannot include those. The Night of the Following Day,
however, does include a director’s commentary. Deanna Durbin’s Sweetheart
Pack fares much better, including five excellent and inimitable films, but no extras.
Most of the collections that include sequels, such as the Smokey
and the Bandit and American Graffiti packs, give you one great initial
movie and two or three two-star sequels. Still the price is low and the original Smokey
and the Bandit is real widescreen for 16:9 TVs, not letterbox as is the single-title
disc. The Airport Terminal Pack does include four movies worth watching at least
once, and all are presented in anamorphic widescreen versions. Even more successful than
these sets are the ones devoted to series, such as the Abbot and Costello and Ma and Pa
Kettle films. The Abbot and Costello sets present 16 movies, eight in each volume, and the
Ma and Pa Kettle collection contains eight films, four in each volume, including The
Egg and I, the movie that spun off the series. All are decent or very good transfers,
too.
The Franchise Series will be appealing to some and
frustrating to others. I like the idea and hope Universal will be able to use it for its
science-fiction movies that were once released on laserdisc, This Island Earth
in particular.
...Rad Bennett
radb@hometheatersound.com |
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The Gary Cooper Collection gathers four of his
better early films and one out-and-out classic into a two-DVD set that sells for about
$20, which is quite a deal. One warning: Universal has decided that at this cost, they
couldn’t take any time or effort to even clean up the films, let alone do any serious
fixing, so what you see in many cases will be very nicely judged tone and contrast, but
prints with dirt, scratches, and various distracting problems. I know we’re just
paying $20, but come on. As for extras -- zip, nada.
For a good example of how to do this right, check out any
Warner Brothers boxed set. They seem to care about their library as art instead of as
simple commerce. I can only hope that in the future, Universal, which owns a boatload of
great historic films, will decide to invest in giving them the presentation they deserve.
That being said, I was delighted to have these films
available together. Beau Geste, directed by "Wild Bill" Wellman, is a
delight from start to finish. It’s an imaginative tale about three brothers who join
the French Foreign Legion after a family scandal and face some pretty serious action.
Wellman himself had been in the Legion when World War I started, and was later a fighter
pilot with the renowned Lafayette Escadrille. After being seriously wounded, Wellman came
home, where he became almost as well known as a brawler as a director. He and Cooper, both
manly types who loved the horses, the drink and the women, must have been a sight. No
matter -- both came to work during filming and gave us one of the most satisfying crosses
between a whodunit and an action flick of the 1930s. Warning to people of Arab descent: Beau
Geste is insulting.
People of Chinese descent will find the stereotypes in The
General Died at Dawn laughable or troublesome. Depending on how much you love old
movies, you may or may not find the mystery sequences compelling. Basically, Coop is
carrying money to support an uprising, but a beautiful dame gets in the way. Will love
conquer all? The story is well written. Director Lewis Milestone ended up in front of Joe
McCarthy’s merry band of pranksters for his kind depiction of Chinese peasantry.
The Lives of a Bengal Lancer will make folks from
India squirm. This film is about British colonial rule and three men who fight for the
Lancers. Cooper plays a sly soldier always looking out for the fresh recruits. Director
Henry Hathaway, another from the Ford/Hawks school of trying to stay out of the way of the
story, does a beautiful job of just that. The action scenes near the end are some of the
best Hollywood had come up with by 1935.
Hathaway and Cooper re-teamed later that year on Peter
Ibbetson. Though Hathaway wasn’t used to making such dreamy romances, both men
took a difficult subject and did a good job. In the film, Coop plays an architect hired by
a duke, and discovers that the duchess is his childhood sweetheart. Things go dramatically
downhill and parts of the movie take place in a dream. This is a "chick flick"
before the term existed, but anyone who loves a romance and doesn’t mind suspending
reality will find it enjoyable.
The most important release in the box, and a movie worth
$20 all by itself, is Design for Living. Think that the movies of the ‘30s
couldn’t tackle tough sexual subjects? Well, Design for Living is about a
two-man, one-woman ménage a trois. Our heroes, Frederic March and Gary Cooper, are
both in love with Miriam Hopkins, and she loves both of them. The solution? Well, they
live in Paris, and all are poor artists, so they decide to have a three-way. Only
one thing has the power to break them up -- success. Enter stodgy Edward Everett Horton
who offers Hopkins a way out. Directed to perfection by Ernst Lubitsch, it’s a
reminder of what a great comedian Cooper was.
While I’m glad to have these films, other than Design
for Living, these aren’t Cooper’s best work. Mr. Deeds Goes to
Town, Meet John Doe, Sergeant York, Ball of Fire, Pride of the
Yankees, High Noon, Love in the Afternoon, and Man of the
West should be on your list of films to see soon. |
