Joel McCrea - What do you think?

[stuart.uk]

Anne

I've only seen the last 20 minutes or so of Ten North Frederick, but I was impressed with it.

I agree with you Coop (IMO Cagney and Gable were others) in that he didn't age well compared to Cary Grant. However, that was what I thought was the whole point of the film, at least what I saw of it. He played an unhappilly married man, whose personal integrity wouldn't allow himself to behave inappropriately with another woman. His adult children knew he was unhappy, the son blaming his mother for his death and his daughter sympathetic to the young woman who loved her father.

The end of the film which saw Coop die was more credible in the fact he did look his age

[MissGoddess]

Anne

I've only seen the last 20 minutes or so of Ten North Frederick, but I was impressed with it.

I agree with you Coop (IMO Cagney and Gable were others) in that he didn't age well compared to Cary Grant. However, that was what I thought was the whole point of the film, at least what I saw of it. He played an unhappilly married man, whose personal integrity wouldn't allow himself to behave inappropriately with another woman. His adult children knew he was unhappy, the son blaming his mother for his death and his daughter sympathetic to the young woman who loved her father.

The end of the film which saw Coop die was more credible in the fact he did look his age

Stu, I hope you get to see the whole movie one day, if it can ever be rescued from oblivion. I'm always championing this under-appreciated movie.

While the film's direction is rather mediocre (Phillip Dunne was a better writer) and Diana Varsi would not have been my choice to play the daughter, this is positively in my book one of the greatest performances by Gary Cooper or any actor I've ever seen. I can't even watch it too often because I just go all to pieces by those last 20 minutes. It's so relevant today, too, that whole misdirected energy of the pursuit of wealth and power that continues to be central to western society. And yes, Gary was playing a man close to his own age.

[stuart.uk]

Miss G

I could watch the whole film on You Tube, but it's a bit of a plaster having to put on the next section after the one your watching finishes.

It was interesting to see Geraldine Fitzgerald play Coops wife, though I would think even she would be relatively young at the time of making the film, as I really only know her from the Arthur movies, which were made about 25-yrs after.

On moral grounds, some might argue Coop wasn't totally the self sacrificing gentleman as he did at the very least kiss the younger woman with a certain amount of passion. Personally I don't blame his character for doing that, as he was clearly unhappy and badly treated by his wife.

I wonder if the film can compare to the last yrs of President FDR. His marriage to Eleanor was a good political match, but otherwise possibly a bit of a sham. FDR had an affair, but ended it, but seeing him ill and unhappy in his final yrs, his daughter brought his ex-mistress back into his life and set her up in a home for him to visit.

[MikeBSG]

Another good Joel McCrae film is "The Most Dangerous Game."

Really, he has good films in nearly everything. "Most Dangerous Game" and "Foreign Correspondent" for suspense. "Sullivan's Travels" and "Palm Beach Story" for comedy. ("The More the Merrier" just rubbed me the wrong way. I'll have to try it again.) And then the Westerns. I liked him in "Wichita," and "Ride the High Country" is superb.

[MissGoddess]

Hi, again, Stuart!

I didn't even know it was on YouTube!

I've read the book by John O'Hara, and Joe Chapin is supposed to be a flawed man---he put his personal ambition over his daughter's happiness for one thing and he did have an affair with the girl, even though they didn't show anything. However, his inner conflicts are a result of these behaviors being against his own personal code---he is a man who has betrayed himself and those he loves and this is what kills him.

[mrsl]

The affair is what I objected to. The part of the movie you saw was the end of the affair, but earlier their affair was going hot and heavy. But I didn't mean to give the impression that Coop IMHO did not do a fine job in the film, on the contrary, he was superb. As Miss G said, he was not a nice man, and I believe he received his just rewards. The girl (Suzy Parker) is the one who gets my sympathy.

The article that was linked is a truly well written tribute to Joel, and well worth reading. I also liked the mention of Eastwood casting himself as the young strapping photographer, when he was already showing signs of Methusela rising.

Anne

[moira finnie]

Ten North Frederick features late career Gary Cooper at his very best, most touching and honest, at least to me. He plays a man who is, in many ways, an enviable figure at the social top in his small town, but as the story unfolds, his veneer is pulled away to reveal the painful relationship with his wife, (brilliantly and ruefully played by the underrated Geraldine Fitzgerald), his inability to help his son and particularly his daughter, and his late blooming love for her friend (model Suzi Parker, who said that Cooper was very generous to her during the filming, helping the neophyte actress perform well). From what I've read in Jeffrey Meyers' good bio of Cooper, his role of a man who sees his own flaws in full by the conclusion may have mirrored some aspects of his own life, and he imbued the part with thirty years worth of what he had learned as an actor and a man. Coop gives life to a deeply flawed character who is essentially a failure, and his restrained vulnerability, quiet eloquence, and acquiesence to life's events are memorably expressed in the dialogue and his face. This film, though hardly perfect, was, I believe, produced at 20th Century Fox should be revived.

It is one of the best novels John O'Hara ever wrote, along with Appointment in Samarra, (a real classic that has so far defied filming). O'Hara wrote more than a few potboilers and trash that has dated, but his short stories and these two books deserve to be read still. Sorry to go off on a bit of tear--but this is a fine performance as was Cooper's work in The Wreck of the Mary Deare. If anyone is interested in the background on this film, you might enjoy reading Philip Dunne's interesting autobiography, Take Two: A Life in Movies and Politics, which talks a bit about the production of Ten North Frederick. Dunne was also involved as a literate screenwriter with several John Ford productions, including translating Richard Llewellyn's massive novel, How Green Was My Valley to the screen. He later became a central figure in political scuffles in Hollywood in trying to protect many of his fellow writers during the blacklist, (with predictable mixed results).

Here's a link to the first of eleven parts of Ten North Frederick found on Youtube. Of course, others may not like the movie at all--as in many cases, sometimes a story just hits you when you see it!

Sorry to take this so off-topic away from Joel McCrea, who was always splendid in just about everything, (though I like him best in Foreign Correspondent).

[movieman1957]

McCrea shows up in "The Tall Stranger" Thursday Dec. 4 at 6:30pm ET.

It most likely will be a full screen showing.

[feaito]

Eastwood turned downright old about ten years ago.

This reminds me of a review programme I saw a few years ago. The panel was talking about The Bridges of Madison County - and one of the critics acidly said of Clint (who as the director had modestly cast himself as an enigmatic hunk sweeping Meryl Streep off her feet), "He's a bit past his snog-by date."

Back to Joel McCrea; I found this article witty and interesting:

http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/50/mccrea.htm

Thanks for posting the link to this great article. It's superb!

[Lzcutter]

My thanks as well to the poster of the link. It was a great article and McCrea was an actor who got his start because of his hunky good looks but stuck around and became a damn fine actor.

He and Jean Arthur on the stoop in the More the Merrier and he and Randolph Scott in Ride the High Country are just two that always spring to mind when I think of McCrea.

I wish someone would do a good biography on the guy because I would love to know the story of why and Frances Dee separated so late in life, never divorced but never got back together before he died.

[moira finnie]

You might enjoy reading this interview with Joel McCrea & Frances Dee's son, Peter McCrea about his parents, found here at our friend CarrieLiz's site devoted to Frances Dee.

I believe that I've read that McCrea and Dee separated more than once, and even filed for divorce at one time, but for whatever reason, never followed through on that decision, choosing to stay together, if only on paper. Perhaps it was a blend of love, respect, habit or idealism?

Having known some long-married people who occupied separate wings of the same house and only had good things to say about each other close to or after the death of one spouse, these things happen, even in the best families. Guess it's better than serial marriages, maybe? Go figure.