Grey and Cooper

One of my favourite western actors was Gary Cooper (born Frank James Cooper; 1901 – 1961) who wanted to be an editorial cartoonist, but thankfully, failed in that goal of his. He choose to pursue an acting career. Cooper together with my favourite western writer, ex dentist Pearl Zane Grey (1872 –1939),  joined forces in a way, to put one of the Grey's novels on the silver screen in 1931. The western movie was"Fighting caravans". This film costarred Lily Damita. It is still a well produced and amusing old movie.

 

 A site with many Gary's photographs:

Gary Cooper scrapbook

Underrated westerns

I have a feeling that one particular western is not appreciated enough. I am referring to Marlon Brando's One-Eyed-Jacks (1961) with  Marlon Brando, Karl Malden and Katy Jurado. Although, it won the first prise at the San Sebastian film festival, it was still soon forgotten.  Running from the law after a bank robbery in Mexico, Dad Longworth (Malden) finds an opportunity to take the stolen gold and leave his partner Rio (Brando) to be captured. Years later, Rio escapes from the prison where he has been since, and hunts down Dad for revenge. Dad is now a respectable sheriff in California, and has been living in fear of Rio's return. Malden plays an unforgettable villain.
 The western is quite different from all the others filmed at the time. In the best sence.
 It is interesting noting that (as usually) the (painted) posters for the foreign markets are much better than the ones printed for the American one. I suspect they were ppainted by the local artists. The top one was for ex Yugoslavia (distribution: Croatia film), and the bottom one is for the Italy. I prefer the top one.

 

Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper was most certainly one of the best cowboy - actors of his time (from 30's to late 50's). He was very good in Vera Cruz, but Burt Lancaster, who played a "lovable" villain, stole Gary's spot light. It happened so many times in quite a few good movies, that the villain gains the audience's sympaty.
Spanish actress Sara Montiel, in the promotional photograph on the left, was a great star in Europe and a marvellous singer. Her best-selling song was the main theme from the movie "La violetera". Both movie and the song were immensely popular in ex Yugoslavia, at the time. Especially among the female audience, of course. Sara passed away in 2013.

Westerns

I think the Americans have no idea how much influence their western movies left in the world. By the mid 60's, however, most of American westerns produced in those years became dry, boring and totally generic. Luckily for the fans of those movies, the Italian spaghetti westerns started their march, leaving us some of the best movies in that genre.
Here is a German poster version of the classic American western The hanging tree: