TV and Movies

[geezerette]

@just bee

You’re right—nowadays 60 is young.  Even in 1961, it wasn’t exactly considered ancient.  And to think he was only 48 when he made The Fountainhead.  Well, if anyone today looked like that at age 48, I can’t imagine them getting a job.  In any field.  I’ve always liked that “rugged” look.  Now, it’s just considered old and wrinkly and time for a face lift.  Even the women of that time looked “their age”, as we used to say.  Unlike today, when the slightest perceived imperfection needs to be obliterated by plastic surgery.

And you have to remember that he, along with many of the male actors of that time, were heavy smokers.  That took its took on many of those men.  As well as just average folk.

All that said, Gary Cooper was—and still is—my all-time favorite actor/celebrity from that era, despite some of the less than all-American-squeaky-clean parts of his private life.  I was pretty young when he died, but I was devastated.  I remember crying when he couldn’t be at the Oscar presentation in person to receive his award for Best Actor in High Noon.

[just bee]

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@geezerette wrote:

@just bee

You’re right—nowadays 60 is young.  Even in 1961, it wasn’t exactly considered ancient.  And to think he was only 48 when he made The Fountainhead.  Well, if anyone today looked like that at age 48, I can’t imagine them getting a job.  In any field.  I’ve always liked that “rugged” look.  Now, it’s just considered old and wrinkly and time for a face lift.  Even the women of that time looked “their age”, as we used to say.  Unlike today, when the slightest perceived imperfection needs to be obliterated by plastic surgery.

And you have to remember that he, along with many of the male actors of that time, were heavy smokers.  That took its took on many of those men.  As well as just average folk.

All that said, Gary Cooper was—and still is—my all-time favorite actor/celebrity from that era, despite some of the less than all-American-squeaky-clean parts of his private life.  I was pretty young when he died, but I was devastated.  I remember crying when he couldn’t be at the Oscar presentation in person to receive his award for Best Actor in High Noon.

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@geezerette

It's one of the fascinating things about the older films.  The amount of alcohol and tobacco consumed is staggering.

[Oznell]

In concentrating on the love story, I was forgetting how much the sets and the lighting contribute to this film.  The early shots of Howard in his office, with the bars of his wide windows throwing dramatic shadows on the walls-- love.  And just the use of shadows in general.  A visual feast in austere but beautiful black and white!

[bathina]

The chemistry certainly was real. Cooper and Neal had a long term affair which temporarily broke up the marriage between Cooper and his wife Rocky.

[Catiele]

True this movie has much to offer. They did live different lives. It seems that they had many opportunities to be in close contact with their costars. Many transgressions occurred. Some serious and some not.

[GingerPeach]

I agree with @Oznell's assessment of Gary Cooper being the right age.  Often it's only someone who's actually lived long enough who would know what it means to be an individual.   Sometimes when one is younger, being an individual means rebelling rather than being who you are.  Sometimes.

And now I also know where my childhood nightmares of falling off an open-sided elevator came from!  I'd forgotten that scary ride she took at the end.  And leaning backward.  Was that to depict that she is now completely fearless?  Or perhaps it was simply to emphasize her vantage point at seeing her new husband silhouetted at the top of his masterpiece.

        

[Oznell]

Great photo. Whoa, I had totally forgotten that final scene until last night, @GingerPeach.  It was dizzying and quite an effective ending to the film, I thought.