Frank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, (May 7, 1901 – May 13, 1961) was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made. He also excelled in sophisticated, screwball romantic comedies. His career spanned from 1925 until shortly before his death in 1961, and comprised more than one hundred films.
Cooper received five Academy Award nominations for Best Actor, winning twice for Sergeant York and High Noon. He also received an Honorary Award in 1961 from the Academy.
Decades later, the American Film Institute named Cooper among the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars, ranking 11th among males from the Classical Hollywood cinema period. In 2003, his performances as Will Kane in High Noon, Lou Gehrig in The Pride of the Yankees, and Alvin York in Sergeant York made the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains list, all of them as heroes.
Jean Arthur (October 17, 1900 – June 19, 1991) was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur. So much was she part of it, so much was her star personality defined by it, that the screwball style itself seems almost unimaginable without her." Arthur has been called "the quintessential comedic leading lady."
Arthur is best known for her feature roles in three Frank Capra films: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It With You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), films that championed the everyday heroine. Her last performance was the memorable—and distinctly non–comedic—role as the rancher's wife in George Stevens' Shane (1953).
Arthur was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1944 for her performance in The More the Merrier (1943).
To the public eye, Arthur was known as a reclusive woman. News magazine Life observed in a 1940 article: "Next to Garbo, Jean Arthur is Hollywood's reigning mystery woman". As well as recoiling from interviews, she avoided photographers and refused to become a part of any kind of publicity.
Barbara Stanwyck (July 16, 1907 – January 20, 1990) was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra. After a short but notable career as a stage actress in the late 1920s, she made 85 films in 38 years in Hollywood, before turning to television.
Stanwyck was nominated for the Academy Award four times, and won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. She was the recipient of honorary lifetime awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1981, the American Film Institute in 1987, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Golden Globes, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the Screen Actors Guild. She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is ranked as the eleventh greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute.
Barbara Stanwyck was born Ruby Catherine Stevens in Brooklyn, New York on July 16, 1907. She was the fifth and youngest child of Catherine Ann (née McPhee) and Byron E. Stevens; the couple were working-class, her father a native of Massachusetts and her mother an immigrant from Nova Scotia, Canada. Stanwyck had English and Scottish ancestry. When she was four, her mother was killed when a drunken stranger pushed her off a moving streetcar. Two weeks after the funeral, Byron Stevens joined a work crew digging the Panama canal and was never seen again. Ruby and her brother Byron were raised by their elder sister Mildred, five years Ruby's senior. When Mildred got a job as a John Cort showgirl, Ruby and Byron were placed in a series of foster homes (as many as four in a year), from which Ruby often ran away.
Frank Russell Capra (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s. His rags-to-riches story, having worked his way through college, has led film historians like Ian Freer to consider Capra the "American dream personified."
Capra became one of America's most powerful directors during the 1930s, winning three Oscars as Best Director. Among his leading films was It Happened One Night (1934), which became the first film to win all five top Oscars, including Best Picture. Other leading films included Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Lost Horizon (1937), You Can't Take It With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Meet John Doe (1941), Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and State of the Union (1948). Because of his early fame as a director, his name was listed "above the title" of his films when they were publicized. People "flocked to the theaters" during the 1930s and 1940s to see films directed by Frank Capra.
Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American comedian, vaudevillian, radio, television, and film actor, and also a notable violinist. Widely recognized as one of the leading American entertainers of the 20th century, Benny played the role of the comic penny-pinching miser, insisting on remaining 39 years old on stage despite his actual age, and often playing the violin badly.
Benny was known for his comic timing and his ability to get laughs with either a pregnant pause or a single expression, such as his signature exasperated "Well!" His radio and television programs, tremendously popular from the 1930s to the 1960s, were a foundational influence on the situation comedy genre. Dean Martin, on the celebrity roast for Johnny Carson in November 1973, introduced Benny as "the Satchel Paige of the world of comedy".
Benny was born Benjamin Kubelsky on February 14, 1894, in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in neighboring Waukegan, Illinois. He was the son of Meyer Kubelsky and Emma Sachs Kubelsky. Meyer was a Jewish saloon owner, later to become a haberdasher, who had emigrated to America from Poland. Emma had emigrated from Lithuania. Benny began studying the violin, an instrument that would become his trademark, when he was just six, with his parents' hopes that he would be a great classical violinist. He loved the violin, but hated practice. By age 14, he was playing in local dance bands as well as in his high school orchestra. Benny was a dreamer and a poor student and he was expelled from high school. He did equally badly in business school and at his father's trade. At age 17, he began playing the instrument in local vaudeville theaters for $7.50 a week. He was joined by Ned Miller, a young composer and singer, on the vaudeville circuit. They became life-long friends and Miller eventually joined the cast of The Jack Benny Program in the 1960s.
Plot
Pelican Blood tells the story of Nikko, a funny but left-of-center young man living in London. Following a disastrous break up with his girlfriend, Stevie, he's taking life one day at a time, throwing all his energy into his hobby: bird spotting Just as life becomes bearable, Stevie arrives back on the scene, causing a rift between Nikko and all his friends, who warn him she will destroy him. They are fully aware of how the couple first met: on a suicide website, pledging they will 'end it all together'. As their intense, disturbing and highly sexual connection resumes, the relationship between Nikko, Stevie, his friends and his hobby are thrown into questionable chaos. Pelican Blood is a funny and passionate look at the things that make us tick, and the things we tick off the list.
Keywords: animal-in-title, bare-breasts, based-on-book, bird-in-title, birding, birdwatching, breasts, female-frontal-nudity, topless-female-nudity
Nikko: I once went out with a girl and we're both going to kill ourselves. Turned out one of us wasn't serious.
Plot
The story revolves around the life of an aging man faced with the disappointment of a life spent chasing a dream. The ambition to become a star was what drove him to Hollywood but broken dream after broken dream turned him into a helpless clown reduced at holding a sign on a street corner advertising fried chicken. Glimpses of his life as he rubs elbows with the stars are only a distant memory from his past that are of no consolation to him anymore. His crazy drunken landlord makes it a habit to pester him in any way possible. And his boss at work is not too happy about the way he holds the sign and threatens to fire him. Even suicide fails when a stranger interferes. As a last resort he hopes to find some consolation between the arms of a prostitute. Will he get his "Happiending"? Not before the man who saved his life realizes that by interfering with death he will get a first hand taste of the old man's life and sorrows.
Keywords: actor, clown, failure, hollywood, independent-film, neorealism, prostitution, regret, star
What is a clown to do after forty years of failure?
Die Legende. Der Mythos. Der Film.
Willst du berühmt werden... oder glücklich sein?
Plot
College freshman Walter (Gib) Gibson decides to go cross country to visit his friend in California during winter break. Awaiting there is a bikini-clad babe whom his friend assures him is a "sure thing". Meanwhile, Allison, a cute (but somewhat anal retentive) girl at Gib's college has also decided to head out to Cal. to see her boyfriend during break. Gib and Allison are thrust together on a road trip from hell, and somewhere along the way, they find each other's company to be tolerable. Now, what will become of Gib's "sure thing?"
Keywords: attempted-rape, beer, beer-drinking, bikini, brat-pack, breast-flashing, california, card-game, college, college-professor
He's onto a sure thing . . . but ends up on the funniest journey to romance you've ever seen.
A Romantic Comedy From Rob Reiner
A sure thing comes once in a lifetime... but the real thing lasts forever.
Alison: You'll never believe what I wanted to be when I was six.::Gib: A classics professor?
Lady in Car: What are you gonna name it?::Alison Bradbury: What?::Lady in Car: The baby.::Alison Bradbury: [realizing she's faking being pregnant] Oh, the baby. Well, if it's a girl, Cynthia, and if it's a boy, Elliot.::Lady in Car: Those are lovely names.::Walter (Gib) Gibson: Elliot? You're gonna name the kid Elliot? No, you can't name the kid Elliot. Elliot is a fat kid with glasses who eats paste. You're not gonna name the kid Elliot. You gotta give him a real name. Give him a name. Like Nick.::Alison Bradbury: Nick?::Walter (Gib) Gibson: Yeah, Nick. Nick's a real name. Nick's your buddy. Nick's the kind of guy you can trust, the kind of guy you can drink a beer with, the kind of guy who doesn't mind if you puke in his car, Nick! [Alison looks disgusted] [to Lady in Car] Oh, vomit. I'm sorry. Vomit.
Gib: You know, junk food doesn't deserve the bad rap that it gets. Take these pork rinds for example. This particular brand contains two percent of the R.D.A. - that's Recommended Daily Allowance - of riboflavin.
Trucker: I hope you appreciate the magnitude of your impending good fortune.
Professor Taub: [commenting on students' papers] Miss Bradbury. You, on the other hand, you express your ideas very clearly. Except that, your paper is dry, Alison. There's not enough of *you* coming through. Loosen up, Alison. Have some fun! Yes, sleep when you feel like it, not when you think you should. Eat food that is bad for you - at least once in a while. Have conversations with people whose clothes are not color coordinated. [class laughs] Make love in a hammock! [class hoots, hollers, and high-fives] Life is the ultimate experience, and you have to live it to write about it.::[Alison raises her hand]::Professor Taub: Yes, Alison?::Alison Bradbury: What did you say after "hammock?"
Gib: [talks to Alison while she swims] I flunk English, I'm outta here. Kiss college goodbye. I don't know what I'll do. Dad will be pissed off. Mom will be heartbroken. If I play my cards right, I get maybe a six-month grace period and then I gotta get a job, and you know what that means. [Alison ignores him] That's right, they start me at the drive-up window and I gradually work my way up from shakes to burgers, and then one day my lucky break comes: the french fry guy dies and they offer me the job! But the day I'm supposed to start, some men come by in a black Lincoln Continental and tell me I can make a quick 300 just for driving a van back from Mexico! When I get out of jail I'm 36 years old. Living in a flop house. No job. No home. No upward mobility. Very few teeth. And then one day they find me, face down, talking to the gutter, clutching a bottle of paint thinner. And *why*? Because *you* wouldn't help me in English, no! You were too busy to help me! Too busy to help a drowning man!::[he falls into the pool]
Cowboy Guy: I was in Paris once with my wife... boy am I glad she's dead.
Gib: [opening lines] Consider outer space. You know, from the time of the first NASA mission, it was clear that outer space has a clear effect on the human psyche. Why, during the first Gemini mission, thought was actually given to sending up a man and a woman... together.::Julie: [interested] Really?::Gib: A cosmic 'Adam and Eve,' if you will. Bound together by fate, situated on the most powerful rocket yet known to man. It's giant thrusters blasting them into the dark void, as they hurtle towards their final destination: the gushing wellspring of life itself.::[she is entranced]::Gib: How would you like to have a sexual encounter so intense it could conceivably change your political views?
Gib: What the hell's wrong with being stupid once in awhile? Does everything you do always have to be sensible? Haven't you ever thrown waterballoons off a roof? When you were a little kid didn't you ever sprinkle Ivory flakes on the living room floor 'cause you wanted to make it snow in July? Didn't you ever get really shitfaced and maybe make a complete fool of yourself and still have an excellent time?
Lance's frat brother: Three thousand miles just to get laid. I really respect that.
Plot
Air Force fliers Rick Williams and Mike Nolan attempt to meet film star Nell Wayne, with whom Rick shares a hometown but not much else. Fellow film stars Doris Day and Ruth Roman mistakenly believe Rick to be very close to Nell and arrange for him to meet her. The pair begin to form a match, especially after Nell, Doris, and Ruth arrange for Hollywood stars to perform for G.I.s in transit to and from the Korean War, at Travis Air Base. But Nell thinks Rick is getting ready to ship out to the war, when in reality, he and Mike ferry troops part of the way then return to Travis Air Base with returning soldiers. Nell is furious with Rick for letting her believe he was headed to a war zone, especially because the press has made a huge story of their romance. Meantime, a new program, Operation Starlift, has been set in place by the Air Force and the Hollywood studios, whereby stars are flown to San Francisco to perform for the outbound and inbound troops. Movie stars such as Randolph Scott, Phil Harris, and Jane Wyman pitch in to entertain the troops. Rick volunteers for duty in a combat zone, and Nell begins to think she's been wrong about him.
Keywords: air-base, deception, gin-rummy, korean-war, military-airlift, military-hospital, movie-making, movie-premiere, patriotism, reference-to-youngstown-ohio
Plot
A waitress at the Warner Brothers commissary is anxious to break into pictures. She thinks her big break may have arrived when actors Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan agree to help her.
Keywords: faked-pregnancy, filmmaking, hollywood, studio
Jack Carson: Should gave me a chance to be directed by Carson.::Dennis Morgan: Direct! You couldn't even teach Lassie to act like a dog!
Jack Carson: Believe me, Denis, I'll see to it that she is as good in this as Jane Wyman was in Johnny Belinda.::Dennis Morgan: She didn't even *talk* in that one!::Jack Carson: Well, you can't have *everything*.
[phone rings]::Jack Carson: Hey, maybe that's her... er, or sh-she. Not that I care.
Jack Carson: But Denis! Denis, you've got to help me find a leading lady. Look. We're pals! Buddies! When you first came to Hollywood, down on your luck, broke, didn't have what to eat, who gave you the first square meal?::Dennis Morgan: Salvation Army!::Jack Carson: Well, who phoned them?::Dennis Morgan: Who gave you the nickel?::Jack Carson: It was a slug!
Jack Carson: Hey Denis, I think you've got something there. I'll discover her. I'll put her in the picture. I'll direct her, and that beautiful little doll will be grateful to me! *Very* grateful.::Dennis Morgan: Oh, no. *I* will discover her. I'll play the love scenes with her. We'll rehearse at my house at night. And she will be very grateful to *me*.
Publicity man: Now, listen boys, send a couple of cameramen over to Pasadena. We want some cheesecake on Yvonne Amour. You know, 'I love America' with legs crossed.::Reporter: What do I tell them? They want a biography.::Publicity man: Yvonne Amour. Born in the shadow of the Eiffel tower.::Reporter: How to you know?::Publicity man: It's a big tower!::Publicity man: Her father. A colonel in the French Foreign Legion. Killed sixteen years ago in Northern Afghanistan. Let's see them check that!
Jack Carson: [after being slapped] What was that for?::Joan Crawford: Oh, I do that in all my pictures.
Plot
Dozens of star and character-actor cameos and a message about the Variety Club (show-business charity) are woven into a framework about two hopeful young ladies who come to Hollywood, exchange identities, and cause comic confusion (with slapstick interludes) throughout the Paramount studio.
Keywords: variety-club