The Gary Cooper Collection (Design for Living / The Lives of a Bengal Lancer / Peter Ibbetson /...

The Gary Cooper Collection (Design for Living / The Lives of a Bengal Lancer / Peter Ibbetson / The General ... | Gary Cooper, Ray Milland | Experience the Magic of Gary Cooper!

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The Gary Cooper Co...

	The Gary Cooper Collection (Design for Living / The Lives of a Bengal Lancer / Peter Ibbetson / The General ... Gary Cooper, Ray Milland Universal Studios, 2005 average customer review:based on 37 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Includes: design for living the lives of a bengal lancer peter ibbetson the general died at dawn beau geste Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 05/31/2005

beau geste

I have long been a fan of Gary Cooper and was delighted to find a copy of Beau Geste at Amazon.I have seen the film several times over the last forty years and never tire of William Wellman!s wonderful direction and his ability to extract the best out of the main players. The old 1938 film stands up very well when compared to the remakes that have been released in the fiftes and sixties. The big bonus here of course is that for a very modest outlay you pick up three other Gary Cooper films. However the other three films are not in the same class as Beau Geste.

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Experience the Magic of Gary Cooper!

Gary Cooper fans, romantics, lovers of classic cinema, fans of fine art, here is a collection of five fabulos, lovingly restored films of one of the greatest actors of all time. The print quality ranges from very good to excellent and the moves are presented in their original aspect ratio.

BEAU GESTE (1939) touches profoundly and is full of surprise, action and suspense. The story begins in a desert fort, where there's not a soul alive and yet, bodies disappear and the fort mysteriously catches fire. Then the movie takes us back in time and we are introduced to the family of Brandon Abbas Estate in England, Lady Patricia Brandon and the children in her care: her three adopted sons Beau, John and Digby Gests, her ward Isobel and Ghastly. There is also Sir Hector, the master of the estate, whom we don't get to meet because he's always absent. He is addicted gambler and in love with his very rare and very expensive sapphire, named "Blue Water". Someday fifteen years later, when the children are adults, the darn thing disappears and with it the Geste brothers. One of them is the jewel thief. Now, if somebody wants to disappear completely and still have some excitement, where would they go? The French Legion of course.
Beau Geste is a movie about values: devotion, patriotism, bravery, honor, romance and the undying love of a brother for brother. I know, I don't make sense- high class jewel thieves, French Legion and values, but when you see the film, you'll understand what I mean. The story is so cleverly written, you'll never guess the outcome until the last credit rolls. The acting is exquisite, the soundtrack and cinematography superb and Coop brings so much beauty, sweetness and enigma to the movie. The transfer is excellent, the picture looks as if it was shot last year. Truly great film!

PETER IBBETSON (1935) is very special movie. This little gem, based on the on the George du Maurier's 1891 novel and directed by Henry Hathaway is all about Love. The deep, eternal, spiritual love that so many dream of and only a few ever find. The kind of love poetically depicted by Victor Hugo: "True love is to be two and yet one. A man and a woman blended as angels, heaven itself."
Peter meets his childhood sweetheart Mary while he lives with his mum in France. The children are separated when his mother dies and his uncle takes him to live in London. Years later the Providence re-unites them. They still love each other and find out that they even share the same dreams but it is too late, Mary is married. Jealous husband, tragic incident and the husband dies. Peter is accused of his murder and jailed for life. The treatment he gets in jail is difficult to watch, but the beautiful life he and Mary have in their shared dreams rewards for it. The movie's transitions between reality and fantasy are wonderfully captured by the cinematography of Charles Lang. Gary Cooper's portrayal of Peter Ibbetson is moving and memorable and so is Ann Harding's performance as Mary. Coop's monolog, when he receives the ring she promised to send him while they were dreaming together is particularly heartbreaking.
This film carries very important messages: a blind man "sees" things and refuses to be unhappy and miserable. Peter &Mary, physically torn apart find a way to be together. Their souls unite "every possible moment". Some might say, that's strange, even impossible, but "the strangest things are true and the truest things are strange".
In jail, Peter is restraint in chains, and those chains represent the fears we all have, that destroy our souls and prevent our imagination flourish.

THE GENERAL DIED AT DOWN (1936) is intensely poetic and suspenseful film about love, courage, devotion and self-sacrifice for the one you love or for a good cause. Coop is O'Hara, a mercenary who fights for Democracy in China. He falls in love with the beautiful Judy Perry. She betrays him, in order to help her dying father. Later, she willingly pays the price and wins back O'Hara's love. Coop is in his element here and so is Akim Tamiroff (Pablo, "For Whom the Bell Tolls) as General Young.The movie was deservedly nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a supporting role (Tamiroff), Best Cinematography and Best Music Score. There are several scenes in the film that show startling originality and are quite avant-garde. At one point, a door knob segues to a billiard ball to connect disparate scenes; in another, two characters ask questions and the answers appear in screen segments, marking an unusual use of split screen to join narrative. I love it!

THE LIVES OF A BENGAL LANCER (1935) is another little gem. Loosely adapted from a memoir by Francis Yeats-Brown, the plot concerns the lives of British soldiers, defending the borders of India from nomadic raiders. The movie beautifully depicts the love true friends have for each other. Contrary to the popular modern belief that we ought to look after ourselves first and be rather selfish, The Lives Of A Bengal Lancer extols selflessness and self-sacrifice for the loved ones as highest virtue.
Directed by Henry Hathaway and with a stellar cast of Gary Cooper and Franchot Tone, the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture.

DESIGN FOR LIVING (1933) is a comedy, adapted from a play by Noel Coward, that premiered with roaring success in 1932. The plot concerns a trio of intensely artistic characters: George Curtis (Gary Cooper), Tom Chambers (Frederic March) and Gilda Farrell (Miriam Hopkins). The two men fall in love with Gilda. She can't make up her mind about who she loves, so they decide to move in together on a friendship basis. The arrangement works at first, then complications arise and Gilda marries her employer to solve the dilemma. Her marriage proves to be dull and both George and Tom realize they can't live without her. So, Gilda divorces her husband and the trio goes back to their original Gentleman's Agreement, to live together without having sex.The film is darkly humorous and explores deeper themes that can seem controversial even today: moral justification for infidelity and analysis of the pressures of fame are some of the topics. Directed by Henry Hathaway.

We live in a turbulent time. Worries over financial crises suck out the blood of us. Traditional values have been turned upside down, leaving us empty. For instance, marriage is no longer regarded important, promiscuity is a norm; sex is no longer part of love and we call the one we share our lives with, simply a partner. This is one of the reasons why these films are so significant- they timely deliver timeless messages of diminishing values.

Everybody has most favorite actor or actress, I suppose. To me, Coop is the greatest. He showed me a wonderful world of emotional depth, a world of eternal love, friendship, gallantry, selflessness and patriotism. A world-refuge, where I'm able to lose myself for a while and then come back to reality, inspired. I am eternally grateful for that and I will love and admire him always.

I also thank the people who restored these magnificent films and put this DVD collection together, so we can enjoy it as much as we wish. Lastly, I thank those of you who had the patience to reed my long review. I sincerely hope that the magic of Gary Cooper will bring you as much excitment, as it brought to me.

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Fans of old movies...

This collection is a great value for the money. For fans of old movies, especially fans of Gary Cooper, I highly recommend it.

Well worth it if only for Design for Living and Beau Geste

The Gary Cooper Collection is a mixed bag. It contains near perfect examples of sophisticated sexual comedy (Design for Living) and rousing adventure that combines nobility, sacrifice, villainy and action (Beau Geste). Trailing them is the high spirited but erratic Lives of a Bengal Lancer, which also features a fine performance by Franchot Tone. Then bringing up the rear are The General Died at Dawn and Peter Ibbetson. Cooper is not a good match for Design or Ibbetson, but he shines in Geste, Lancers and, despite the corny dialogue, General. The price is right even if you only want Design for Living, Beau Geste and Lives of a Bengal Lancer. As much as I like Beau Geste, Design for Living is the one that for me takes the prize. Since, unlike Geste, it now is almost forgotten, it's the one I'll talk about.

There's no doubt about what's going on in Design for Living, a delightful high comedy about a ménage a trois, written by Noel Coward as rewritten by Ben Hecht and directed by Max Lubitsch...and it's not hanky panky. No, it's just joyous, straightforward sex.

When two artists, the painter George Curtis (Gary Cooper) and the playwright Tom Chambers (Fredric March), encounter Gilda Farrell (Miriam Hopkins) on the train to Paris, their 11-year friendship is going to be intriguingly tested. Gilda (with a soft "g") captures them both, and she reciprocates but can't choose. And why should she? She moves in with them. There's only one solution, however, to the inevitable problem. "Boys," she tells them "it's the only thing we can do. Let's forget sex." And with that, of course, neither they nor we can.

Ben Hecht often bragged that only one line of Coward's survived in his screenplay. All I know is that Hecht's words are some of the finest and funniest, as well as the most amusingly realistic, you're likely to find in a high-gloss Hollywood comedy. The movie just barely got in under the wire before the Production Code began to enforce the prude's code of morality on America. Lubitsch and Hecht create a sophisticated world in which going to bed with someone you like is as natural as...well, going to bed with someone you like. There's no leering or innuendo in the movie, just a reliance on the sophistication of the audience. For instance, Gilda explains to Tom and George the differences between how men and women sort things out. "You see," she tells them, "a man can meet two, three or four women and fall in love with all of them, and then, by a process of interesting elimination, he is able to decide which he prefers. But a woman must decide purely on instinct, guesswork, if she wants to be considered nice." The point we're aware of with a smile is that Gilda not only is nice, but smart, and that she's already tested the waters with each of them.

We start the movie with a ménage a trois, but one which turns into a duet with George and then a duet with Tom. After some encounters with business versus art, we all come to our senses and enjoy the sight of Gilda, George and Tom reunited in New York with a plan in mind. "Now we'll have some fun," Gilda says happily. "Back to Paris!" I have a feeling that forgetting sex won't be part of the plan for long.

The frisson of a bi-sexual ménage a trois is substantially toned down by Lubitsch and Hecht. While it wasn't explicit in Coward's stage play, one would have to be deaf and blind not to get the subtext, especially with Coward and Alfred Lunt as the two male leads when the play opened. In the movie, however, this just becomes inconsequential speculation, especially with Gary Cooper and Fredric March in the roles. Cooper manages not to embarrass himself in this highly polished comedy of sex and style, but it's clear that what works in Cooper's favor are his looks, not his line delivery or body language. March and Hopkins, however, are completely at ease and are a joy to watch.

Hollywood wouldn't make movies this adult and amusing until the Fifties, and even then the level of sophistication and respect for the audience, in my opinion, never fully recovered. Every now and then it's possible to come across in pre-Code Hollywood films of such mature pleasure you hope others will like them, too. Says one character in Design for Living, "Immorality may be fun, but it isn't fun enough to take the place of 100 per cent virtue and three square meals a day." How wrong he was...and is.

Design for Living is one of the five films packed onto two discs from The Gary Cooper Collection. It looks fine, just as the others do.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

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