How sad is this?

Fantastic!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Blistering performances.

Copyright 30 November 1938 by Samuel Goldwyn. Released through United Artists. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall, 24 November 1938 (ran 2 weeks). U.S. release: 17 November 1938. Australian release: 16 February 1939. 9 reels. 91 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Fun-loving heiress strings along a dumb but eager cowpoke who is unaware of her real identity.NOTES: Academy Award, Thomas Moulton (only) Sound Recording. Also nominated for Best Original Music Score (The Adventures of Robin Hood won); and Best Song (the title ditty) which was defeated by "Thanks For the Memory" from The Big Broadcast of 1938.Despite the raft of writers (see below) who concocted this disappointing fling, the plot is as predictable as the synopsis suggests, with characters and dialogue so vapid and inconsequential they do nothing but waste the talents of a fine cast. No amount of glossy window-dressing by director, photographer, art directors and music scorer can disguise the script's basic poverty of invention, its supremely unmemorable plot and dialogue. All it adds up to is an extremely dated romance whose comic overtones must have been judged feeble and uninspired even by the most indulgent 1938 audience. Writers included Anita Loos and John Emerson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell as well as Frederick Lonsdale, Howard Estabrook, Robert Ardrey, Eddie Moran, Frank Ryan, Gene Fowler, Robert Riskin, and Richard Connell. Yes, they all worked on the script at one time or another. The film commenced shooting on 15 June 1938 with William Wyler directing. Three days later, he was replaced by Potter because Goldwyn thought Wyler was working too slowly. However, Potter himself left before finishing the movie (he had a prior commitment to direct "The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle"), so Stuart Heisler finished up. All these headaches, plus cast replacements (Henry Kolker for Thomas Mitchell, while roles originally set for David Niven and Benita Hume were eliminated) brought the negative cost up to an incredible $1.8 million. (Thanks to Alvin H. Marill in "Samuel Goldwyn Presents" — A. S. Barnes, 1976 — for these interesting facts.)

This is a superb example of a thirties romantic comedy. Merle Oberon, who the following year would dazzle the world in WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939), here pre-dazzles the world with her witty charm, big eyes, and mischievous smiles. Gary Cooper is the tall (very tall, compared to Oberon, whom he cannot kiss without practically bending double) innocent cowboy whose favourite gal is his mare Bess. Oberon is the rich and cocooned daughter of a politician who wants to become President of the USA, and uses her to host his dinners just as the bachelor President James Buchanan used to do, when his daughter became 'the First Lady'. Early in this film Oberon is even toasted at one of the dinners as 'America's future First Lady'. (Her father is clearly a widower, though this is never stated.) This film had more writers than any film I have ever encountered. There were seventeen of them! The main screenplay appears to have been written by the well-known playwright and screenwriter S. N. Behrman. But he must not have done a good enough job, because 16 other people had to be brought in to pep up the script. They included such famous figures as Anita Loos and her husband John Emerson, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Robert Ardrey. With all that talent thrown into the soup, it is no wonder that many witty lines appear throughout the film, many of them doubtless having come from the acerbically mirthful Anita Loos. The film also had three directors, H. C. Potter being credited but the other two, including the famous William Wyler, not being credited. The reason for this deluge of talent was due to confusion on the part of Samuel Goldwyn. As several reviewers have pointed out, Goldwyn started with a title he liked and then tried to find someone to write a story for that title. Talk about top-down instead of bottom-up! There had already been three films made with the title THE COWBOY AND THE LADY. The first was a 1903 short, apparently lost. Then there were two silent films of the same title, made in 1915 and 1922, both based upon a play by Clyde Fitch. Both these films are also apparently lost, and neither had any relation with this 1938 film except for the title. Probably Goldwyn knew the title, whether consciously or subconsciously, from the 1922 film, it stuck in his mind and he got fixated upon the possibilities which it gave for an entertaining story. The juxtaposition of a cowboy and a lady was ready-made for comic possibilities, especially in America, where cowboys resonated with the public in contrast with the stuffy New England Establishment. The film succeeds in being very amusing and entertaining, and in this case too many cooks did not spoil the broth.

A lonely socialite (Merle Oberon) is sent by her presidential hopeful father (Henry Kolker) to Palm Springs to avoid scandal after she's discovered in an illegal gambling joint. The spunky deb convinces her maids (Patsy Kelly and Mabel Todd) to set her up on a blind date with a cowboy (who turns out to be Gary Cooper) from a local rodeo and falls in love with him. But there's all sorts of bumps in this road to love, and it will take some fixin' for it to prevail.This totally charming comedy is a nice chance to see the usually ladylike Oberon do some pratfalls and she does so nicely without loosing her class. What could be silly is handled with a romantic script that makes the pairing believable. This has one of the great supporting casts, although it is predictable that the less than glamorous comic supporting actresses will end up with the scraggly character actors (Fuzzy Knight and Walter Brennan) while beauty Oberon gets hunky Cooper.Emma Dunn is adorable as Cooper's surrogate mother, "Ma Hawkins". There's a nice recurring gag between the two that is affectionate and endearing. Harry Davenport is hysterically funny as Oberon's lovable uncle, her biggest supporter who tries desperately to wake his one-sided brother (Kolker) up to Oberon's needs over his own, yet isn't afraid to perform a lively jitterbug. This is one of the rare cases of opposites attracting on screen that really works, even though Oberon's sophistication betrays her supposed job as a ladies' maid. Still, she's very funny in dealing with such poor man's items as a collapsing cot and sticky fly paper.While most of the film is charming and light-hearted, it does turn into Capra-like corn as Cooper confronts the snobby associates of Oberon's father with a list of what the country really needs. This scene is totally faithful to the plot of the film and gives the story some substance in addition to amusement.

I love this movie for several reasons, the plot, the acting and the beautiful cinematography. There are beach scenes and others that have a dreamlike, gauzy quality that I really love. Gary Cooper is the naive but cute cowboy and Merle as Mary the wealthy socialite who tries to hide it from him. She doesn't mean any harm, she's lonely and isolated and finds herself in an awkard situation that gets worse quickly. Don't miss Walter Brennan as his sidekick (as usual) and the other fun characters throughout this sweet and fun movie.