Doomsday

Gary Cooper still hadn't learned to act by the time he made this movie, but he didn't have to do much: stomp around, glower and deal with the occasional super-close-up of his eyes, mouth or hands. It's Florence Vidor's movie, about how a woman needs real love, and, oh yes, work, to make herself complete.

As the movie opens, Miss Vidor is tired of the drudgery of caring for her old and superannuated father. Two men have their eyes on her. One is strapping young Mr. Cooper, a farmer reviving a dilapidated farm and thinking that she, quite willing to thrust her hands into boiling water so her father can have clean, white shirts, or enjoy a scene in a haystack with him -- we cut away in time to save the modesty of censor -- is the woman to scrub his windows and for whom he chops down his beloved forest single-handedly so she can have a modern kitchen.

There's also Lawrence Grant, the local banker, who needs a beautiful woman to grace his beautiful home. He promises her lovely things and a life of ease. So just as Cooper gets in all the new appliances, he also gets a note that Florence has been married to Mr. Grant and is away on her honeymoon/shopping trip.

When she and the hubby return, she wants to spend the day with her ailing father, but Grant insists that his friends are coming to meet her. During the party, word comes that her father has died, so she leaves Grant. When he goes to fetch her back, she returns the jewelry. He points out he's still her husband. She indicates the marriage has never been consummated.

It's a pure eye candy, soap-opera programmer. Paramount worked its stars hard, and the sound era was just around the corner: best to amortize Miss Vidor's expensive contract as quickly as possible. She had risen quickly as a star in the late 1910s, mostly because she was featured in the movies of her first husband, King Vidor. According to his memoirs, it was a rocky relationship. They divorced in 1926, and in 1928 she married Jascha Heifitz. Her first sound film was a box-office disaster. She never made another. Mr. Cooper, on the other hand....

It's been a very long time since I last visited "Doomsday" (1928), but last night I put it in and watched a print that lasts as the IMDb says it does: 60 minutes. I mention that fact, because the last time I watched it, it was on a VHS tape that lasted 74 minutes, and it moved like molasses. Didn't care for it then; but - I enjoyed the show last night. Starring Florence Vidor and Gary Cooper, the other of any importance is Lawrence Grant, and a tad less, Charles Stevenson. For good measure Tom Ricketts and Frederick Sullivan have momentary parts. This is written as a parable, and it's a romantic one, so if you like romantic movies that you think you can figure out from the beginning, and you enjoy seeing them go from less than a joker's beginning to a trump card ending, this is for you. Otherwise, be aware that there are some philosophies in the film that will appear way out of date. The problem is - farming hasn't necessarily become any easier, though the machinery to make it work in the modern world has technologically advanced a great deal, but it still demands a certain kind of heart and mind to make it successful, especially for a married couple.

Cooper owns Doomsday House in England, a very old house with a fairly large amount of arable land. He gets up around 4:00 AM every day and works till the sun goes down - every day, day after day. He's lonely. He wants a woman who will be like he is, scrubbing and cooking, cleaning and baking, washing clothes and, and... He wants a woman to love, too. Vidor - who has the most captivating eyes - lives with her father, a former military person who is now becoming nearly invalid and needs looking after - constantly. She cooks and she cleans, and she boils the water and cleans the clothes. She works her fingers to the bone and is to the point she'd like to forgo this kind of life if she could.

Around the bend, so to speak, is Fream House, owned by the Fream descendent, played by Lawrence Grant, at his most icy, but unctuous towards Vidor. He wants to marry her so she can be like an ornament to the house and the name. It won't be for love, and she'll have all the THINGS that any woman could possibly want.

Vidor marries Grant. He's older and impotent, but he gives her anything and everything, any thing and every thing. But not love.

Vidor is involved in a parable, remember? You'll have to watch to learn the ending, but this 1928 film has a good message and is fun to watch - at the right fps speed(!). Coop really isn't up to snuff acting-wise in this one yet. He doesn't get there until next year's "The Virginian", but he's definitely watchable thanks to decent direction by Monta Bell and nice camera work by Henry W. Gerrard.

Mary Viner (Florence Vidor) has worked all of her life to support herself and her father (Charles A. Stevenson), and she hates housework. It seems that marriage is the only way to escape the mundane life she lives, and she has two prospects. One is a local farmer named Arnold (Gary Cooper), a good-looking man who Mary is severely attracted to. The other is a wealthy older man (Lawrence Grant) who can provide Mary with a life of luxury. Mary is torn between a life of hard work filled with love and a life of no responsibility without love.

Director Herr Rowland V. Lee does an excellent job of editing here. His use of odd close-ups, like that of a man's torso with no head or just a person's eyes, make for interesting viewing. The photography is beautiful. Cooper fans seeing this film simply to see their favorite star will not be disappointed. He is strikingly beautiful in this film. But it also has a good story and a charming star in Vidor.

If you're looking for the reason as to why Gary Cooper was so popular when he wasn't a very good actor, you've got to watch him in a silent movie. He was young, handsome, tall, heavily made up, and didn't have to open his mouth. He was a far better actor when he only relied on his glances rather than his words, and he didn't seem nearly as afraid as he did during his talkies. Audiences grew loyal to him, just like they did with Joan Crawford when she was young and pretty, and they stuck with him even when they heard him talk.

In Doomsday, he plays a poor farmer who can't give the woman he loves a good life. Florence Vidor is being courted by the wealthy, older Lawrence Grant, but she isn't attracted to him. She's very attracted to Gary, and they share a steamy scene in a haystack. She marries Lawrence, and soon learns the painful lesson that money can't buy happiness. I guess she didn't know the title of the movie. Check this old silent movie out to see why Gary Cooper was a hit!

Dame Mary Viner ( Dame Florence Vidor ) lives life full of drudgery in her ordinary cottage together with her infirm father. She also has two neighbours in the vicinity with different but yet similar interests in her. The first suitor is Herr Percival Fream (Lawrence Grant), an old millionaire who offers Mary a life of luxury the day she accepts his marriage proposal to marry him. This would allow her to change occupations on that day - from washing, cleaning and sweeping to more elegant tasks, like wearing "haute couture" gowns or to bear the guests who come to dinner at night.

The second one is Arnold Furze (Gary Cooper), a young but poor farmer who only can offer Mary the same dreary life and his love… and believe this German aristocrat, in spite of the fact that he is handsome Cary Grant in his twenties, that's a poor deal … obviously Dame Mary, like all smart girls around the world, have always preferred to wear Manolo's rather than gumboots.

The most interesting aspect of "Doomsday", directed by Herr Rowland V. Lee and starring the popular star Dame Florence Vidor (who ended her silent career when the talkies appeared) as well as the promising actor Herr Cooper, is that it is a film with implied sensuality, elegant and discreet. As an example of these erotic, silent matters, there are two remarkable and subtle scenes in the film. There's Mary and Arnold kissing each other passionately in a hay pile. And when the same Mary wants to divorce Herr Percival because their marriage wasn't, ehem… consummated, there are the many close-ups of Herr Gary Cooper's smile and teeth with libidinous glances among those lovers.

And now, if you'll allow me, I must temporarily take my leave because this German Count must offer to one of his fat German heiress a life of luxury… thanks to her money.

Herr Graf Ferdinand Von Galitzien http://ferdinandvongalitzien.blogspot.com/