La gran prueba

When Monogram Pictures decided to change its name to Allied Artists to give it a more prestigious look, the studio didn't last too long after that. Still had the Monogram/Bowery Boys look to it. But the biggest and best film that little studio ever put out was this wonderful film by William Wyler.

Gary Cooper by now had a whole lot of career roles, but this one as Jess Birdwell, Quaker farmer in Southern Indiana during the Civil War was probably his last really great performance. But for Dorothy McGuire this was her career role. She and Cooper work so well together that you think you are prying in on the family of Eliza and Jess Birdwell.

The film is based on a novel by Jessamyn West and it's about the effects of the Civil War on the Birdwell family, the parents and the children, Anthony Perkins, Phyllis Love, and Richard Eyer. The tenets of pacifism are not easy to follow, especially during time of war. And we're not talking about war overseas. But war just the other side of the Ohio River where Confederates do cross occasionally for raiding.

Each of the Birdwells feel differently about the war, including hired hand Joel Fluellen who's a runaway slave. He's got real reason to fear raiding Confederates. Phyllis Love is in love with Peter Mark Richman who's a non-Quaker friend of the family and he's gone off to war. And Anthony Perkins feels it his duty to defend what they've earned and sweat for.

Perkins got an Oscar nomination for his role. It's a telling portrayal of the angst of youth brought up in a pacifist house. Perkins is a truly torn individual.

Years ago I met Anthony Perkins at a science fiction convention in NYC. The poor man looked nervous and ill at ease in those surroundings. He was there because of the Psycho films and the role of Norman Bates with which he had become so identified with. I have to say he looked grateful that someone asked him about Friendly Persuasion. He said he admired both Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire as thorough going professionals and it was a pleasure to be working with them and William Wyler and associated with Friendly Persuasion.

In some of the lighter moments of Friendly Persuasion before the war hits home, Cooper and Perkins go on a trip to sell some of their farm produce. They stop at widow Marjorie Main's house with her three eligible daughters who haven't seen a male face in ages. In a more liberal age it would have been quite explicit what daughter Edna Skinner does to Perkins. Cooper knows though, you can see it in his face as to what's coming.

Friendly Persuasion's popularity was helped a great deal by Pat Boone's record of the title song which was a Gold record for him. But a really great version was done by Bing Crosby for the Longines Symphony in the Sixties. It was nominated for Best Song, but lost to Doris Day's Que Sera Sera.

One of Gary Cooper's best screen moments ever is the death scene with his friend Robert Middleton. Middleton who is also Peter Mark Richman's father is Cooper's best friend and friendly rival every Sunday before church for him and Quaker Meeting for Gary. They have a friendly horse race on the way. Cooper finds Middleton shot and dying from a Confederate soldier. Middleton and Cooper both are superb and I guarantee not a dry eye was in any movie house when this was first released. It's followed by a scene where Cooper disarms the Confederate who killed Middleton and let him go. His Quaker faith kicked right in.

Dorothy McGuire in the meantime forcibly hosts a rebel patrol who confiscate the Bidwell stores. They're about to confiscate the pet goose Samantha for dinner when she whacks the offender with a broom. The goose gets a pardon. She stood up and fought for what she loved even if it was a family pet. It's one of her best screen moments.

William Wyler took some southern California landscape and did a marvelous job in recreating Indiana of 1862. He brought home a winner in every way for Allied Artists.

And Friendly Persuasion will pleasure thee in a hundred ways.

This is a genuine masterpiece of the great William Wyler. Perhaps the most careful director of all time Hollywood history. Only his hands could do so. An incomparable director. After 43 years still a freshly and delicious picture, a real portrait of sensibility !

Everyone knows that Gary Cooper was a fantastic actor and won two Oscars. But he didn't win an Oscar for "Friendly Persuasion", and should have. I think this is perhaps his best performance. If you don't believe me, check out the parts involving the organ!

Anthony Perkins is also magnificent. Everyone always associates him with his best, and most well-known, role of Norman Bates in "Psycho." But he is very complex and moving in his struggle to decide between his religion and his country.

"Friendly Persuasion" is funny, dramatic, and extremely moving. It's a family classic that every movie buff should see. I give it a 10 out of 10!

I can't add anything more, except this: One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the frozen stare from actor Russell Simpson's character aimed at young Jess during "Meeting." I hadn't seen anyone mention it and it's right up their with Samantha the goose for brilliance in film and direction. Needless to say, I adore this movie, have it on my DVR and would panic if I lost it.

This piece of authentic homespun Americana is still one of a handful of truly great films made by its director William Wyler. It won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, something almost unheard of for an American film at the time. It's simplicity itself; a tale of Quakers during the American Civil War and very smiliar in style and tone to Andrew McLaglen's "Shenandoah". Gary Cooper, (never better), is the peace-loving farmer, Dorothy McGuire, (equally good), is his wife and Anthony Perkins, (brilliant in only his second film and picking up an Oscar nomination), is the son who goes off to fight.

Wyler, who himself served in the Second World War, was too canny a director to make an outright anti-war film though the message of the picture is clear. He was also too good a director to fudge it. It may move at a quiet, almost stately pace while remaining one of his most overtly cinematic pictures. A huge hit in its day, it seems now to have all but disappeared.