El rey del tabaco

"Bright Leaf" is a 1950 Warner Brothers southern extravaganza starring Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Neal, and Jack Carson.

Gary Cooper is Brant Royle, who in 1894 returns to his southern town of Kingsmont, where his family was driven out of the tobacco market by Major Singleton (Donald Crisp). Royle has returned to get his revenge and reinstate the family name in the area. There are two women in his life: a madam, Sonia (Lauren Bacall) and Singleton's beautiful daughter Margaret (Patricia Neal).

With the help of Sonia, Royle buys into a machine that actually rolls cigarettes, which drives down the cost of producing them. He eventually takes over nearly the entire tobacco industry. But Royle won't be happy until he has brought Major Singleton to his knees and marries Margaret. But in his determination to get what he wants, he loses even more.

The moral of "Bright Leaf" is two-fold: Beware of what you want; and big talent won't really help a mediocre movie. The novel was probably inspired by "Gone with the Wind," but the quality of the story - in the film, at least - doesn't come close. There are two likable characters - Sonia and Carson's role of Chris. The rest of the main characters are odious.

Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper were in the midst of their passionate affair, but the relationship between the characters they play is pretty frosty. Given their romance, perhaps the Bacall role would have been better for Neal.

Bacall took this job to finish off her contract with Warners. She's good, but her character isn't really fleshed out. Cooper is a great presence, but he has a difficult job because the character is not sympathetic. Also, I suspect that at age 50, the character was supposed to be younger. Neal is beautiful, and her performance has some real bite.

All in all, not up to the talents on screen.

Brant Royle (Gary Cooper) returns to what was once his father's tobacco farm before Major James Singleton (Donald Crisp) bought the father out in a foreclosure in his bid at concentrating all the prime tobacco land under his ownership. The film boils down to a contest between Crisp's Old South and Cooper's New South over the invention of the machine by Jeff Corey as John Barton that enables the mass manufacture of cigarettes, a direct challenge to the cigar industry, which occurs as the nineteenth century recedes into the twentieth. In on the initial investment in what would become the cigarette craze are Lauren Bacall as what appeared to be a higher class prostitute and Jack Carson as a traveling con-man. Patricia Neal as Singleton's only daughter is the most memorable part in the film which seems to want to come down on Cooper's side but turns him into a raving capitalist monopolist who always had a desire for Neal and another desire to get even with her father, which leads to pretty high dose of melodrama.

The subject matter of this film, the tobacco industry, is a subject that makes this a bit dated. Back in 1950, it worked fine up on the big screen but today some might see these folks as mass murderers.

When the movie begins, Brant Royle (Gary Cooper) arrives back in his home town in North Carolina. He's been gone for many years and he's back to settle his uncle's estate. However, the local tobacco czar, the Major (Donald Crisp), has decided that Brant is not welcome and makes it very clear. But, around the same time, a smart inventor (Jeff Corey) approaches Brant with an automated cigarette rolling machine. Soon, Brant is rich and slowly the Major and his old money are being driven into the ground.

At the same time, one woman loves Brant and another completely cold and indifferent. So, naturally he ignores the nice woman (Lauren Bacall) and chases the nasty one...the Major's daughter (Patricia Neal). Why does he want this cold, conniving and annoying woman? Perhaps he wants to do to her what he metaphorically wants to do to the Major...who knows?

Eventually, Brant is able to get everything he wants...wealth, power and the girl. However, in the process he becomes a heartless, nasty jerk-face. He also manages to destroy the good will of his friends and is eventually left an empty man. What's next? See the film.

In many ways, this reminds me of previous films like "Citizen Kane", "Honky Tonk" and "Edward, My Son"...three films about guys who do anything in order to gain power and yet lose everything that's really important in the process. It's a timeless morality tale and the more you watch, the more you are just waiting to see the mighty fall due to their own awfulness and arrogance. Fortunately, it does end a bit differently...there isn't exactly a 'Rosebud' moment.

Overall, an interesting and well acted epic from Warner Brothers. Better than I expected...mostly because occasionally the script caught me by surprise...and in good ways.

By the way, Lauren Bacall's character is described as running a 'boarding house' but she clearly is a madame with a stable full of prostitutes when the film begins. I found these euphemisms a bit funny but understand that this was all done to comply with the rigid Production Code.

... and fortunately I am not a post-war audience because I liked it a great deal.

It's got a pretty familiar outline among melodramas - a man run out of town (Gary Cooper as Brant Royale) by the local king of tobacco Major James Singleton (Donald Crisp), decides to get revenge by backing the development of a cigarette manufacturing machine and grinding Singleton to financial dust. All the while he is entranced by Singleton's daughter Margaret (Patricia Neal), a bloodless creature, while ignoring the girl who has loved him all along, the true blue Sonia (Lauren Bacall).

Its charm is in its casting. Never has Gary Cooper played somebody so unlikeable and so far from the heroic characters he typically played such as Alvin York and Will Kane - the latter character being one he hadn't even portrayed yet. Lauren Bacall balked at playing both the proprietor of a bawdy house AND having a southern accent. The screenwriters thus made her Polish, I guess to explain her rather mild New York accent in a North Carolina setting???

Patricial Neal is a standout. Throughout the piece she moves and stands stiffly, appearing as a mannequin or a music box dancer, only smiling - also stiffly - when she can think of some kind of trouble she can cause. Thus even in movement she is in sharp contrast to straight shooter Sonia. Finally there is Jack Carson - he's a patent medicine salesman who Brant cavalierly makes a partner at the beginning of his entreprises, and he turns out to be a loyal friend. This is something I've noticed about director Michael Curtiz - He certainly knew how to give good roles to and get good performances out of Warner Brothers contract player Jack Carson.

I'd recommend this one. I think it has redeemed itself over time from being the "doomed masterpiece" it was once called.

This 1950 film starred Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall and Patricia Neal in the leading roles and brought drama within the tobacco industry, although in the 50s it was okay to smoke. Doubt this film could make it this day and age.

Interesting to see real-life lovers Cooper and Neal tear up the scenery with their love scenes. Cooper seemed a bit on the reserved side even though he was out for revenge. But, that's Coop. He's a master of do nothing on the screen and manages to hold his own. Spencer Tracy is another one of those dynamic actors. Here he plots to take over the tobacco industry from a man (splendidly played by that veteran character actor of distinction, Donald Crisp) who in the past had run him out of town for kissing his daughter (yes, just kissing) played by the lovely Patricia Neal.

In the meantime Coop courts long time girl friend, Lauren Bacall, somewhat miscast in this, for money to start up a cigarette making factory invented by Jeff Corey, another great actor. Lauren doesn't look her best in this. How can we forget all those marvelous Bogart/Bacall films with her slinky hair and sultry body. In this her hair is up and curled and her gowns of the period don't look good on her. Bring Baby back. She doesn't have the chemistry with Cooper as she did with Bogart. And obviously the chemistry was flying with Neal and Cooper instead.

Also in the cast are Jack Carson, in a small and not so well written role that wasted this fine actor. Gladys George (remember her in MADAME X) was also wasted in a thankless role.

However, it's fine drama of the time and good to see the stars playing out their roles.

I prefer to remember Coop in such films as SERGEANT YORK, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, SARATOGA TRUNK, FOUNTAINHEAD, HIGH NOON and ALONG CAME JONES.