The Cowboy and the Lady

The Cowboy and the Lady will never be listed among the top features of either Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon's careers, but it has a unique place in Hollywood lore. Supposedly producer Sam Goldwyn came up with this title and then set about hiring the creative title to fashion a story and then a film from it. Not the usual way the creative process flows even in Tinseltown.

Merle is yet another rich girl who's bored living in her mansion because politically minded dad, Henry Kolker who's running for president. This budding Theodore Roosevelt doesn't want an Alice on his hands, he keeps Merle on a tight leash. Even after she gets busted in a nightclub raid with her fun loving uncle Harry Davenport.

When two of her maids go out on a double date with a pair of traveling rodeo cowboys, Merle goes along because the cowboys have a third and she hits the jackpot because the third is Gary Cooper. Of course Merle pretends to be a third maid.

Anyone who saw even a couple of thirties screwball comedies knows exactly how this one is ending up. Director H.C. Potter borrowed rather liberally from Frank Capra, there are elements of Mister Deeds Goes to Town and It Happened One Night in the story.

Still it's a pleasant enough piece of fluff and sure didn't do anyone's career any harm who was associated with it. Look for good typecast performances from Patsy Kelly and Mabel Todd as the maids and Walter Brennan and Fuzzy Knight as Cooper's rodeo buds. They all perform strictly to type.

Transparently masked as a "Western", this fairly standard & predictable Screwball Comedy from 1938 relied too greatly on the "Aw-Shucks!" appeal of actor Gary Cooper.

Not only that, but it also banked too heavily on the on-screen chemistry that was supposed to transpire between Cooper's character and that of actress Merle Oberon, as well.

For the most part this Chick Flick (which was typical of its era) was fairly good-natured and quite uncomplicated about the motives of its storyline - But the truth was that Gary Cooper (pushing 40 at the time) was clearly too old for his part and his character was just a little too "Golly-Gee!" wholesome and naive to be at all believable.

It really killed me how much rich girl Mary Smith loved the be roughly man-handled and repeatedly knocked off her high-horse by the likes of "Stretch" Hawkins (Cooper).

All-in-all - The Cowboy And The Lady was OK, as far as a stock, 1930's Romantic/Comedy goes. But, the truth is, there was nothing remarkable about this picture in any way, whatsoever.

Considering the film has Merle Oberon and Gary Cooper, it couldn't help but be watchable...and it certainly was. The problem for me, though, is that with these actors and a concept that was decent enough, the film's script sure didn't do much with this. Instead, it has some nice moments as well as some lulls.

Perhaps it was just too much pawning off the idea of Merle Oberon with her exotic ways and accent as a rich lady in love with Cooper. While the idea of a society lady falling for a cowboy, Oberon just seems too distant and cold to make it all seem possible. I really think someone a little more "human" could have made this odd pairing work well. Oberon was a fine actress but I just don't think she was right for this film.

Perhaps it was that once the two fell in love, the film just stagnated until near the end. They married and yet the film still had a long way to go and the middle just seemed like filler at times--particularly Cooper's pantomime sequence inside their new house.

Whatever the reason, the film just seemed like an agreeable time-passer and nothing more. Inoffensive and just a tad bland. For a SLIGHTLY better variation of this same plot, try seeing the John Wayne and Jean Arthur film LADY TAKES A CHANCE--it has better chemistry and is just a better film in most respects.

Leo McCarey was one of the co-writers of this romantic/screwball comedy which might account for the fact that it is several notches above the average, (though Dorothy Parker and Lillian Hellman and a whole host of others are also said to have contributed), and is both very funny and very likable. Like so many other comedies it's based on the premiss of mistaken identity, in this case when cowboy Gary Cooper assumes rich Merle Oberon is a lady's maid. Naturally they fall in love. H C Potter directed, very nicely indeed while the excellent screenplay is credited to S.N. Behrman and Sonya Levien. Both Cooper and Oberon are very good indeed though a decent supporting cast are given too little to do. It won an Oscar for Best Sound Recording and was also nominated for it's score and for Best Song.

"The Cowboy and the Lady" starring Gary Cooper and Merle Oberon was written after Sam Goldwyn thought up the title - so it's the reverse of the usual process. It's a 1938 film about a wealthy, sheltered young woman (Oberon) whose father is about to announce his candidacy for President. One night, she slips out for a night of fun with her uncle (Harry Davenport). When her name is discovered on a list of people who were in attendance at a club during a raid, she is sent out of town so her father can say she wasn't in town at the time. Since her name is Mary Smith, it could easily be another person.

While on her vacation, Mary meets a tall, gorgeous hunk of man - a cowboy named Stretch Willoughby (Gary Cooper). As any red-blooded woman would do, she falls for him. It's young Gary Cooper. He's a hottie. To put them in the same class, she says she's a maid. Before she knows it, she's married to him.

The stars are very good in the film, as is Harry Davenport as the uncle with a twinkle in his eye. Cooper and Oberon are darling together - he's so tall and broad-shouldered and she's beautiful and petite, and they have a nice chemistry. When she first asks him about himself, Stretch answers with Cooper's famous "Yep" several times. Parts of the film are a little slow but it's a nice romance. I realize some people think it's a preposterous love story but I can see any woman, rich or poor, flipping out for Gary Cooper and any guy falling for Merle Oberon. They were, after all, two of Hollywood's great beauties.

Very enjoyable.