Friendly Persuasion

Heartwarming, funny (sometimes hilarious), serious, beautifully filmed - many shots are so perfectly framed you could hang them on your wall. Every performance is perfect for the character in the story, including the goose, Samantha.

The change of pace provided by the interweaving of the characters' different stories, the appropriate & beautiful music for the various scenes, the sense of getting to know interesting people, genuine married love between two strong characters as well as the awakening of young love in a setting which has not had sex thrust in their faces, real friendship, the respect paid to religious convictions along with gentle humor at personal foibles - everything adds up to a wonderful film which sticks in the memory and needs just the opening bars of the title song to be brought back gloriously to mind.

Truly, one of the all-time great movies.

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.

Extra fun watching with fellow Quakers on a course in England, a film sensitively exploring the situation of Quakers at a transitional time in the 19th century, soon to on the whole discard the obsession with hats and the universal 'Thou' and 'Thee', but yet to be greatly challenged into 20th century with choices of behaviour at times of war. There's a lot of laughs but it stops short of mockery and there's real sympathy to be had for the Quaker nuclear family so well played here by all. The novelties and dissipations of the time are viewed through a Quaker lens and of course some kind of accommodation to it all, indeed to the matter of the civil war's challenges takes place, but all participants maintain their dignity and self-assurance. There's lots of mild innuendo and diversion from the serious matters, which all get wrapped up oddly satisfactorily in a little over 2 hours.

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.

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.