User reviews

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.

"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.

A modern fairy-tale in the tradition of Cinderella and Snow White. This movie has aged well and should be easily absorbed by today's audience. When you think of it, that is a hallmark of Gary Cooper films. He is the everyman, the themes are simple and timeless.

Cooper is in typically good form in this movie, and so is his beautiful and delightful co-star Oberon. The film is loaded with humor, romance and a touch of social commentary. A must see for fans of Cooper, Oberon, Jimmy Stewart or Frank Capra. A perfect "date" movie. One of my most favorite films. Hidden gem.

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.

The film opens with a dinner scene, where we learn that someone is running for office; cut to the two brothers Hannibal (Harry Davenport, always played the kindly uncle or judge) and Horace Smith (Henry Kolker), lamenting about the antics of Horace's daughter Mary ( Merle Oberon ). There's the setup of the movie, and being filmed in the prime of the Hayes Code, we know there will be comical, but innocent , simple, misunderstandings. Love the symbolism of Mary knocking over the "house of cards" she has built on the coffee table. Great scene where she talks about the rules of dating with the maids (the hilarious Patsy Kellly & Mabel Todd). Enter Gary Cooper as the polite cowboy "Stretch Willoughby". Say no more. Just watch for the ups and downs as sidekick Walter Brennan makes wisecracks to help the plot along, along with some slapstick physical comedy. Also check out the cast of thousands in the writer category, which includes greats Anita Loos, Dorothy Parker. Directed by Henry Potter, who would make THREE movies with Cary Grant! Fun, but probably would have been more hilarious if it had been filmed prior to the production code.

Definitely the most somber 30s rom com I can recall thanks to Greg Toland's camera which seems most at home in fog enshrouded Gulf steamers and shadowy, dark Palm Beaches of the mind. And since the film is not very funny, with endless variations on the tiresome Capra-esque trope of urban=bad while rural=good, you tend to remember the cinematography way too much. C plus.

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.

A thin comedy which has a few amusing moments but isn't as funny or charming as it clearly believes itself to be. Oberon looks stunning, which, after seeing her in The Divorce of Lady X, shows the importance of the cinematographer to a leading lady.

I saw this film as a teenager about 20 years ago,and its always remained one of my favourite romantic films.you can easily get lost in the beautiful locations this film is set in.The story is a simple one,with no confusing plot,so you just watch it for the beautiful chemistry between the two stars and the sweet storyline.It shows that films made during this era were far more romantic than that of today,they had lots of innocence about them,today they are handled a bit to heavily and you cant feel as sensitive towards them.I don't really think this film dates at all,i think this film can still be absorbed by a modern audience,as the film is basically about opposites attract which everyone can relate to .And also the two characters are just timeless,their different personalities really compliment each other,i do love this film.

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.

This film has about as far-fetched of a plot as you can find: a Presidential candidate's wily daughter goes on holiday, takes company with a brooding young cowboy and eventually marries him. Without a doubt, this film is a curio, but is still watchable for the performances of two of my favorite actors, Oscar-winner Gary Cooper and Oscar-nominee Merle Oberon. Won the Academy Award for Best Sound.

Gary Cooper is the cowboy and Merle Oberon is the lady in the unimaginatively named comedy "The Cowboy and the Lady." Passably amusing, if contrived and unconvincing, the 1938 film suggests that, while hiding out in Palm Beach from a potential scandal, the wealthy daughter of a prominent politician goes on a blind date with her two maids and meets a rodeo cowboy. Of course, the simple cowboy is smitten, and the duplicitous lady spins a web of lies to disguise her true social position, which the simple cowhand would despise as non-productive.

Cooper is the primary reason to sit through this often silly film; he plays his standard shy, naive, and amiable charmer, and he makes even the most cloying scenes tolerable. His well-delivered populist speech at a climactic moment could have been written for a Frank Capra film. The beautiful Merle Oberon, on the other hand, has no gift for comedy, and her uncomfortable attempts at levity and rusticity fall flat. While the cool and remote Oberon looks the part of the pampered rich girl and plays her well, she is unconvincing in her attraction to the aw-shucks Cooper and his rustic life style. Little chemistry is evident between the two stars, and the Oberon role calls for a Jean Arthur, Claudette Colbert, or Barbara Stanwyck. The veteran supporting cast, however, which includes Walter Brennan, Patsy Kelly, and Henry Davenport, is excellent.

Gary Cooper, at the peak of his looks and charm, holds "The Cowboy and the Lady" together through many eye-rolling moments. Perhaps better casting of the female lead and a more talented director would have resulted in a classic screwball comedy, but the results here are often flat and silly.

Charming, predictable story of "class clash" so popular in Depression-era pictures. With no need to worry about plot, you can just sit back and enjoy the performances.

Merle Oberon hits just the right chord as a polished socialite with a hidden practical side and a goofball sense of humor. Her English accent is a trifle thick even for the "everyone rich has an English accent" days, but her physical comedy brings her back down to earth. She outshines everyone else in the film, in my opinion.

Gary Cooper plays Gary Cooper as usual, but there were two shots in particular where I saw thoughts and emotions played that were deeper and more well-rounded than his stock plays (his stock plays being: bashful, strong-n-silent, voice of the working class, and bewildered).

The cast is rounded out nicely by some of the better character actors of the day and the action moves along briskly. As others have noted, there are definite echoes of "It Happened One Night" and "Mr Deeds Goes to Town" as well as "Meet John Doe." All three films are better than this one, but "The Cowboy and the Lady" remains unexpectedly sweet and winning. A lovely bit of fluff!

This is a superb example of a thirties romantic comedy. Merle Oberon, who the following year would dazzle the world in WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1939), here pre-dazzles the world with her witty charm, big eyes, and mischievous smiles. Gary Cooper is the tall (very tall, compared to Oberon, whom he cannot kiss without practically bending double) innocent cowboy whose favourite gal is his mare Bess. Oberon is the rich and cocooned daughter of a politician who wants to become President of the USA, and uses her to host his dinners just as the bachelor President James Buchanan used to do, when his daughter became 'the First Lady'. Early in this film Oberon is even toasted at one of the dinners as 'America's future First Lady'. (Her father is clearly a widower, though this is never stated.) This film had more writers than any film I have ever encountered. There were seventeen of them! The main screenplay appears to have been written by the well-known playwright and screenwriter S. N. Behrman. But he must not have done a good enough job, because 16 other people had to be brought in to pep up the script. They included such famous figures as Anita Loos and her husband John Emerson, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, and Robert Ardrey. With all that talent thrown into the soup, it is no wonder that many witty lines appear throughout the film, many of them doubtless having come from the acerbically mirthful Anita Loos. The film also had three directors, H. C. Potter being credited but the other two, including the famous William Wyler, not being credited. The reason for this deluge of talent was due to confusion on the part of Samuel Goldwyn. As several reviewers have pointed out, Goldwyn started with a title he liked and then tried to find someone to write a story for that title. Talk about top-down instead of bottom-up! There had already been three films made with the title THE COWBOY AND THE LADY. The first was a 1903 short, apparently lost. Then there were two silent films of the same title, made in 1915 and 1922, both based upon a play by Clyde Fitch. Both these films are also apparently lost, and neither had any relation with this 1938 film except for the title. Probably Goldwyn knew the title, whether consciously or subconsciously, from the 1922 film, it stuck in his mind and he got fixated upon the possibilities which it gave for an entertaining story. The juxtaposition of a cowboy and a lady was ready-made for comic possibilities, especially in America, where cowboys resonated with the public in contrast with the stuffy New England Establishment. The film succeeds in being very amusing and entertaining, and in this case too many cooks did not spoil the broth.

Cute romantic comedy about a bored young rich woman who poses as a maid, meets a rugged cowboy, gets married, and then must reveal to the cowboy who she really is. Complicating this already complicated scenario is the fact that she's the daughter of a presidential candidate who's on the cusp of getting the nomination from his party and doesn't want anything, like bad press, to interfere.

I always like Gary Cooper more when he's doing comedy than when he's doing drama, as I think he was somewhat limited as an actor and can't always pull off dramatic roles. But he's extremely engaging here. I haven't seen Merle Oberon in that much, but she's adorable in this, and she and Cooper have a lot of chemistry together. Recognizable character actors like Walter Brennan, Patsy Kelly, and Harry Davenport provide much of the film's comedy.

"The Cowboy and the Lady" is one of those Depression-era movies about how bad a job American politicians are doing looking out for the interests of everyday working Americans, and about how politics is just a lot of rich fat cats looking out for one another. Which sadly makes it pretty relevant today.

Winner of the 1938 Academy Award for Best Sound Recording (puzzling) and nominated for Best Original Score and Best Original Song, for the title song "The Cowboy and the Lady," though I had to look the song up on YouTube to hear it, because it's not featured prominently in the film.

Grade: B+

I love this movie for several reasons, the plot, the acting and the beautiful cinematography. There are beach scenes and others that have a dreamlike, gauzy quality that I really love. Gary Cooper is the naive but cute cowboy and Merle as Mary the wealthy socialite who tries to hide it from him. She doesn't mean any harm, she's lonely and isolated and finds herself in an awkard situation that gets worse quickly. Don't miss Walter Brennan as his sidekick (as usual) and the other fun characters throughout this sweet and fun movie.

For the first 70 or 75 of its runtime of 91 minutes this is a perfectly adequate romantic comedy. Nothing brilliant or outstanding, but Merle Oberon as the wealthy socialite and Gary Cooper as the cowboy are doing a decent job. The storyline fits a pattern popular in the 1930s depression era: Tension is achieved by bridging the gap between the wealthy and the poor. Think of 'My Man Godfrey' (Gregory La Cava 1936) or '100 Men and a Girl' (Henry Koster 1937) - these pictures belong in the same category. However, comparing them with 'The Cowboy and the Lady' makes the shortcomings of this film glaringly obvious. In 'My Man Godfrey', the wealthy girl hires a homeless man as a butler, falls for him and pursues him until he marries her, apparently without ever realising that his family is at least as wealthy as her's. This is a straightforward case of 'love conquers everything'; it is a believable motive. In '100 Men', a group of out-of-work musicians forms an orchestra and gets a famous conductor to direct and a wealthy industrialist to sponsor them. Here, it is the irrepressible passion for music (in the case of the conductor) and the interest in making money (in that of the industrialist) that motivates the characters. Again, this is credible. By contrast, in 'The Cowboy and the Lady', the motives that lead to resolving the tension between wealth and poverty appear only at the very end of the story and remain unconvincing. It is the father (Henry Kolker) of the 'Lady' who stands between the two parties: He is a politician angling for the nomination as presidential candidate and has no use for a scandalous mesalliance in his family. Cooper gatecrashes a party given for the supporters of the aspiring would-be president and delivers a homily about the virtue of not looking down on your fellow human beings. Then the Lady's rakish uncle (Harry Davenport) tells her father how selfish he is, and that's it. All of a sudden and a few minutes before the end of the film, the father sees the errors of his ways and gives up his career, and everything descends into sugary harmony and happiness. I don't think there are many viewers who find this particularly convincing.

Gary Cooper is fantastic in this movie. He is one great actor who gets you laughing on the floor! This is a really good romantic movie! It makes people believe that true romance is possible between a man and a woman, even if they are from very different backgrounds.