Madame et son cowboy

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.

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.

I saw this movie recently on TCM and for the most part, loved it!

I liked the shy, bumbling character of "Stretch" and the sheltered, Mary who fell hard for him.

Of course, being sheltered, she was limited in her experience with men.

But fortunately, she fell hard for a man with character and who loved her truly.

I knew that when she lied and misrepresented herself that she would be caught.

I especially loved the night when they married. It was a sweet throwback to an earlier time when single ladies weren't in single men's rooms at night or any time for that matter! It wasn't proper in 1938. It was very sweet and romantic for Stretch to propose marriage. His search for a wife was over!

Here are my slight criticisms:

Also, unsure if I can believe that his REAL name was "Stretch".

Then, there are the scenes where Mary was at the rodeo cleaning up. She became filthy and her dress was torn as a result.

I would think that she could have had her maids send her some clothes or wire her some money so she could purchase some clothes and toiletries. Or even ask her new husband to purchase her some clothes. There was a scene where she attempted to purchase some pants but was interrupted by the phone call. Why didn't she or Stretch purchase clothing and toiletries for her she before she boarded the bus?

Even rich ladies have to bathe and look presentable. A rich lady with her background wouldn't travel on the train for 3 days in a filthy, torn dress and unwashed. Suppose her dad and his friends had ALREADY arrived when she got there? How would she explain her appearance?

Also, the scene in the framework of the house lasted a little too long, in my opinion.

But other than that: I enjoyed this movie! Gary and Merle were great in the leads!

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.