1943 – Gary Cooper
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Cooper is back once again, and he seems to be at the top of his game. Here he plays an action hero. He was almost Indiana Jones, long before Indiana Jones was even conceived. He played Robert Jordan, called Roberto or Ingles, an American language teacher who happens to also be a dynamite expert. During the Spanish Civil War, he joins the resistance and is charged with blowing up a critical bridge. He enlists the help of a band of anti-fascist guerillas to accomplish his mission. One of them is a beautiful young girl named Maria, who becomes his love interest.
Cooper, as always, did a fine job. He handled everything with believability and a clear skill in his craft. By this time in his career, the romance scenes with Bergman must have been old hat. The two had a pretty good on-screen chemistry, and they seemed to work well-together. There seemed to be some real passion there, and the deeper dramatic scenes between them worked. And just as an incidental thought, I’ve always considered Gary Cooper a handsome man, but never an overtly sexy one. But there were a few times in this movie where he was pretty darn sexy. There was a grittiness to the character that contradicted the actor’s wholesome, nice-guy image, and allowed him to show that side of himself.
And Cooper played it perfectly. He was serious when he needed to be, but there was also humor at times. There was gravitas, and a single-minded focus on completing his mission, no matter the cost. And spoiler alert – when he is critically wounded in the end, and he has to convince Maria to go on without him, the love and the longing in his eyes really sold the moment. But for me, it was the moment after she rides away, as he is fighting to stay conscious long enough to turn the machine gun on the oncoming fascist soldiers, that Gary really gave us something special. The sweat on his brow and the glazed look in his eyes were powerful.
I’ve never seen Cooper turn in a bad performance. And this one was no exception. He was a professional who really knew what he was doing in front of the camera. Cooper played a great action hero, and he looked good doing it. And I have to say, he looked good in Technicolor as well.