"Plowing Your Furrows Crooked"

They just don’t make films like they used to; and some people are probably very happy about that. Count me in the minority. I love the old films; all of them. War films; romances; musicals; biographies; dramas; historical dramas; westerns; it makes no difference. They all seemed to have something to say and were a lot less noisy in saying it.

True story; I went to see the film “Pearl Harbor” a number of years ago when it came out. I was with my daughter. As we exited I heard an old guy with a Pearl Harbor Survivors cap on his head say to his wife, “I was there and it wasn't that loud!”

Well, it’s Sunday so I thought I’d post something spiritual; Walter Brennan pitching the Lord to Gary Cooper. Check out how Gary Cooper tries to get away as soon as Walter Brennan starts to talk about religion. I think we all do that to some extent. Shy away from things which threaten our “comfort zones.”

In this 3 minute scene, Walter Brennan; as the Pastor; tackles the questions which plague us all throughout life; Can we fight the evil within ourselves? Will God actually help us? (Love it when Gary Cooper says he sure wishes the Lord would “throw in” with him.) And are we too weak to overcome ourselves and our own shortcomings; let alone Satan? Big questions, all. This is what I love about old films.

"The General Died at Dawn" with Gary Cooper, Madeline Carroll and Akim Tamiroff (1936)

See William Frawley as you’ve never seen him before in this film which takes place in the years between the two world wars. At the time of this story, by writers Charles G. Booth and Clifford Odets, China was undergoing tremendous change as it was struggling to overthrow the warlord system of government which had ruled the land for thousands of years. The choice was between a nationalist, Western styled government; or the radical changes evoked by the Communist Party. In it, he plays one of several mercenaries looking to profit from the turmoil which reigned in China at the time. Don’t look for a hint of Fred Metz in his portrayal of Brighton, a booze besotted man whose only concern is the buck he might make at the expense of others.  His greed will prove his undoing.

Gary Cooper plays a man known as O’Hara, an American mercenary who finds himself in care of the money to purchase arms for the local militia. Acting against his instructions to avoid traveling by train, O’Hara takes the rail to Shanghai, losing the money along the way, along with a piece of his heart. Judy Pierre, played by Madeline Carroll, is the temptress who causes him to lose the money to the ruthless warlord General Yang, played by Akim Tamiroff.  Judy’s father has conspired with the General to steal the money from O’Hara, and although Judy is in love with the American, she allows herself to be used in the conspiracy to rob him. She soon comes to regret her actions, as it becomes plain that the man she has fallen in love with now holds her in contempt.

Sparks fly as O’Hara attempts to recover the money, as well as his honor in this adventure. As an added attraction, there is much to be learned about Chinese history and the opposing factions vying for power in the decades between the First, and Second, World Wars. These were the years when she was struggling to reform herself from a backward country, isolated from the rest of the world, into a viable nation which would command respect abroad, as well as at home. The wars in China were as much about the foreigners being allowed to carve the country up for profit, as they were about national unity. They don’t make them like this anymore.