Burt's character takes on the villian role while Cooper (a priori) takes the moral high-road. Ultimately, each character's moral ambiguity leads to a final gunfight between the friends as the young and limber Lancaster faces off against the aged, oak-strong Gary Cooper. The fact that it's friggin' Burt Lancaster and Gary Cooper gives the scene such credibility that your American (and TEXAS) pride swells with every shot fired. He plays the ultimate mytholized gun-slinger-decked out in black leather set against his flaxen blond locks, carrying two guns- and he and the older (but always stoic) 'Coop' really shoot out the lights in this one: Including one scene at the Maximillion's palace where the protagonists proceed to shoot the wicks out of flying candle sticks to prove their superioty to the Spanish gunfighters. Gary Cooper is of course a Hollywood God (Tony Soprano often references Gary Cooper the strong-silent type) and Lancaster, in addition to being one of the best actors in the world for a span of over 40 years, was descended from a family of circus acrobats and was one of the best pure athletes to ever grace the screen. But the career of Burt Lancaster was only beginning, as he would go on to be a contemporary American star as well, and was a year removed from his Academy nominated role in 1953's "From Here to Eternity" with Frank Sinatra and Monty Clift. Cooper has aged signifiganctly since his legendary role in High Noon, and of course would die all too early in 1961. We're talking about Burt Lancaster, and Gary Cooper, shooting up the high-heavens down in Old-Mexico, as mercenaries in Northern Mexico during the reign of Spanish ruler Maximilion. I don't know if it's the greatest Western ever, but this little number has to be about the most *Root-Tootin' & Shootin'* son-of-a-gun Western ever made, and is also said to have been the inspiration for Italian Western Spaghetti master Sergio Leone. In the end, Trane and Erin face off in a showdown. Also involved in the mix is Morris Ankrum as a heroic Juarista leader. All concerned, including Juarista secret agent Nina (Sara Montiel), conspire to steal it for their own purposes. Trane and Erin discover that the countess and Marquis Henri de Labordere (Cesare Romero) are secretly transporting a large cache of gold intended for the French army. They are recruited by Emperor Maximilian (George Macready) to help escort Countess Duvarre (Denise Darcel) to Vera Cruz. He falls in with Joe Erin (Lancaster), a lethal gunslinger who heads a gang of cutthroats (including Ernest Borgnine, Jack Elam, Charles Bronson, and Archie Savage). The film's amoral characters, Mexican setting, and cynical attitude towards violence (including a scene where Lancaster's character threatens to murder child hostages) was considered shocking at the time, and influenced future Westerns such as The Magnificent Seven, The Wild Bunch, and the films of Sergio Leone.ĭuring the Franco-Mexican War, ex-Confederate soldier Ben Trane (Cooper) travels to Mexico seeking a job as a mercenary. It is considered one of the most influential Western movies ever filmed. The Technicolor Western was directed by Robert Aldrich from a story by Borden Chase. Vera Cruz is a 1954 American war film starring Gary Cooper, Burt Lancaster, Denise Darcel, Sara Montiel and Cesar Romero. The lovely Kathryn Grayson is singing accompanied by a young Sinatra on the piano. He kids himself in a couple of hilarious sequences and does a takeoff on Jimmy Durante, with Durante aiding him, that's sockeroo."Ī rather forgettable film but it does have a very cool song which would later be recorded by various other artists including Judy Garland in her later years.
Guy's acquired the Bing Crosby knack of nonchalance, throwing away his gag lines with fine aplomb. It Happened in Brooklyn was generally well received, Variety noting that: Much of the lure will result from Frank Sinatra's presence in the cast. The film's tagline was "Happy songs! Happy stars! Happy romance!".
Filmed in black-and-white, and featuring a young, but uncredited, Andre Previn on the piano, this was Sinatra's third film for M.G.M.Ī post-World War II feel-good movie, the various plot-threads in It Happened in Brooklyn revolve around characters making good on their non-proletarian dreams: in Sinatra's case to become a popular singer/musician rather than a shipping clerk, in Lawford's case to break out of his extreme shyness to gain a wife and a career as a songwriter, and in Grayson's case to break out of her schoolteaching job to star in the opera (this last is not shown coming to pass, but she presumably lives happily ever after as she is brought to England as the fiancee of the Lawford character, who is heir to a dukedom). It Happened in Brooklyn is a 1947 MGM musical romantic comedy film directed by Richard Whorf and starring Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Durante, Peter Lawford and Kathryn Grayson.
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