MovieChat Forums > Beau Geste (1939) Discussion > Did Cooper's Beau attend college in Amer...

Did Cooper's Beau attend college in America...

posted 11 years ago by tobian85
1 reply | jump to latest

...because if not, what happened to his English accent? Don't get me wrong, I love this movie: the mystery, the adventure, the rousing score, the sweet chemistry between Ray Milland and Susan Hayward, the riveting opening and the delightful scenes with the Gestes and their cousins as children--in other words, pretty much everything about it.

Except for one thing: Gary Cooper's accent. Setting aside his age--Michael ("Beau") was supposed to be in his early twenties--he sounds pretty darn American to me. Okay, maybe Donald O'Connor's accent wasn't the best in the world, but as least he made an attempt. That's more than you can say for Mr. Cooper.

Did the studio figure that Gary Cooper was such a big star--such a convincing, commanding hero--that no one would care that he sounded about as English as Henry Fonda playing Tom Joad? Yes, I'm aware that Robert Preston didn't sound English either...but he also wasn't portraying the title role.

I love this film so much that one slightly sour note won't spoil it for me, but then again, I love it so much that I want it to be perfect.

Hope I didn't stomp on the toes of any diehard Gary Cooper fans.

The gifts we offer the future are the choices we make today. (Laura Baum)

[–] richildis (7) 5 years ago

The thing is, I bet Cooper could have done a decent British accent. His parents were English immigrants, he went to public school in England for three years and supposedly even faced a bit of teasing from his peers when he came back to Montana for the accent he picked up.

It most likely wouldn't have been hard for him to "do" an English accent at all, even with just a little bit of practice. He literally grew up around it and actually lived in the country for a while when he was around what we nowadays would call middle school age, he and his brother came back because WWI broke out.

I imagine at some point early in his career someone told him to stick to one thing for his image and he just did it, the studio figured audiences wouldn't accept their stalwart American hero as sounding anything but American, even if he was playing a character who was not American. Which I find kind of a shame because now I kind of wish we could see just how well he could do an English accent. If it was good, as small a thing as it is, maybe he'd be a little more respected as an actor nowadays. I think he's great but I think his talent is often under appreciated.