George Cooper Movies

George Fitzmaurice directed this romantic World War I drama, which was First National Pictures' entry into the epic war/romance genre popular in the late 1920s (The Big Parade, Wings). Colleen Moore stars as the French gamin Jeannine Bertholot who is a good luck charm to a seven-man platoon of the British Air Force that uses the lilac fields of a small French village as their base. Jeannine is the niece of Madame Berthelot (Eugenie Besserer), who lodges and cares for the platoon. After a bumpy start, one of the flyers from the platoon, Philip Blythe (Gary Cooper) falls in love with her. Philip is reluctant to tell Jeannine that he loves her, but one morning before a dangerous mission, he declares his love. During the mission, Philip is shot down, and Jeannine frantically arranges for an ambulance crew to remove Philip's body from the wreckage. But during the rescue operations, Jeannine loses sight of Philip. To find him again, she begins an exhausting search of all the military hospitals, hoping to see Philip for one last time. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

MGM's silent programmers were often more elaborate than the "A" product from most other studios, and The Barrier was no exception. Norman Kerry plays a Virginian blueblood who comes to the North Woods. Here he falls in love with Marceline Day, the daughter of Henry B. Walthall. Only she's not really Walthall's daughter, but instead the offspring of evil Lionel Barrymore. The Rex Beach story upon which The Barrier was based ended on a sorrowful note; not so this 1926 film version, which in addition to sending the audience home happy also featured a whale of an ice-floe finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Marion Sr. plays a carnival huckster who decides to turn pennies into dollars by passing himself off as a hellfire-and-brimstone evangelist. He is assisted in this enterprise by jaded Betty Compson, a hard-boiled egg who believes in nothing except money. Inevitably, however, Compson is reformed by the love of a good man, whereupon she embraces religion for real. Apparently inspired by the career of such celebrity Bible-thumpers as Aimee Semple McPherson and Billy Sunday, Wise Guy ran into a great deal of censorship trouble even in such sophisticated regions as New York and Chicago. By the time the blue-noses finished wielding their scissors, the storyline made no sense whatsoever. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"It" girl Clara Bow gets to do some heavy emoting in Shadows of the Law. Arrested for a crime she didn't commit, poor Mary Mathews (Bow) serves a term at New York's Welfare Island. Upon her release, she is confronted by Baron Lirgard (Stuart Holmes), the man who framed her. The Baron convinces Mary that she has no other choice but to join his criminal gang -- which certainly seems to be the case, since Mary's own father (Ralph Lewis) is already under Lirgard's thumb. Our heroine pretends to go crooked, but in reality she is carefully plotting her revenge against the treacherous Baron and his mob. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Goose Woman was inspired by the notorious Hall-Mills murder case, wherein a woman known as the "Pig Woman" was wheeled into court on her sickbed to provide damning testimony. Louise Dresser plays Marie du Nard, a celebrated opera diva who loses her voice and her reputation after giving birth to an illegitimate son. Reverting to her given name of Mary Holmes, she returns to her hometown, living in a squalid shack and raising geese. Years later, a headline-making murder case is played out in her town. Hoping to capture her past celebrity, Mary claims to be a witness to the murder. Her dreams of glory abruptly fade when she discovers that her grown son Gerald (Jack Pickford) is implicated in the crime. An excellent film by any standards, The Goose Woman served to solidify the reputation of director Clarence Brown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Steel worker Robert Holden (Conway Tearle) becomes president of the corporation, thanks to his involvement in an invention created by his friend, George Rand (Percy Marmont), and thanks to his wife, June (Claire Windsor), who proves to be smarter than the board of directors. With Holden's new position comes wealth and good times. Clarice Clement (Dorothy Revier) sets out to snare Holden by convincing him that his wife is having an affair with Rand. Holden believes Clarice and sues for divorce. The one sticky point is the custody of the couple's child (Dorothy Brock). So that she doesn't have to give the child up, June claims that Holden is not the father. Holden, who knows better, realizes that June is sacrificing her good name. He confronts Clarice and learns she was lying, so he returns to June and asks her forgiveness. This comedy-drama was based on the stage play by Eugene Walter. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Clara Bow is the sole redeeming factor of the cheaply produced melodrama Lawful Cheaters. Actually, that's not a fair assessment; though the film's storyline is slight and trite, it benefits immensely from its actual New York locations. Bow plays a good-time girl whose what-the-hell behavior lands her in jail. Chastened by her experiences behind bars, Bow sets about to reform her other fast-and-loose friends. At one point, she appears in male drag, and while it's far from convincing, it's fun to watch. Lawful Cheaters was produced by B. P. Schulberg, whose interest in Clara Bow's career went well beyond professional. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This independently made light comedy starred Matt Moore and Madge Bellamy. When geologist Peter Maddox (Moore) builds a bungalow, his fiancee, Daisy Chenshaw (Kathleen Clifford) turns her nose up at it and breaks off the engagement. Maddox decides that he is through with women, and gets a job with oilman Howard Van Dyke (H. Reeves-Smith). Van Dyke's daughter, Peggy (Bellamy) falls in love with her father's new employee, and when Maddox goes on a camping trip, she follows. She orchestrates a meeting in the woods, and Maddox leaves her in his camp while he goes off. Two thugs, Beef Hogan (Clarence Burton) and Tex (George Cooper), show up and attack her. Peggy's dog hunts down Maddox, who comes to the rescue. He returns to work, but is pining away for Peggy -- and his secretary lets her know it. She goes to him and they end the picture together. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

Wealthy John Woodbury (Douglas MacLean) is mistaken for a patient by a trio of overeager doctors. After being put through a battery of tests (one of which involves blindfolding Woodbury, who promptly walks out on the ledge of the high rise building), he is told he only has three months left to live. Woodbury's pal, Hector Walters (Hallam Cooley), convinces him to marry his girl, Violet Stevenson (Lillian Rich), so she can clean up financially when he kicks the bucket. Unfortunately -- for Waters, at least -- Woodbury survives the three months and keeps on going. Subsequent attempts on his life don't have the desired effort, either. Eventually, Woodbury really falls in love with his wife and they head off on a belated honeymoon, with a gunman not far behind. This picture was adapted from the play by William H. Post. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide

A typical low-budget social drama from Sam Sax's Gotham Productions, Unmarried Wives starred Charles Chaplin's first wife, Mildred Harris, as Maggie, a chorus girl who, through the efforts of her press agent, becomes a famous revue artist. She is pursued by wolfish Tom Gregory (Lloyd Whitlock), whose wife (Gladys Brockwell), to get back at him, stages a kidnapping. Maggie survives the scandal only to face a lecherous stage manager. She is saved in the nick of time by her boyfriend Joe (George Cooper) and vows to retire from show business and become his wife. A rather plumb ingenue, Mildred Harris traded on her past relationship with Chaplin in the 1920s but played mainly bit parts thereafter. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide

The Little Church Around the Corner is important as the first major financial success for the fledgling Warner Bros. studios. Kenneth Harlan plays a mining-town clergyman who falls in love with his benefactor's daughter. He is about to settle into a life of cozy complacency when a group of miners come to his doorstep, asking that the minister plead to the owners for better living conditions. To prove himself to be "one" with the miners, Harlan moves into their shanty community. This causes a rift with his sweetheart's father, who happens to be one of the owners. A cave-in, an angry mob and a supposed miracle are part and parcel of this 1923 adaptation of the war-horse Marion Russell play, which is directed with a sure, subtle hand by William A. Seiter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Comedy producer Mack Sennett certainly couldn't let Rudolph Valentino's hit The Sheik come and go without spoofing it with none other than Ben Turpin as the star. Turpin starts off as a bill poster for a movie theater, while a tall, dark, and handsome type is dressed as an Arab and riding a horse to draw customers. But everyone is more interested in the good looking rider than going into the theater, so the manager fires him. In his place, he uses Turpin because he figures that no one will want to look at him for very long. But our cock-eyed hero falls asleep on the job and in his dream he is transported to the desert where he gets into an altercation with a perturbed ostrich. Because he has upset the "royal bird," he is taken away to be executed. He is saved, however, by the arrival of the Arab Prince (Ray Grey), who is about to leave for a two-week vacation in Baghdad. He sits Turpin on the throne in his place, and in the course of his duties as temporary prince, he saves a beautiful American girl (Kathryn McGuire) from bandits. But then a policeman (Louis Fronde) shakes Turpin awake -- he is back on the street with his tawdry costume and advertising sign. The support in this comedy is notable -- Kathryn McGuire would go on to star in two of Buster Keaton's most important films, Sherlock, Jr. and The Navigator, while two other actors, Charles Stevenson and Dick Sutherland, had recently appeared in Harold Lloyd's picture Grandma's Boy. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide