Warner Archive Collection has grouped four of Gary Cooper’s best performances into one package with the Gary Cooper 4-Film Collection Blu-ray. The four-disc set features Sergeant York, Friendly Persuasion, Love in the Afternoon, and The Hanging Tree.. The Oscar-winning actor’s life and career were tragically cut short at just 60 due to cancer, so this winds up being a great way to check out some of Cooper’s career highlights and his versatile range.
“One of Hollywood’s greatest leading men in four of his greatest performances. His Oscar-winning portrayal of war hero Sergeant York, his thoughtful performance as a Quaker father in Friendly Persuasion, his serio-comic turn as Audrey Hepburn’s love interest in Love in the Afternoon, and in one of his last roles, in the Western classic The Hanging Tree,” says the official description.
The first two films are the most interesting in the collection, as Cooper gave a stellar performance in 1941’s Sergeant York, which won him an Oscar as a result. It’s an inspirational World War I movie based on the real life of Alvin York and is still just as impactful a watch today. Meanwhile, 1956’s Friendly Persuasion won the Palme d’Or and is a fantastic Civil War drama. It centers around Cooper’s character, whose Quaker belief of pacifism is tested during the war. It’s very thoughtful and still a great watch.
Billy Wilder’s Love in the Afternoon is an interesting romantic comedy, although it was criticized in 1957 for Cooper looking too old for Audrey Hepburn’s character (which is fair, as Wilder hilariously recalled, “I got Coop the week he suddenly got old.”). It is also the weakest of the four transfers as it can sometimes look soft, although its 2K scan is still the best the film has ever looked. Rounding out the collection is 1959’s The Hanging Tree, which is a solid Western and features one of Cooper’s final roles. So, it’s not only an entertaining watch but also a look at some of the performances we missed out on due to his early death.
What’s nice about the Gary Cooper 4-Film Collection is that you get each individual disc for the set, so these haven’t been crammed into a few Blu-rays. As a result, all of the original special features from the stand-alone releases are present. Sergeant York has the most specials, as it features an audio commentary from film historian Jeanine Basinger, a 38-minute documentary by John Mulholland on the film, and two shorts (one of which is a 1941 Porky Pig cartoon). Love in the Afternoon and The Hanging Tree both only have their trailers as extras, while Friendly Persuasion has a 10-minute segment from Wide Wide World featuring a live scene rehearsal and its trailer.
Gary Cooper 4-Film Collection Blu-ray Review: Final Verdict
If you don’t already own these four films on Blu-ray, then the Gary Cooper 4-Film Collection is an easy recommendation. It’s a great value as all four movies are worth watching, and it gives a real feel for what Cooper was like as an actor. One of the all-time greats, it’s easy to understand why he won two Academy Awards for Best Actor after viewing this set.
Disclosure: ComingSoon received product from the distributor for our Gary Cooper 4-Film Collection Blu-ray review.