I've known about this film for a long time and finally took a look last night. I just cannot believe how many people gave this film high marks. Maybe because it stars Gary Cooper and I realize so many filmgoers do swear by him.
Four fifths of the film is basically a lame comedy chronicling the machinations of an Ohio Quaker family during the early part of the Civil War.
Screenwriter Michael Wilson and Director William Wyler attempt to extract laughs from the character of Eliza Birdwell (Dorothy McGuire), a puritanical stick-in-the-mud who may just be one of the most unlikable creations in cinematic history.
Everyone plays off Eliza who demands absolute compliance to strict rules found in the "Good Book." Are there people really like that in real life? I kind of doubt it but even if there are why make a whole movie about someone like that?
Cooper plays husband Jess and we're supposed to laugh when he attempts to navigate around Eliza's absurd strictures. There's a dumb bit how Eliza wants Jess to purchase a new horse because it tends to race too fast after Jess's friend and neighbor Sam Jordan (Robert Middleton) tries to show how he can outrace the couple during a friendly buggy ride.
Or what about when Jess purchases the organ without Eliza's permission? She ends up in the barn in a huff as playing music in the home in her eyes is basically the Devil's work. Eventually a compromise is worked out with Jess sending the organ to the attic after realizing that no one in the family really knows how to play it.
Then there's the dumb romance between Sam's son the recent Union soldier volunteer Gard (Mark Richman) and the daughter Mattie (Phyllis Love) with Eliza running interference at every turn, trying to put a lid on the teenager's budding sexual urges. True love of course wins out in the end with Gard asking Mattie to marry him.
Another awful role is Anthony Perkins as the grown-up son Josh. Up until the climactic battle scene he has little to do but go on a business trip with his dad where the two men are molested by a widow and her three hard-up daughters. In the most pathetic scene in the entire film (in which feminists should be horrified), the "three daughters" end up "pawing" the beleaguered Josh.
There's more cutesy stuff with 10-year-old Little Jess (Richard Eyer) continually in a battle with his mother's beloved pet goose, Samantha.
In the last half hour, the tone of Friendly Persuasion turns from comedy to serious drama. It's established early on that the Quaker community's pacifist beliefs are being serious challenged by the presence of encroaching Confederate soldiers who eventually threaten to end up on the Birdwell's doorstep.
Some of the more fanatical pacifists who belong to Jess's church agree to take up arms after their own homes are burned down by the Confederates. Even Josh agrees to fight despite Eliza's protestations. But Jess remains true to his principles after deciding not to kill a Confederate soldier who has just killed best friend Sam.
Note nothing bad happens to the Birdwell's. Josh though wounded still survives along with Mattie's beloved Gard. When the Confederates arrive at the Birdwell home, the two women folk and Little Jess face no harm. The Confederates seem benign, and all seemed satisfied when Eliza prepares them a meal.
And what of the aftermath? We never see how the Confederates are defeated or driven out of Ohio and the transition to the status quo (where the Birdwell's are now back to normal) is never explained.
Cooper is about 15 years too old for the role of Jess and is already showing signs of aging (passing away five years after the film was released). The rest of the cast is saddled with a script sanitized completely for a typical Hollywood production.
If that isn't enough, try listening to the dialogue in which all the Quakers speak the archaic language of the Bible. If there's any saving grace, it's the grand color cinematography-but still compromised by all the unrealistic horse and buggy scenes involving rear projection.
Four fifths of the film is basically a lame comedy chronicling the machinations of an Ohio Quaker family during the early part of the Civil War.
Screenwriter Michael Wilson and Director William Wyler attempt to extract laughs from the character of Eliza Birdwell (Dorothy McGuire), a puritanical stick-in-the-mud who may just be one of the most unlikable creations in cinematic history.
Everyone plays off Eliza who demands absolute compliance to strict rules found in the "Good Book." Are there people really like that in real life? I kind of doubt it but even if there are why make a whole movie about someone like that?
Cooper plays husband Jess and we're supposed to laugh when he attempts to navigate around Eliza's absurd strictures. There's a dumb bit how Eliza wants Jess to purchase a new horse because it tends to race too fast after Jess's friend and neighbor Sam Jordan (Robert Middleton) tries to show how he can outrace the couple during a friendly buggy ride.
Or what about when Jess purchases the organ without Eliza's permission? She ends up in the barn in a huff as playing music in the home in her eyes is basically the Devil's work. Eventually a compromise is worked out with Jess sending the organ to the attic after realizing that no one in the family really knows how to play it.
Then there's the dumb romance between Sam's son the recent Union soldier volunteer Gard (Mark Richman) and the daughter Mattie (Phyllis Love) with Eliza running interference at every turn, trying to put a lid on the teenager's budding sexual urges. True love of course wins out in the end with Gard asking Mattie to marry him.
Another awful role is Anthony Perkins as the grown-up son Josh. Up until the climactic battle scene he has little to do but go on a business trip with his dad where the two men are molested by a widow and her three hard-up daughters. In the most pathetic scene in the entire film (in which feminists should be horrified), the "three daughters" end up "pawing" the beleaguered Josh.
There's more cutesy stuff with 10-year-old Little Jess (Richard Eyer) continually in a battle with his mother's beloved pet goose, Samantha.
In the last half hour, the tone of Friendly Persuasion turns from comedy to serious drama. It's established early on that the Quaker community's pacifist beliefs are being serious challenged by the presence of encroaching Confederate soldiers who eventually threaten to end up on the Birdwell's doorstep.
Some of the more fanatical pacifists who belong to Jess's church agree to take up arms after their own homes are burned down by the Confederates. Even Josh agrees to fight despite Eliza's protestations. But Jess remains true to his principles after deciding not to kill a Confederate soldier who has just killed best friend Sam.
Note nothing bad happens to the Birdwell's. Josh though wounded still survives along with Mattie's beloved Gard. When the Confederates arrive at the Birdwell home, the two women folk and Little Jess face no harm. The Confederates seem benign, and all seemed satisfied when Eliza prepares them a meal.
And what of the aftermath? We never see how the Confederates are defeated or driven out of Ohio and the transition to the status quo (where the Birdwell's are now back to normal) is never explained.
Cooper is about 15 years too old for the role of Jess and is already showing signs of aging (passing away five years after the film was released). The rest of the cast is saddled with a script sanitized completely for a typical Hollywood production.
If that isn't enough, try listening to the dialogue in which all the Quakers speak the archaic language of the Bible. If there's any saving grace, it's the grand color cinematography-but still compromised by all the unrealistic horse and buggy scenes involving rear projection.