THE VIRGINIAN (1929) ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Victor Fleming
Gary Cooper, Walter Huston, Mary Brian,
Richard Arlen, Chester Conklin, Eugene Pallette
In his first all-talking movie, a lean, young Gary Cooper plays Owen Wister's nameless cowboy, who stands up to a rustler played by Walter Huston, romances a schoolmarm played by Mary Brian, and rolls and lights a cigarette using just one hand. Movies were still figuring out what to do with sound at that point, and Cooper was still figuring out how to act in them. They'd both improve a lot in the next few years. According to IMDb, Randolph Scott was Cooper's dialect coach, resulting in what may or may not pass for a Virginia accent.
