One Sunday Afternoon (1933)

Gary Cooper plays a dentist named Biff whose former friend Hugo (Neil Hamilton) stabbed him in the back many times when they were younger and even wound up with the woman Biff loved, played by Fay Wray. Now Hugo has come to Biff to have a tooth pulled. While Hugo is sedated, Biff flashes back to how things went down between the two men. Good movie but later remake called The Strawberry Blonde is better. That one stars James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, and Rita Hayworth. It's lighter and funnier than this one, which is dark in parts. Cooper's great here and his support is fine but I'm not sure Fay Wray was quite right for her part. This is yet another movie from the early '30s where Neil Hamilton played a man that women go crazy over. Something must have been in the water back then because I just don't see any woman preferring him to Gary Cooper. I remember another movie where he was picked over Clark Gable. Insane!

Gary Cooper was already a veritable film star in 1933. This picture was a rare miss for him at the box office. It sold just a little over 3 million tickets; its gross equaling around just 26 million in today's dollars. It's a little puzzling when you consider that this film is actually really good. I mean it's really good. It's a taut 69-minute picture absent of any scenes which don't advance the plot.Frances Fuller is wonderful as his simple, lovely, adoring wife. Cooper, as well, is great in this film. He made films in the 30s and to a lesser extent the 40s which showcased his perfect ability to play a boy in a man's body. A boy who isn't necessarily childish, but who cherishes silliness. The characters live in the moment and have an unbridled enthusiasm for the world around them. Think of Mr. Deeds in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town when he hears a fire engine. Clark Gable always played men. Cooper could play a boy who's just as much a man.One of my favorite parts of the movie is that Biff is foreshadowing the course of the movie when he talks about growing as a person. We don't notice it at first, because of how hot-tempered and inconsiderate Biff comes off, but as the film progresses he does begin to grow. The Biff from the beginning of the flashback wouldn't have let Amy's mother move in to their home. He wouldn't have gone to his mortal enemy to beg for his job back. Virginia wasn't much different at the end of the picture. She'd always been that wonderful. She really didn't change. The secret is... Biff had.

Funny, I happened to watch this on a Sunday afternoon the other day. It was one of those films I thought I'd give a try and delete if it didn't appeal to me. By the time Gary Cooper was styling his hair with pure vanilla, I was hooked. He is one of the most beautiful men that ever lived, and I love seeing him in his early thirties in a more boyish and comic role.I loved the peek at the attention to detail of how life was in probably the 1910's during the flashback scenes. Frances Fuller was a total surprise. She seemed mousy next to Fay Wray at first. However, once she opened her mouth, her beautiful speaking voice and captivating character made me root for her. She was quite refined and I found her more interesting than Wray. I have seen The Strawberry Blonde twice in the past few months. I didn't even realize I was watching the original of the first remake of this film. The actors all play their parts so differently. Cagney is great, too. I'd say that you can watch both of these films and feel as if you've seen two very different films. Each has its own distinctness. Ultimately, I'd recommend both films and have yet to see the other popular remake. If you are a Gary Cooper fan, then this is a must see. It's old and a little fuzzy and slow-paced, but it's perfect for a Sunday afternoon.)

One Sunday Afternoon is an example of what movie studios used to do with total professionalism - in the space of a few months, use a Broadway play as the template to make a movie. One Sunday Afternoon opened on Broadway on February 15, 1933; the movie went into production at Paramount in May 1933 and was released on September 1, 1933, while the original play was still at the Little Theater. Grand Hotel is another example of a Broadway play becoming a movie in a relatively short time.Warner Bros. turned the play Arsenic and Old Lace into a movie after the play was a hit on Broadway, but by then, the play's producer knew the score. One Sunday Afternoon closed on Broadway in November 1933, a closure that probably was sped up by competition from the movie. As a condition of the sale of movie rights, the movie Arsenic and Old Lace, made in 1941, could not be released until the play it was based on closed on Broadway. That was in 1944.Back to One Sunday Afternoon, the movie. As with many movies made during the Depression, this movie has a grim edge to it. Although things work out, all the leads have rough times of it. Fay Wray is cast against her usual role, playing a mean person. Gary Cooper is no hero, just a guy who gets jammed by people he trusted. Frances Fuller (Amy Lind) does not change much during the movie, she always believes in Biff Grimes (Cooper). She made one more movie in Hollywood as a lead character before vanishing until some television roles over 15 years later, so she did not have a chance to be typecast.The end result of Paramount's production is a movie that shows what a struggle life is, and how people can change along the way. Instead of cheerful memories of a time gone by, which the title implies, you have scenes such as Gary Cooper returning from prison to meet Amy in Avery's Park, an amusement park that closed and fell into disrepair while Cooper was in prison.One Sunday Afternoon is a slice of real life, a movie that deals with hard times for some ordinary (but very good looking) people.