The Southampton Playhouse will host its second annual Gary Cooper Film Festival, which celebrates the multiple Academy Award-winning actor and his connection to Southampton, from Friday through Sunday. The theater is welcoming back Maria Cooper Janis, the actor’s daughter, who will participate in several post-screening conversations and events.
To round things out, William Manger Jr., the mayor of Southampton Village, has declared next Thursday, Cooper’s birthday, as Gary Cooper Day. The theater will participate with a free screening at 5 p.m. of “High Noon,” for which Cooper won his second Academy Award for best actor. A question-and-answer session with Janis will follow.
“Cooper’s filmography provides a template not only for first-rate screen acting, but the enduring power of the movies themselves,” said Eric Kohn, the theater’s artistic director. “We are thrilled to welcome back the Gary Cooper Festival to not only celebrate his filmography and talent, but to honor his ties to the greater Southampton community.”
Janis concurred. “I am honored to be part of this celebration for the second year in a row. My father’s work has meant so much to audiences around the world. Events like the Gary Cooper Festival keep his spirit alive in a special way, bringing together fans, historians, and new generations who are discovering his films for the first time.”
The festival will kick off Friday at 6 p.m. with “Meet John Doe” (1941). Directed by Frank Capra, it stars Barbara Stanwyck as a reporter who writes a fictitious column about a man named John Doe, who claims to despair over America’s neglect of common people such as himself, and threatens to commit suicide. To maintain the ruse, the reporter hires a ballplayer-turned-hobo (Cooper) to pose as John Doe. Janis will introduce the film, which will be followed by a dinner hosted by Shippy’s, Cooper’s favorite local restaurant.
“Friendly Persuasion” (1956), directed by William Wyler and starring Cooper as Jess Birdwell, the patriarch of a peace-loving Quaker family, will be shown Saturday at 1 p.m. As the Civil War moves toward his Indiana community, Birdwell begins to question his pacifist values, as do his children. The screening will be followed by a conversation with Janis and Foster Hirsch, a film historian.
World War I provides the context for “A Farewell to Arms” (1932), which will be screened in 35-millimeter on Saturday evening at 7:30. Based on the novel by Ernest Hemingway and directed by Frank Borzage, it stars Cooper at a wounded ambulance driver and Helen Hayes as a nurse, who fall in love. Patrick Hemingway Adams, the writer’s great-grandson, will discuss Cooper’s legacy to the Hemingway family with Janis after the screening.
The festival will conclude Sunday at 5 p.m. with “The Hanging Tree” (1959). Directed by Delmer Daves, the western stars Cooper as a doctor with a past he’s trying to outrun. Janis will take questions after the screening.
