Help me identify this film from the John Lewis advert?

[BOFster]

It's driving me crazy

Here's a link to the John Lewis advert- take a look at the old movie showing on the television at 1 minute in, please.

Everybody thinks it's from It's A Wonderful Life, the embrace you can see at 3:21 in this clip:

But it really really isn't.

Well even though I now know the answer I will settle myself down with a cuppa later and RTFT!

God I loved Gary Cooper and he was massively famous too yet a lot of younger people I work with don't seem to know who he is. He made a lot of great Capra movies when he was younger, things like "Mr Deeds goes to Town" as well as westerns. I have a b/w pic of him tacked by my desk and someone said "is that your boyfriend?" Wow, I wish!

Mr Deeds Goes To Town was another one I saw on the big screen in a lovely little independent cinema in Paris (I know, I know ) with dd1, then aged 15. She loved it as much as I did.

I wish there were more opportunities to see these films as they were meant to be seen. I'm luckier than most in this regard, as I do live near a community-run cinema, and it occasionally screens special showings of things like Gone With The Wind - that one is a bit of a marathon for staying in your chair for, mind.

Mr Smith Goes To Washington is terrific if you ever get the chance to see it. Frank Capra directed, James Stewart starred. I've only seen it once but would jump at the chance to see it again.

High Noon is utterly wonderful. Like Twelve Angry Men, I feel it should be required viewing for all young people as part of their PHSE or Citizenship classes, or whatever they call it now.

Why I do declare, I love Gone With the Wind.

Louise I think it was Gary Cooper who I got wrong. I need to educate myself on his work. Which film to you recommend I watch first? Pref not a Western.

High Noon. One of the greatest films of all time.

Actually, I should expand on that a bit. You might think at first it's going to be a Western. It isn't, really. It's about doing the right thing even when it's hard.

Coumarin Mr Deeds goes to Town or Ball of Fire (A comedy with Barbara Stanwyck based on the seven dwarfs can you believe!) but you can't miss High Noon either

HelloitsMe - thanks for that clip. I shall watch it later

I promise after this I will shut up!

High Noon was disliked by some on the right when it first came out because they thought it was a covert attack on McCarthyism. The screenwriter of High Noon was Carl Foreman who in his youth was a member of the Communist party. While High Noon was in production, he was summoned to appear before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (McCarthy's committee) and because he admitted that he had been a Communist and refused to name any of his fellow Communists, he was blacklisted from Hollywood for many years. In spite of this, because he was a brilliant screenwriter, he co-wrote the screenplay for Bridge On The River Kwai - but wasn't acknowledged on the credits and thus wasn't given the Oscar for Best Screenplay which was awarded to the other writer (this was rectified posthumously many years later).

That Grade A hypocrite John Wayne (hero of a million war stories who did not enlist during WW2, ) called High Noon un-American and said he would never regret his role in running Foreman out of the country. Nice.

Like many other blacklisted writers, he moved to the UK and that is why his daughter Amanda Foreman doesn't sound American at all. She is an academic historian who wrote the bestselling popular history book Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (a book I haven't read but would like to).

Well I have to watch High Noon now. and Mr Deeds Goes to Town. Thank you both.

I'll look out for Amanda Foreman's book too. Sounds like the kind of thing I'd like.

I recently read BRILLIANT book called Scandals Of Classic Hollywood By Anne Helen Petersen- do look it up. It's not your standard gossip stuff, it's proper analysis, but fun. God, I'd love her job

She used to do articles for The Hairpin like this one on Errol Flynn, which is really interesting.

On Hedy Lamarr

Barbara Stanwyk.

There's several more if you dig around the site- it is a very enjoyable way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Thank goodness you found out what the film was before I read this thread, I don't think I could have borne the tension if it was still unanswered.

BOF have you read Shepperton Babylon by Matthew Sweet? Fascinating stuff.

No, I haven't. I'll look for it now, thanks!

Love that site Bof thank you

In case anyone's interested, "It's a Wonderful Life" is on Film 4 this afternoon at 2.50pm

Also on again later this week, Louise, and I have it set to record! I have it on ancient VHS tape as a fallback. Gosh, I love that film. James Stewart is one of the all-time greats as far as I'm concerned. In marked contrast to John Wayne, he was a rising star in Hollywood when the USA entered WW2 and he put it all to one side to enlist in the USAF where he eventually managed to get to a combat role, as he didn't want to be relegated to making propaganda films in his pristine uniform. He flew on bombing missions over Germany and was awarded several medals. Then he came back to Hollywood at the end of the war and picked up where he left off.

Yes he was. I also think he was an incredibly nice man as well as a brave one.

Defo 'The Bishops Wife' with Carey Grant, David Niven and Loretta Young.