Evengyny Thanks for the memories!

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

JohnHowardReid Producer: Henry Blanke. Copyright 16 June 1950 by Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc. New York opening at the Strand: 16 June 1950. U.S. release: 1 July 1950. U.K. release: 2 July 1951. Australian release: 20 September 1951. SYNOPSIS: In a Southern state in the late nineteenth century, the possession of a cigarette manufacturing machine brings a tenant farmer's son into control of a tobacco empire.COMMENT: Here's another film that doesn't deserve its poor reputation. The reason for this downgrading is of course that Hollywood was producing so many fine films in this period, the level of craftsmanship in a less-than-outstanding offering tended to be overlooked. Mind you, Bright Leaf has all the makings of "grade A" romance: best-selling novel, period setting, sweeping backgrounds, self-willed characters, illicit romance. The difficulty is that despite some persuasive (Cooper, Bacall, Carson, Crisp) and indeed fiery (Patricia Neal) acting, the people in this saga remain stubbornly one-dimensional. This fault is compounded by the tact that their particular traits are almost all unlikable. Royle's is a morose, vengeful figure at the center of an unlovely group of robber barons, con artists and connivers. Even Lauren Bacall's sweet eagerness is flawed by her profession and her hopeless love is so obviously foredoomed, it robs the script of a fair degree of romantic suspense. Crisp has a meaty part for once - and he makes the most of it - even though his character too is patently a mere pawn in the author's telegraphed chess game. It is Patricia Neal who excels, bringing such fire and vengeful malice to her role as to divert our attention momentarily from the mere mechanics of the plot.Whatever the shallowness of the script, it has been most appealingly dressed up in full regalia. The Warner Brothers have outfitted it in their finest production values: Karl Freund's crisply grey-toned deep-focus photography, Victor Young's atmospheric score, Stanley Fleischer's enormously vistaed sets. Director Michael Curtiz is in his element with such big-budget props. The action and crowd scenes are handled with his usual power. If the more intimate episodes lack the same conviction, it is not for want of dramatic skill, simply the fact that the script is often so stubbornly synthetic.Some of the support players are afforded excellent opportunities: Elizabeth Patterson is nicely cast as an independent-minded aunt, Jeff Corey is rightly long-suffering as a put-upon Yankee, Chick Chandler makes an amazingly sing-song auctioneer, while James Griffith limns an obsequious clerk to perfection. If the entertainment of the whole falls somewhat short of the sum of the parts, Bright Leaf is still one of the classier, flying high films of the year. Who can resist Cooper's Brant Royle, a truly tragic figure played with such assurance and conviction? (In many ways it's a typical role - well within the actor's range - but nowadays it has the fresh appeal of unfamiliarity.)

RanchoTuVu Brant Royle (Gary Cooper) returns to what was once his father's tobacco farm before Major James Singleton (Donald Crisp) bought the father out in a foreclosure in his bid at concentrating all the prime tobacco land under his ownership. The film boils down to a contest between Crisp's Old South and Cooper's New South over the invention of the machine by Jeff Corey as John Barton that enables the mass manufacture of cigarettes, a direct challenge to the cigar industry, which occurs as the nineteenth century recedes into the twentieth. In on the initial investment in what would become the cigarette craze are Lauren Bacall as what appeared to be a higher class prostitute and Jack Carson as a traveling con-man. Patricia Neal as Singleton's only daughter is the most memorable part in the film which seems to want to come down on Cooper's side but turns him into a raving capitalist monopolist who always had a desire for Neal and another desire to get even with her father, which leads to pretty high dose of melodrama.

btmarnold I too have seen this movie many times & whenever possible. I have seen nearly every Gary Cooper movie. This is by far his best performance! The combination of star power, story and character interplay is flawless. If you have never seen a Cooper movie, see this one first. I'm also a huge fan of Donald Crisp. Again, a tremendous performance (though a slight step back of How Green Was My Valley). Never been a big Patricia Neal fan but, again, a great performance. Just another great job by Bacall. This is nearly in the EPIC category as movies go. Somewhat loosely based on the history of the tobacco industry/progression, it chronicles the rise in popularity & proliferation of cigarettes. This is truly a hidden gem that most movie fans are unaware of, but should be. And if that weren't enough, it was directed by the great Michael Curtiz.

bill strickland I've seen this movie 5-6 times on the late night movies. I think its one of the very best I've ever seen. I hope to find a copy to purchase. Older movies don't compare to late movies, and I don't expect them to, but I like the older ones best. Cooper was mid career here, the other actors and actresses were well known and for some of them, this was not the character parts their fans typically expected them to play. As a result, the critics of the time, and today, don't give it the best of ratings. I gave it top ratings for content and depiction of the relationships and involvements and heartbreaks between a man torn between two women, business, and what is right.