Bright Leaf

The subject matter of this film, the tobacco industry, is a subject that makes this a bit dated. Back in 1950, it worked fine up on the big screen but today some might see these folks as mass murderers.

When the movie begins, Brant Royle (Gary Cooper) arrives back in his home town in North Carolina. He's been gone for many years and he's back to settle his uncle's estate. However, the local tobacco czar, the Major (Donald Crisp), has decided that Brant is not welcome and makes it very clear. But, around the same time, a smart inventor (Jeff Corey) approaches Brant with an automated cigarette rolling machine. Soon, Brant is rich and slowly the Major and his old money are being driven into the ground.

At the same time, one woman loves Brant and another completely cold and indifferent. So, naturally he ignores the nice woman (Lauren Bacall) and chases the nasty one...the Major's daughter (Patricia Neal). Why does he want this cold, conniving and annoying woman? Perhaps he wants to do to her what he metaphorically wants to do to the Major...who knows?

Eventually, Brant is able to get everything he wants...wealth, power and the girl. However, in the process he becomes a heartless, nasty jerk-face. He also manages to destroy the good will of his friends and is eventually left an empty man. What's next? See the film.

In many ways, this reminds me of previous films like "Citizen Kane", "Honky Tonk" and "Edward, My Son"...three films about guys who do anything in order to gain power and yet lose everything that's really important in the process. It's a timeless morality tale and the more you watch, the more you are just waiting to see the mighty fall due to their own awfulness and arrogance. Fortunately, it does end a bit differently...there isn't exactly a 'Rosebud' moment.

Overall, an interesting and well acted epic from Warner Brothers. Better than I expected...mostly because occasionally the script caught me by surprise...and in good ways.

By the way, Lauren Bacall's character is described as running a 'boarding house' but she clearly is a madame with a stable full of prostitutes when the film begins. I found these euphemisms a bit funny but understand that this was all done to comply with the rigid Production Code.

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.

... and fortunately I am not a post-war audience because I liked it a great deal.

It's got a pretty familiar outline among melodramas - a man run out of town (Gary Cooper as Brant Royale) by the local king of tobacco Major James Singleton (Donald Crisp), decides to get revenge by backing the development of a cigarette manufacturing machine and grinding Singleton to financial dust. All the while he is entranced by Singleton's daughter Margaret (Patricia Neal), a bloodless creature, while ignoring the girl who has loved him all along, the true blue Sonia (Lauren Bacall).

Its charm is in its casting. Never has Gary Cooper played somebody so unlikeable and so far from the heroic characters he typically played such as Alvin York and Will Kane - the latter character being one he hadn't even portrayed yet. Lauren Bacall balked at playing both the proprietor of a bawdy house AND having a southern accent. The screenwriters thus made her Polish, I guess to explain her rather mild New York accent in a North Carolina setting???

Patricial Neal is a standout. Throughout the piece she moves and stands stiffly, appearing as a mannequin or a music box dancer, only smiling - also stiffly - when she can think of some kind of trouble she can cause. Thus even in movement she is in sharp contrast to straight shooter Sonia. Finally there is Jack Carson - he's a patent medicine salesman who Brant cavalierly makes a partner at the beginning of his entreprises, and he turns out to be a loyal friend. This is something I've noticed about director Michael Curtiz - He certainly knew how to give good roles to and get good performances out of Warner Brothers contract player Jack Carson.

I'd recommend this one. I think it has redeemed itself over time from being the "doomed masterpiece" it was once called.

I think that Warner Brothers liked the performance that Gary Cooper gave in Edna Ferber's Saratoga Trunk which was released under their auspices a few years earlier. So when Cooper signs with Warner Brothers, Bright Leaf which is about the tobacco industry which has an Ferber like quality to it seemed perfect for him.

It didn't turn out that unfortunately. Brant Royle may be the most unsympathetic character Gary Cooper who was THE archetypal screen hero ever played. He's come back to his home which is in a valley in the tobacco growing country of North Carolina looking for vengeance on Donald Crisp the tobacco baron who ruined his father. All he has as the family heir is a closed factory. But when Crisp refuses to take an interest in Jeff Corey's new cigarette rolling machine, Cooper latches on to Corey and with medicine show doctor Jack Carson to sell the product, the three form a partnership.

Lauren Bacall who runs the town's house of joy with Gladys George helps kick start the firm with a financial investment. She likes Cooper well enough, but he's got eyes on Patricia Neal who is Crisp's daughter. Neal is a southern to the manor born heiress like Bette Davis in Jezebel and Vivien Leigh in Gone With The Wind. Those are high maintenance women and Cooper finds out just how high maintenance she is before the film concludes.

Though this is a Gary Cooper film, the female co-stars really steal this film from the men. Neal and Bacall are whom you watch and remember from Bright Leaf and of course Gladys George who is never bad in anything.

Though Bright Leaf is about a typical Edna Ferber empire builder the ending is anything like what you would find in a Ferber novel. Bright Leaf is a bit too melodramatic for my taste, but fans of the stars should find it good.

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.