SERGEANT YORK (1941)

HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN AGE

(Post 29 of 50)

Sergeant York was the right movie at the right time for 1941 American and became the biggest box-office hit of that year. Unabashedly sentimental, but charming in its simplicity, the story of contentious objector turned World War I hero Alvin York may seem too corny for some, but I rather liked this almost too good to be true tale. Gary Cooper does a fine job as York, even if he was much older than the character he was playing. 

And the Elisha Cook Jr. supporting player award goes to..Walter Brennan. Brennan was probably the premeire supporting actor of his generation. Probably the only reason he didn't win an Academy Award as the pastor in Sergeant York is because he had already won the award three times! Director Howard Hawks also used Brennan in his later classic films To Have and Have Not, Red River and Rio Bravo.

Other notable supporting players include: George Tobias (later Abner Kravitz in Bewitched), June Lockhart (later the hot mom on Lost in Space), Joan Leslie (Cooper's lovely romantic interest), Ward Bond (later as Bert the Cop in It's a Wonderful Life),  Howard Da Silva (later Ben Franklin in 1776), Noah Beery Jr. (later as Pappy in The Rockford Files) and we have yet another...

...appearance by Dickie Moore!
In one of those strange coincidences that seem to happen when you are going through some of those films I have seen two movies in a row by former Little Rascal Dickie Moore after not seeing him in anything since I watched The Little Rascals so many years ago! Dickie plays Alvin York's younger brother this go round.

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