'Man of the West,' Dismissed on Release, Gave Gary Cooper His Last Great Role

When you think of actors who frequently starred in Westerns, who springs to mind? Surely, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Sam Elliott, James Stewart, and Kevin Costner are at the forefront. However, one star who passed away 65 years ago should also be on that list: Gary Cooper. Cooper filmed around 40 Westerns by the end of his life, from the critically lauded High Noon, which earned him an Oscar, to Vera Cruz and The Westerner.

‘Man of the West’ Starred Gary Cooper in His Last Great Role

In 1958, the beloved actor headlined Man of the West, an adaptation of the 1955 novel The Border Jumpers by Will C. Brown. It’s widely regarded as a gem of the genre despite the initial dismissal by critics.

For the uninitiated, Man of the West follows a reformed outlaw who “becomes stranded after an aborted train robbery with two other passengers and is forced to rejoin his old outlaw band.” Cooper stars as Link Jones alongside Julie London as Billie Ellis, Lee J. Cobb as Dock Tobin, Arthur O’Connell as Sam Beasley, Jack Lord as Coaley, Robert J. Wilke as Ponch, and John Dehner as Claude. Anthony Mann directed from a screenplay by Reginald Rose.

Man of the West premiered on Oct. 1, 1958. American critics paid it no mind, but Jean-Luc Godard (who was a film critic before he became a director) knew greatness when he saw it. He lauded Mann for his directorial prowess, noting that the latter “both shows and demonstrates, innovates and copies, criticizes and creates.” One of the Western’s more positive reviews from the mainstream press came from Variety, which called it “uneven but often powerful.”

Thankfully, retrospectives in the decades since its debut have painted Man of the West in a more favorable light. It has cultivated a cult following. The Guardian hailed the film as Mann’s magnum opus. Years later, the same publication extolled Cooper’s performance as the late actor’s best of his career. As of writing, the movie has a 95% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and 77% on the Popcornmeter.

After Man of the West, Cooper starred in four more films, his last being a 1961 thriller titled The Naked Edge. He died before its release in the US.

source https://www.mensjournal.com/news/1958-western-dismissed-on-release-gave-a-fading-star-his-last-great-role