Thelma Todd was one of the women in Gary Cooper's life. They made a movie together.

Nevada (1927 film)

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Nevada
Lobby card
Directed by	John Waters
Produced by	Jesse L. Lasky Adolph Zukor
Written by	Gordon Rigby John Stone John W. Conway (intertitles)
Based on	Nevada (novel) by Zane Grey
Starring	Gary Cooper Thelma Todd William Powell
Cinematography	Charles Edgar Schoenbaum
Studio	Paramount Famous Lasky Corporation
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	August 1, 1927 (1927-08-01) (USA)
Running time	7 reels, 6,258 ft
Country	United States
Language	English intertitles

Nevada is a 1927 American Western silent film directed by John Waters and starring Gary Cooper, Thelma Todd, and William Powell.^[1] Based on the novel Nevada by Zane Grey, the film is about a former outlaw hired to protect a ranch owner's daughter, which angers the ranch foreman who is in love with the girl. The villainous foreman spreads a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and the former outlaw is soon on the run again. Eventually he captures a gang of cattle rustlers led by the foreman, and with his reputation restored, he marries the girl.^[1] This lavish Western film was remade in 1944 as Nevada starring Robert Mitchum—the only time Cooper and Mitchum played the same role.
Nevada still survives in a complete copy, but the films appearance is not the best, due probably to poor preservation. It is possible to make out scenes, but not as well as other highly restored silent films. This was a very early Western role for Gary Cooper, but his fame in Westerns would be more noticeable in talking pictures.^[2]

Plot

A feared gunfighter named Nevada (Gary Cooper) breaks his friend Cash Burridge (Ernie Adams) from the Lineville jail. When they reach the town of Winthrop, the two men decide to take respectable jobs on a ranch owned by Ben Ide (Philip Strange), an Englishman they rescued from Cawthorne's gang of cattle rustlers. Fearing the rustlers, Ide hires Nevada to protect his sister, Hettie (Thelma Todd), angering the ranch foreman, Clan Dillon (William Powell), who is in love with Hettie.
The villainous foreman spreads a rumor of his rival's dark past to the sheriff, and soon Nevada and Cash join up with Cawthorne's gang in order to escape the sheriff. Unknown to Nevada, Cawthorne's gang takes its orders from Dillon, who is the leader of the rustlers. During a raid, Dillon shoots both Cash and Cawthorne, but Nevada learns of his treachery from his dying pal. Later in a confrontation, Nevada is wounded by Dillon but is saved by the arrival of the posse and the evidence given by the wounded Cawthorne against the leader. With his reputation restored, Nevada is free to marry Hettie.

Cast

Gary Cooper as Nevada
Thelma Todd as Hettie Ide
William Powell as Clan Dillon
Philip Strange as Ben Ide
Ernie Adams as Cash Burridge
Christian J. Frank as Sheriff of Winthrop
Ivan Christy as Cawthorne
Guy Oliver as Lineville Sheriff
Jim Corey as Bearded Henchman (uncredited)^[1]

References

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c "Nevada (1927)". The New York Times. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
Jump up ^ "Nevada". Silent Era. Retrieved September 16, 2012.

External links

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I read the book this movie was supposed to have been based on, and from what I remember it differed a great deal from the book. Actually the story had not yet been published in book form when the movie came out. Prior to the movie it had been serialized in THE AMERICAN MAGAZINE.

The story that Gary Cooper always told about Thelma Todd was that when he was a young man he was bashful and it was difficult for him to do a love scene with her. The director was able to solve the problem by telling him to think of Thelma as a "chicken dinner". This did the trick, according to Gary Cooper.

Thelma Todd's picture was later used on the cover of a magazine that had a story about "The women in Gary Cooper's life",