One Sunday Afternoon (1933)

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Absolutely brilliant

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

This is a real gem of a little film--filled with wonderful performances by its leads. Fay Wray very nearly steals the film with her boisterously show-boaty performance. And it's hard to watch the luminous (and almost totally forgotten) actress, Frances Fuller, without wondering why she didn't become one of the all-time greats of that era! Her patented look of pained disappointment in life really reaches the heart. But it's Gary Cooper who's the real revelation here. This performance is unlike anything else he ever filmed. Dark, complex, insecure--and yet strangely self-satisfied-- it's really a well- wrought role, and Cooper adds just the right touches to make the character of "Biff" likable and sympathetic. As noted by other reader/reviewers here, his best scene is the awkward, first date "courting" scene at the carnival. This is Cooper at his finest. It seems this film might have been a real breakthrough for Cooper. He shows a sure-footed confidence that had been previously under-realized. I suggest you take this film at face value--and don't judge it for something it isn't. It's pure entertainment--and Gary Cooper (who was then at the very peak of his startling handsomeness) is an absolute pleasure to watch, in every scene he's in.

The exposition that takes place in a dentist's office, before the flashback that constitutes the major part of this film, seemed rather long to me. And the main character, Biff Grimes (Gary Cooper), seemed to be the least likable. So, I thought this film was going to be a drag.But as the story develops, one learns that Biff, though a dense, insensitive lout, has an interesting story to tell. And the first part of the film is necessary to fully appreciate what follows.I have always felt that Gary Cooper is best suited for characters that are socially awkward. Biff is just such a role. Cooper is surrounded by actors who outshine him at times. But they form a solid ensemble for this adapted play (that would be remade two more times in the forties). Fay Wray, in particular, amazes with her transformations throughout the film.This plot is a simple story about revenge that no doubt pleased audiences of the depression era who looked to champion the common man.

One Sunday Afternoon is an example of what movie studios used to do with total professionalism - in the space of a few months, use a Broadway play as the template to make a movie. One Sunday Afternoon opened on Broadway on February 15, 1933; the movie went into production at Paramount in May 1933 and was released on September 1, 1933, while the original play was still at the Little Theater. Grand Hotel is another example of a Broadway play becoming a movie in a relatively short time.Warner Bros. turned the play Arsenic and Old Lace into a movie after the play was a hit on Broadway, but by then, the play's producer knew the score. One Sunday Afternoon closed on Broadway in November 1933, a closure that probably was sped up by competition from the movie. As a condition of the sale of movie rights, the movie Arsenic and Old Lace, made in 1941, could not be released until the play it was based on closed on Broadway. That was in 1944.Back to One Sunday Afternoon, the movie. As with many movies made during the Depression, this movie has a grim edge to it. Although things work out, all the leads have rough times of it. Fay Wray is cast against her usual role, playing a mean person. Gary Cooper is no hero, just a guy who gets jammed by people he trusted. Frances Fuller (Amy Lind) does not change much during the movie, she always believes in Biff Grimes (Cooper). She made one more movie in Hollywood as a lead character before vanishing until some television roles over 15 years later, so she did not have a chance to be typecast.The end result of Paramount's production is a movie that shows what a struggle life is, and how people can change along the way. Instead of cheerful memories of a time gone by, which the title implies, you have scenes such as Gary Cooper returning from prison to meet Amy in Avery's Park, an amusement park that closed and fell into disrepair while Cooper was in prison.One Sunday Afternoon is a slice of real life, a movie that deals with hard times for some ordinary (but very good looking) people.

"One Sunday Afternoon" is a charming and little-known piece of Americana, the first filmization of James Hagan's play about a dentist named Biff Grimes (Gary Cooper) who has long tried to revenge on his old friend Hugo Barnstead (Neil Hamilton) for marrying Grimes' girl Virginia (Fay Wray) and leaving him with the charming and devoted Amy (Frances Fuller). The film opens with Grimes and his pal Snappy Downer (Rascoe Karns) singing and drinking. Barnstead shows up Grimes' home to get this tooth pulled. Grimes puts him on nitrous oxide gas, and then the film dissolves into a flashback as Grimes remembers their past, providing him with a motive for revenge."One Sunday Afternoon" was remade in 1941 by Warner Bros. and Raoul Walsh into a timeless and unforgettable classic, "The Strawberry Blonde", starring James Cagney, Olivia de Havilland, and Rita Hayworth. Walsh's version is infinitely superior, but "One Sunday Afternoon" is worthwhile for Gary Cooper's superb performance.