Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Gary Cooper is Jess Birdwell; Dorothy McGuire is his wife, Eliza, in this story of a Quaker couple with three children in the 1860s.

Eliza is the preacher for the local congregation, so she’s the disciplinarian of the family.

Her patience is tested by Jess’s fascination for organs and fast horses and by their daughter’s affection for a non-Quaker soldier named Gard Jordan.

Even a visit to the county fair turns troublesome from Eliza’s standpoint.

She spies her daughter dancing with Gard. She finds Little Jess helping older men gamble at a shell game. She finds Josh quarreling with not-so-peaceful bullies.

And her husband, having gone his own way, rejoins the family wearing a garter on each arm, won during a shooting contest.

But nothing compares to the challenges that arise when Rebel cavalry — Morgan’s Raiders — approach their farm.

Eliza has always preached for peaceful resolutions to any conflict. But the Confederates have been burning and looting as they go.

And a home guard, with Gard as one of the commanders, is forming in an attempt to stop them.

Will the Birdwells defend themselves? Or do they turn the other cheek?

Gary Cooper as Jess Birdwell, contemplating a horse race in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Dorothy McGuire as Eliza Birdwell, explaining the Quakers’ view on the Civil War in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Review:

An absolutely delightful film, this movie was nominated for an Academy Award in 1957 and still plays well decades later.

All the actors protraying members of the Birdwell family turn in fine performances, including Phyllis Love as the young women smitten with the older Gard Jordan.

But it’s director William Wyler’s eye for detail that takes the film to another level. Like having Jess Birdwell knowingly tuck Gard’s wounded hand back into his sling after he and Mattie descend from the attic where they been playing the organ … and kissing for the first time too.

In another delightful scene, Gard and Mattie quarrel because she doesn’t want him to see her in her barefoot. Several minutes later, Gard’s riding off toward battle. Mattie chases him down barefooted. The camera zooms in for a closeup of those barefoot, standing atop the taller Gard’s boots as they kiss farewell.

A goose named Samantha — actually three geese playing one role, according to IMDb — lends an assist too. A family pet, she’s the one thing Eliza Birdwell might be tempted to use violence — or at least wield a broom — in order to defend.

This marked just the second film for Anthony Perkins. He plays the one member of the Birdwell family who decides he just must take up the gun when the Confederates come calling.

Anthony Perkins as Josh Birdwell, talking about his feelings about war in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Richard Eyler as Little Jess Birdwell, angry at his mother’s pet goose in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Directed by:
William Wyler

Cast:
Gary Cooper … Jess Birdwell
Dorothy McGuire … Eliza Birdwell
Anthony Perkins … Josh Birdwell
Richard Eyler … Little Jess Birdwell
Phyllis Love … Mattie Birdwell
Robert Middleton … Sam Jordan
Peter Mark Richman … Gard Jordan
Joel Fluellen … Enoch
Walter Catlett … Professor Quigley
Richard Hale … Purdy
Theodore Newton … Major Harvey
John Smith … Caleb Cope
Edna Skinner … Opal Hudspeth
Majorie Durant … Pearl Hudspeth
Frances Farwell … Rudy Hudspeth
Majorie Main … The Widow Hudspeth

Runtime: 137 min.

aka:
Mr. Birdwell Goes to Battle

Song: “Friendly Persuasion (Thee I Love)”
performed by Pat Boone

Phyllis Love as Mattie Birdwell, spotting Gard Jordan at a county fair in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Peter Mark Richman as Gard Jordan, warning of approaching Confederate cavalry in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Memorable lines:

Little Jess Birdwell: “Momma, Gard winked at Mattie.”
Mattie Birdwell: “He did not.”
Little Jess: “I saw him.”
Mattie: “Gard wouldn’t do such a vulgar thing.”

Eliza Birdwell to Maj. Harvey after the Civil War: “We are opposed to slavery. But we do not feel it is right to kill one man to free another.”

Carnival barker, handing Jess his prize at a shooting booth: “Here you go. A pair of garters for your wife to wear. Or your sweetheart.” He looks up and down Jess’s black Quaker outfit. “Just as soon as you’re out of mourning.”

Eliza Birdwell: “Jess, I forbid thee from having this instrument.”
Jess Birdwell: “Forbid, Eliza?”
Eliza: “For thy own sake, Jess, yes I forbid.”
Jess: “Eliza, when thee asks or suggests, I’m like putty in they hands. But when thee forbids, thee is barking up the wrong tree.”

Josh Birdwell: “Father, thee knows we must fight.”
Jess Birdwell: “If thee has a sword in thy heart, son, thee must pull it out and use it. But there is no sword in my heart. No man is my enemy.”
Josh: “Well any man who kills innocent people is my enemy. My mortal enemy.”

Sam Jordan, to Jess Birthwell, as the home guard forms: “If there’s any fighting to be done, I’ll do it for both of us. I like to see someone hold out for a better way of settling things.”

Little Jess: “Kill a Johnny Reb for me, papa.”
Jess Birdwell: “Son, never talk that way about a man’s life.”

Gary Cooper as Jess Birdwell and Dorothy McGuire as Eliza Birdwell, caught racing by her congregation in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Robert Middleton as Sam Jordan, Jess’s meddling friend in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Marjorie Main as the widow Hudspeth, the woman who provides Jess Birdwell with a faster horse in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Joel Fluellen as Enoch, a free man and runaway slave who lives on the Birdwell’s farm in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Anthony Perkins as Josh Birdwell, staring down his rifle at approaching Confederates in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Gary Cooper as Jess Birdwell waits for a chance to show off the speed of his new horse, Lady, in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Dorothy McGuire as Eliza Birdwell with her pet goose Samantha and Gary Cooper as Jess Birdwell welcome a visitor to their home in Friendly Persuasion (1956)

Anthony Perkins as Josh Birdwell talks to his mother about his feelings about the war while Jess Birdwell (Gary Cooper) listens in Friendly Persuasion (1956)