The subject matter of this film, the tobacco industry, is a subject that makes this a bit dated. Back in 1950, it worked fine up on the big screen but today some might see these folks as mass murderers.When the movie begins, Brant Royle (Gary Cooper) arrives back in his home town in North Carolina. He's been gone for many years and he's back to settle his uncle's estate. However, the local tobacco czar, the Major (Donald Crisp), has decided that Brant is not welcome and makes it very clear. But, around the same time, a smart inventor (Jeff Corey) approaches Brant with an automated cigarette rolling machine. Soon, Brant is rich and slowly the Major and his old money are being driven into the ground.At the same time, one woman loves Brant and another completely cold and indifferent. So, naturally he ignores the nice woman (Lauren Bacall) and chases the nasty one...the Major's daughter (Patricia Neal). Why does he want this cold, conniving and annoying woman? Perhaps he wants to do to her what he metaphorically wants to do to the Major...who knows?Eventually, Brant is able to get everything he wants...wealth, power and the girl. However, in the process he becomes a heartless, nasty jerk-face. He also manages to destroy the good will of his friends and is eventually left an empty man. What's next? See the film.In many ways, this reminds me of previous films like "Citizen Kane", "Honky Tonk" and "Edward, My Son"...three films about guys who do anything in order to gain power and yet lose everything that's really important in the process. It's a timeless morality tale and the more you watch, the more you are just waiting to see the mighty fall due to their own awfulness and arrogance. Fortunately, it does end a bit differently...there isn't exactly a 'Rosebud' moment.Overall, an interesting and well acted epic from Warner Brothers. Better than I expected...mostly because occasionally the script caught me by surprise...and in good ways. By the way, Lauren Bacall's character is described as running a 'boarding house' but she clearly is a madame with a stable full of prostitutes when the film begins. I found these euphemisms a bit funny but understand that this was all done to comply with the rigid Production Code.

This is one of those should I watch this or not? Much has been made of the score..trust me..it's OK..but it does'nt soar or enrich the movie in any way..and what may be a good thing..there are large portions which are left alone..with only dialog to drive it..this is a movie where you have to take the good with the bad to get through it..like cough medicine..the star here is Gary cooper who does a good turn in this as a sleep walker..I do not know how he envisioned playing this role, , but he shows very little emotion..that's not acting..that's just taking up space on a stage..likewise Patricia Neal ..if only a little less so..the good? Lauren Bacall and Jack Carson who manage to steal their parts while on screen..Donald Crisp, as Patricia Neal's father..steady..as always in everything he's in..James Griffith as a southern book keeper working for Cooper plays a part unlike anything else he's ever done..usually someone on the dark side..other reviews have given you plot..I'm just giving performance reviews..a bit talky and slow..the direction by Michael Curtiz of Errol Flynn's films seems off his game..otherwise, why would it drag? The story..one that's been told a thousand times over ..revenge and mis-placed desire..there's no love lost here..it's revenge and more revenge ..and a climax you can see coming ..an ending that leaves you a little empty..another Cooper/Neal pairing from an earlier talky film..The Fountainhead..another unwatchable outing..Sorry..the good with the bad..COOP..how could you?

"Bright Leaf" is a 1950 Warner Brothers southern extravaganza starring Gary Cooper, Lauren Bacall, Patricia Neal, and Jack Carson.Gary Cooper is Brant Royle, who in 1894 returns to his southern town of Kingsmont, where his family was driven out of the tobacco market by Major Singleton (Donald Crisp). Royle has returned to get his revenge and reinstate the family name in the area. There are two women in his life: a madam, Sonia (Lauren Bacall) and Singleton's beautiful daughter Margaret (Patricia Neal).With the help of Sonia, Royle buys into a machine that actually rolls cigarettes, which drives down the cost of producing them. He eventually takes over nearly the entire tobacco industry. But Royle won't be happy until he has brought Major Singleton to his knees and marries Margaret. But in his determination to get what he wants, he loses even more.The moral of "Bright Leaf" is two-fold: Beware of what you want; and big talent won't really help a mediocre movie. The novel was probably inspired by "Gone with the Wind," but the quality of the story - in the film, at least - doesn't come close. There are two likable characters - Sonia and Carson's role of Chris. The rest of the main characters are odious.Patricia Neal and Gary Cooper were in the midst of their passionate affair, but the relationship between the characters they play is pretty frosty. Given their romance, perhaps the Bacall role would have been better for Neal. Bacall took this job to finish off her contract with Warners. She's good, but her character isn't really fleshed out. Cooper is a great presence, but he has a difficult job because the character is not sympathetic. Also, I suspect that at age 50, the character was supposed to be younger. Neal is beautiful, and her performance has some real bite.All in all, not up to the talents on screen.

Produced in 1950 by Henry Blanke for Warner Brothers BRIGHT LEAF is set in the tobacco growing region of the American South at the turn of the 20th. Century. A highly charged drama - BRIGHT LEAF is about ambition, love and loss and retribution and was expertly directed by the prolific Michael Curtiz. Based on the novel by Foster Fitz-Simons it was splendidly written for the screen by Ranald MacDougall ("Mildred Peirce") from which emerged a sparkling, and at times, spontaneous script. Its balmy Southern setting looked great thanks to the smart Art Direction by Stanley Fleischer, the crisp Monochrome Cinematography of Karl Freund and the atmospheric music by the always wonderful Victor Young.Gary Cooper is Brant Royle who returns to his home in the South after some years. He rides into Kingsmont where years before his family was dispossessed, humiliated and forced out at the hands of wealthy tobacco tycoon Major Singleton (Donald Crisp). Now he's back and intends to exact some sort of vengeance on the irascible and acerbic Major. Low on funds ("I own a good horse - I own a good suit of clothes and I have $40 in my pocket") he meets up with an old flame - the attractive Sonia Kovac (Lauren Bacall) who runs a "boarding house for young ladies" and persuades her to back him in a business venture in establishing a new idea of a cigarette making machine. The enterprise is a runaway success and almost overnight Royle - along with his partners Sonia and Chris Malley (Jack Carson) - becomes a millionaire to the chagrin of the Major. Royle had always loved the Major's unobtainable and distant daughter Margaret (Patricia Neal) and makes plans now to marry her. This - together with Royle's on going presence in Kingsmont, his phenomenal business success and a pistol duel between them that goes wrong - drives the Major to take his own life. Later Margaret does agree to marry him but only with the sole purpose to destroy Brant Royle and obtain retribution for the death of her father. The picture ends with Royle financially ruined and a well executed climactic sequence which sees the opulent Singleton mansion going up in flames. With Sonia also turning him down Brant Royle rides out of Kingsmont on the same road he entered in the hope of finding contentment elsewhere.One of the great aspects of BRIGHT LEAF is the stunning score by the great (and cigar chomping) Victor Young! Normally a Warner picture like this would have a score by the studio's resident composer Max Steiner. But Steiner was over committed on other projects and suggested his friend Victor Young write the music. Young accepted the assignment and turned in one of his finest scores. The Main Title is a sprawling and sweeping theme for full orchestra! A ravishing piece with the strings, upward yearning, climbing to their topmost register. There is also a gorgeous plaintive melody for the Lauren Bacall character, a brilliantly exciting cue for a montage of the cigarette machine as it spews out thousands of cigarettes and a frantic cue near the end for the magnificent house fire. The music from BRIGHT LEAF is high on the list of admirers of Young's scores! BRIGHT LEAF is an engrossing and engaging story and has smooth performances throughout. Cooper is particularly good as is Bacall but Neal's southern nasally drawl is a bit grating at times. And in a rare unsympathetic role Donal Crisp is excellent as the Major. Curiously cigarette smoking is somewhat glorified in the picture and viewing the film today - some sixty years after it was made and when the smoking habit is increasingly taboo - it now seems a little perverse!Classic line from BRIGHT LEAF...........Jack Carson to Lauren Bacall when she bail's him out of jail......."Maam! I consider you a rare gem in the diadem of womanhood".