Produced by Samuel Goldwyn, and directed by H.C. Potter, with a story by Leo McCarey and Frank Adams, and contributions from several other writers including S.N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, who received the screenplay credits, this average romantic comedy won an Academy Award for its Sound; its title song and Score were Oscar nominated.According to Goldwyn biographer A. Scott Berg, McCarey told a story off the cuff to a bunch of the producer's writers, one evening, who then had to write the screenplay from what they'd heard.It stars Merle Oberon as the sheltered wealthy daughter of a man (Henry Kolker) who's seeking his party's nomination for POTUS. Concerned that her actions, like an appearance at a nightclub which was raided while she was with her fun-loving uncle (Harry Davenport), might jeopardize his standing with an influential power broker (Berton Churchill), her father sends her to their vacation home in Palm Beach, Florida. While she's there, she meets a rodeo cowboy, played by Gary Cooper, and the predictable happens.Oberon plays Mary Smith, daughter of Horace (Kolker) and niece of Hannibal (Davenport). Irving Bacon appears uncredited as Smith's secretary. Bored of being sequestered (e.g. in Florida), she goes with her two servants, Katie (Patsy Kelly) and Elly (Mabel Todd), on a blind date to a rodeo where she awed by the talents of one of the cowboys she later meets, a reluctant 'Stretch' Willoughby (Cooper). Katie's date is another cowboy named Sugar (Walter Brennan) and Elly's is Buzz (Fuzzy Knight). As far as the three cowboys know, the three girls all work for an absent wealthy woman.Inexperienced in dating, Mary follows the other girls' advice and tells an untrue sob story to Stretch about how she's taken care of her four siblings and aging parent. So, he believes he's finally found what he'd always been looking for in a woman, a "workhorse" in lieu of a "show horse", the type of woman he'd always seemed to find in the past. In fact, he thinks Mary is a younger, prettier version of Ma Hawkins (Emma Dunn), the mother figure who takes care of his Montana ranch. Love struck, he asks for her hand. Though she thinks it's all too soon, he tosses her in the swimming pool which (somehow!) convinces her to follow him to the dock where his rodeo show is packed up and ready to leave for Galveston by boat. She impulsively decides to go along, one thing leads to another, and the next thing you know the two of them are saying "I do" in front of the ship's captain (Frederick Vogeding) ... despite the fact that Mary's yet to tell Stretch that she's a "show horse".After a brief "fish out of water" sequence in Galveston, where Mary gets her one dress dirty and torn, she receives a call from Katie who informs her that her father and Oliver Wendell Henderson (Churchill) are coming to Palm Beach for a visit. Though Mary tells Katie she's married Stretch, she asks her to keep it a secret. She then tells Stretch that she's got to return home, to tell her employer et al, and promises to meet him in Montana the following week. Stretch then puts Mary on a bus (driven by Eddie Acuff, uncredited) home. Once there, she tells her uncle everything; he is understanding and tries to help. Her father, of course, is furious but accepts her situation if she promises to help with the Henderson dinner, during which he expects to receive the man's endorsement for the Presidential nomination.Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Stretch is getting everything ready for Mary's arrival. There are two scenes which must have been funnier when McCarey told them than when they were realized on screen: Stretch's playful (endless) pulling of Ma's apron strings, causing it to fall, and his pantomime "dinner", with the other incredulous cowboys as guests, in his to-be-completed house's framing.The Henderson dinner causes Mary to send Stretch her regrets, and promise to come later, but he decides to visit Palm Beach again to find her instead. Naturally, he walks in during the big event, finds out the truth about his wife (e.g. being a "show horse") and, in the film's best scene, ends up giving an everyman speech after being "talked down to" by the upper crusts.But, never fear. Made to feel guilty by his brother Hannibal, Horace makes things better in the end with a surprise visit to Montana. Stretch then witnesses Mary doing domestic chores under Ma's direction, gets slapped on the back by Hannibal, and the movie fades out with the newlyweds kissing in the kitchen.

This is the only movie I know of that boasts three directors and seventeen writers, the majority uncredited, and I have to say, alas, that it shows. It's saved to a certain extent by Harry Davenport clearly honing his charm for the forthcoming (six years later) Meet me In St Louis, but unfortunately there are large gaps where Davenport is off screen and none of the rest of the cast are up to covering for him. At times it seems as if the seventeen writers have 'borrowed' from seventeen different films in an implausible story about a woman who is at once naive and bored with her sheltered life masquerading as a maid and eloping with a rodeo rider. I could go on but you'd never believe it.

"The Farmer's Daughter" director H.C. Potter's "The Cowboy and the Lady" qualifies as a predictable but entertaining lightweight romantic comedy about a rodeo rider who falls in love with the sheltered daughter of a wealthy politician. Naturally, Gary Cooper plays the cowboy, while Merle Oberon appears as the lady. Believe it or not, this simple, contemporary yarn went through three directors and countless scenarists before Samuel Goldwyn released it. William Wyler started calling the shots, but Goldwyn replaced him with H.C. Potter. Unfortunately, Potter couldn't complete filming owing to scheduling difficulties with his next film, so Goldwyn replaced him with Stuart Heisler. "The Cowboy and the Lady" was Heisler's third film to helm after "The Hurricane" and "Straight from the Shoulder." Later, he would work together with Cooper on two more oaters, "Along Came Jones" (1945) and "Dallas" (1950)."Quo Vadis" scenarists S.N. Behrman and Sonya Levien received credit for the screenplay. Nevertheless, during the troubled production, no fewer than 13 scribes toiled on the project, including Richard Connell, Lillian Hellman, Dorothy Parker, Anita Loos, and Robert Riskin. The amazing thing about "The Cowboy and the Lady" is that it works on the level of a sophisticated fairy tale. The gal is searching for a guy and the guy is searching for a gal. He is looking for an honest woman, while she is behaving dishonestly so she can land him. Truly, Potter's film emerges as a guide to dating. Some of the comments that the women make about men are hilarious. Principally, they worry about the fragile male ego. This movie shows how a woman can land a man. Usually, it is the other way around, and "The Cowboy and the Lady" is as much a delightful comedy as it is a commentary on courtship in a simpler time. The supporting players contribute significantly to this saga, with Walter Brennan, Harry Davenport, Fuzzy Knight, and Eddie Acuff sticking their necks out in fine fashion."The Cowboy and the Lady" opens with the police raiding a night club called The Silver Bowl where illegal gambling is taking place. When the newspapers obtain a list of names of those in attendance, they spot the name Mary Smith, but are initially uncertain. Judge Smith has launched a presidential campaign and he needs the endorsement of a power broker named Oliver Wendell Henderson. When he discovers that his daughter Mary (Merle Oberon)was questioned during the raid, Judge Smith decides to send her packing to West Palm Beach so that Henderson won't catch a whiff of a scandal. In Palm Beach, Mary goes crazy with all the solitude and turns to stacking cards in house configurations. Two maids, Katie and Elly, are attending to her when she asks them about meeting guys. As it turns out, Katie and Elly plan to go out on a date with the rodeo riders. Mary persuades them to count her into their plans. Initially, when they meet the three spruced up cowhands, Mary winds up landing Sugar (Walter Brennan), but she craves Stretch (Gary Cooper) and gets him Mary deceives Stretch into believing that she is a person maid to the lady of the house. Mary explains that she helps her superior dress. Our hero and heroine hit it off on the first date and they are pretty much inseparable after this occasion. Mary has spent her entire life in the shadows so that her father, the Judge, would look good and win votes as well as elections. Mary follows Stretch to the boat ready to set a course for Galvaston. During the short trip, Stretch and Mary fall in love and Stretch gets the ship's captain to marry them. Katie and Elly call Mary and warn her that her father and his campaign is coming to Palm Beach and she is explained to entertain her father's supporters. Miraculously, Mary talks Stretch into allowing her to go back home before she relocates with him in Montana. Stretch labors under the impression that Mary has struggled to help her alcoholic father and her four sisters. Stretch admires her, but little does Stretch know that Mary is not in his social class. Eventually, this creates trouble for our love birds."The Cowboy and the Lady" boasts a happily ever after ending.

The film opens with a dinner scene, where we learn that someone is running for office; cut to the two brothers Hannibal (Harry Davenport, always played the kindly uncle or judge) and Horace Smith (Henry Kolker), lamenting about the antics of Horace's daughter Mary ( Merle Oberon ). There's the setup of the movie, and being filmed in the prime of the Hayes Code, we know there will be comical, but innocent , simple, misunderstandings. Love the symbolism of Mary knocking over the "house of cards" she has built on the coffee table. Great scene where she talks about the rules of dating with the maids (the hilarious Patsy Kellly & Mabel Todd). Enter Gary Cooper as the polite cowboy "Stretch Willoughby". Say no more. Just watch for the ups and downs as sidekick Walter Brennan makes wisecracks to help the plot along, along with some slapstick physical comedy. Also check out the cast of thousands in the writer category, which includes greats Anita Loos, Dorothy Parker. Directed by Henry Potter, who would make THREE movies with Cary Grant! Fun, but probably would have been more hilarious if it had been filmed prior to the production code.